Analyze the roles and responsibilities for health and safety of key personnel in a selected workplace

Managing Director: The director board needs to accept formally and publicly its collective role in providing health and safety leadership in organization. Managing director needs to ensure that all his/her decisions reflect company’s health and safety intentions, as articulated in health and safety policy statement. Managing director realizes his role in engaging active participation of workers in improving health and safety. He needs to ensure that it is kept informed of, and alert to, relevant health and safety risk management issues.  The Health and safety commission recommends the board of directors to appoint one of its members to be health and safety director to deal with all health and safety related issues. This helps to minimize the risk of accidents or injury at the work place. It also helps in complying with the legal policies so that progression of work at construction site will never be interrupted by the local authorities.

Director responsible for health and safety:  The director should understand the legal responsibilities when it comes to health and safety. For example, where safety critical plant is used and the consequences of loss of integrity could be severe for the undertaking, the role should be carried out by a person with the necessary competence to adequately understand their roles and responsibilities. He/she should receive necessary safety and health training so that they can be comfortable with the responsibilities. The safety and health director can look for evidence of the practical working of the board’s safety and health policy and ensure that discussions on this issue at board meetings are focused and effective. He/she should liaise closely with undertaking’s safety committee.

Safety Manager:  Developing and executing health and safety plans in the workplace according to legal guidelines. Preparing and enforcing policies to establish a culture of health and safety. He/she evaluates practices, procedures and facilities to assess risk and adherence to law.  His goal should be to ensure worksite meets all legal expectations and actively supports occupational health and safety. A safety manager for a construction company has a wide variety of duties that center on the safety of construction work sites. Training others is an essential duty. Safety managers use preventive education to ensure that construction managers and employees understand policies and regulations. They also travel to construction sites to conduct safety audits.

Managers/ Head of Departments: The line managers and department head should review the strength and weaknesses of company’s health and safety performance. They should also focus on the measures currently taken for a reliable and sustainable future. They should focus on risk profiling, leading and managing for health and safety, competence and worker consultation and involvement. Line managers provide a crucial link between an employee and health and safety practice at the workplace. The attitude of senior management influences to a great extent the approach and attitudes of workers in terms of how seriously they consider health and safety. If respective line managers compromise on health and safety of the employees who serve under his department, it can lead to accidents and injury which will be a major problem.

 Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Manager:  Conduct risk assessment activities within their department ensuring that the methods and systems of work are safe. Ensures that all employees and sub-contractors are subjected to proper training to carry out their filed of work and have certificates/licenses where appropriate. Ensure the statutory notices, the safety policy, Insurance certificate and the names of appointed first-aiders are displayed and maintained in prominent locations. Any employee failing to discharge their health and safety responsibility may be subjected to punishment.

Sub-Contractors:  It is the sub-contractor who directly engages construction workers or manages construction work. Contractors include sub-contractors, any individual self-employed worker that carries out, manages or controls construction work. They must have skills, knowledge, experience and, where relevant, the organizational capability to carry out the work safely and without risk to health. Sub-contractors and the workers under their control are most at risk of injury and ill health from construction work.  Therefore they have an important role in planning, managing and monitoring their work to ensure any risks are controlled. They make sure that all workers under their control have site-specific induction. They do not start site work unless reasonable steps are taken to prevent unauthorized access. They also ensure suitable welfare facilities are provided from the start for workers under their control, and maintain them throughout the work.

All Employees: It is an employee’s duty to take reasonable care of the health and safety of themselves and of others who may be affected by what they do or do not do. They have to cooperate with the employer on health and safety matters. They should not misuse any equipment that is provided for safety purpose (example fire extinguishers or safety goggles).  Inform the employer if something happens that might affect the ability to work, like suffering an injury.