Health and Safety at work - Employers obligations for keeping you safe while at work

I have worked many part-time jobs, from supermarkets and retail stores to rock-climbing gyms. Each one required some form of health and safety training. For many, it seemed like a box to check before starting work. Yet government protections exist for a reason: being uninformed about workplace safety increases your risk of injury. Employers often want you to work quickly and may do the bare minimum to avoid liability. This post aims to clarify your rights to proper training and the ongoing safety measures employers are legally required to maintain.

Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

The most important piece of legislation regarding this issue is the Health and Safety at Work etc. HSWA 1974, which sets out general duties that employers have towards their employees. Part 1, section 2, subsections (a)-(e) of the act require employers to take reasonable and practical steps to ensure their workplaces are safe and free of health risks. This legislation protects you from employers taking liberties with your health while you are employed there. The act also focuses heavily on the structure of the workplace environment, so if either of those feels unsafe to you, then make sure you are not just sweeping it under the rug. Check whether you have a health and safety representative, or make a claim with the Health and Safety Executive, which will be discussed further in the next section.  

Staff Training

Before beginning your job, you usually have to watch the obligatory health and safety videos. As tedious as that training may seem, it becomes an issue if you have an injury at work and your employer claims that they did the necessary things to train you in whatever they are doing. The thing to keep in mind is that, under the HSWA 1974, employers in the UK are obligated to take reasonable steps to ensure employees' health and safety at work. This starts with training that details any workplace hazards. If you feel that your employer has not taken adequate steps to provide you the proper training to do your job safely, whether its regarding basic first aid, food hygiene, manual handling of products as seen in retail or warehouse jobs, proper use of machinery etc., then you should take steps to ensure that they meet those requirements, first by going to your immediate supervisors, and if after that they refuse to provide more training, you can bring the issue to the workers union or your employers health and safety regulatory body. If they don’t have either of those then you can notify regulatory bodies like the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at https://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/tell-us-about-a-health-and-safety-issue.htm.

(Staff Training Duties: Legal Requirements for UK Employers | Sprintlaw UK)

I also want to place greater emphasis on warehouse jobs, as I feel they have become increasingly popular among student workers in recent years. Though warehouse jobs can provide a good income stream during student holidays, health and safety training is paramount, as they typically entail long hours, repetitive tasks such as packaging goods, substantial manual lifting, and often the use of machinery. If you decide to work in a warehouse, taking the extra steps I mentioned to ensure that you are adequately trained at work and that your workplace is safe from risks, in accordance with the HSWA 1974, is extremely important.

Emergency Procedures

The HSE website also provides guidance on what employers must consider in emergencies. There are obviously general emergencies, such as fires, which you should always receive training for; however, there are also job-specific emergencies where certain types of emergencies  are at greater risk of happening at certain workplaces, and the HSE cautions that employers should take steps to ensure that plans are created in order to handle those emergencies, and those plans should be shared with employees. https://www.hse.gov.uk/workplace-health/emergency-procedures.htm. Sections 8 and 9 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 are the legislations that specifically touch on emergencies at work, establishing the lengths that employers need to go through to make sure that you know what to do in an emergency at your workplace.

The main point of this post is to ensure that next time you are sitting through your pre-work health and safety training modules, you are not just half-paying attention. Yes, the onus is on your employer to mitigate risk for you at work; however, I have had some close calls in the past simply because I did not pay attention to the training that was provided. And if you feel like there are cracks in the training that your workplace is providing you, do not be afraid to speak up!

Till next time,

Sufyan Jawed