One of the banes in the lives of contractors and people employing contractors is the “Health, Safety and Environment file” that the law requires.
This file is a legal agreement between the contractor and the customer. It is called a “File” because the paper required will not fit into a single document. The last thing you want is a contractor’s worker to be injured or killed on your premises and then have to argue with the Department of Labour, or the police, about who is responsible.
Like insurance policies, no one cares if the policy (in this case, the file) is in place, or up to date, until something goes wrong. Then everyone cares. (Speaking of insurance companies, they are quick to say, “I’m sorry, but we cannot pay your claim as you were breaking the law at the time of the incident,” For example; my local fire department told me of a company that had had a fire. The insurance company tried to get the fire department to say that the company was breaking the law by having pallets stacked too close to the wall of the building that burnt. The pallets had absolutely nothing to do with the fire.) The contents, or lack of contents, of the Health, Safety and Environment file could lead to insurance companies being able to reject claims.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, nor do I know your business, so the contents of the Health, Safety and Environment file below is there for illustrative purposes only. You may need more or less than is suggested in the list below.
Here are my suggested minimum contents of the Health, Safety and Environment file. The order is not important – make it work for you. I suggest that if some of these items do not apply to you, you list them anyway and say they do not apply. For example, I would say, “Fall Protection Plan, not applicable as we are not working at heights.”
10. Incident Management
Incident reporting procedure and investigation reports
11. Environmental
Environmental Impact Assessment studies. I usually do this at the same time as the Hazard and risk Assessment
This is a formidable list, but it does get easier after you have done it a few times. Some items repeat themselves.
Author
Mike Morrison
By Guest Author on 18 July 2017
It's important for manufacturers to have a solid understanding of their safety technologies and techniques. Companies can do this by determining which...
By Guest Author on 10 July 2017
In part 3 of this article we look at one of the significant challenges for manufacturers - determining how to bridge the disconnect between engineerin...
By Guest Author on 04 July 2017
Find out how your company measures up when it comes to safety. A safety culture generally is indicative of the broader company culture.
...
By Guest Author on 27 June 2017
Find out how your company measures up when it comes to safety.The human cost of occupational accidents is vast. Worker safety is a fundamental human n...