Workbook 4Workbook 4

1

Health and safety at work

Health and safety as a system

Workbook 4

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 2

ContentsIntroduction...............................................................................................................5

Finding your way around the workbooks..................................................................7

Welcome to Workbook 4..........................................................................................9

Word list for Workbook 4........................................................................................10

What is a system?...................................................................................................12A health and safety system....................................................................................13Hazard management...............................................................................................14Emergency procedures..........................................................................................17

Emergency procedures are instructional documents.............................................18

Evacuation.............................................................................................................20

Which things do you do the most? Explain why.................................................21Training and supervision.......................................................................................22

Talking to your trainer/supervisor about health and safety.....................................24

Incident and accident reporting.............................................................................26Employee participation...........................................................................................27Glossary...................................................................................................................31

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 3

IntroductionCongratulations on finishing Workbooks 1, 2 and 3. You now know a lot about health and safety at work. How did you get on with your action cards from Workbook 3?

Fill in the action cards showing what you said you were going to do.

How did you get on with these action cards? What was the result?

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

Action card:Health and safety

By the end of (date: __________):

I was going to ____________________________________________So I could __________________________________________________________

Action card: Reading, writing,

speaking and listening

By the end of (date: __________):

I was going to ____________________________________________So I could __________________________________________________________

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Writing activityWrite down two things:

you have learnt about health and safety in the first three workbooks

how you have used this information at work

what else you could do

Two examples have been done for you.

Three new things I learnt about health and safety

How I have used this information at work

What else I could do

Learnt about risk assessment ratings.

I have asked my supervisor about some of the ratings for the hazards at work.

I could do a risk assessment rating for any new hazard.

I learnt that if you don’t understand things, you can ask questions to help you understand.

I ask questions at meetings now when I don’t understand something.

I could try saying what I think they mean instead of just asking questions. For example, at a meeting I could say. “So Jason, I think you are saying that we will have to wait a couple for weeks before we know if we are getting two or three new forklifts because of the cost – is that right?”

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 5

Finding your way around the workbooks

Contents page

Headings and subheadings

Word list

Icons

Reminder

Information

Workplace activity

This activity builds your

This activity builds your

This activity builds your

This activity builds your

This activity builds your

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

! Remember the text features from the other workbooks? Well, the same ones are used in this workbook. See if you can fill in this page with the details of each text feature. If you can’t remember, have a look at the other workbooks.

!

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6

Glossary

Find out how you went. Have a look at the same page in Workbook 3.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 7

Welcome to Workbook 4

This workbook contains information about:

health and safety as a system

what a system is

the five different parts of a health and safety system

ways you are involved in the health and safety system at your work.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

Health and safetyBy the end of this workbook,

you will be able to:

describe a health and safety system

identify five parts of a health and safety systemreview the hazard

management system at your workplace

identify the emergency procedures at your workplace

identify the training and supervision procedures at your

workplace

review incident and accident reporting at your workplace

identify any employee participation process at your

workplace.

Reading, writing, speaking and

listeningBy the end of this workbook,

you will have:

learnt new health and safety words

practised your writing skills

reviewed what you can do when you don’t understand

what you are reading

reviewed what you can do when you don’t understand

when you are listening.

practised your reading skills

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Word list for Workbook 4

Here are some specialist words used in this workbook and what those words mean.

Word Means

Accident Something that happens and then someone gets hurt.

Assembly point Where you have to go to when you evacuate your work area.

Employee participation Employees take part in something.

Evacuation Leaving a dangerous place.

Evacuation route The way you have to evacuate your work area.

Good faith Means employer and employees don’t do anything to mislead each other.

Monitoring Keeping track of.

Plant Machinery and equipment including vehicles such as forklifts and trucks.

System Set of interconnected parts.

In all the workbooks, you have practised ways of learning new words and their meanings.

Writing activity – learning the wordsTick the different things you have done to learn the words.

Word cards Matching activities

Word families Adding prefixes and suffixes

Word lists Glossary

Any other ways:

Which activity did you use the most and why?

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 9

Writing activity – what do you already know?You have learnt a lot of information in Workbooks 1, 2 and 3. This workbook builds on that information. Fill in this diagram to remind yourself what you already know by ticking the boxes and writing down other information.

Hazard management processes at your workplace

Assessing hazards at your workplace

• Physical inspection

• Task

• Process

• Investigation

• Audit

• Employee

• Others (write down what

they are)

• ______________

• ______________

• Who does it?

• Do you know what forms they fill out? Yes/No

• Who decides on the severity, frequency, likelihood ratings?

• Others (write down what

they are)

• ______________

• ______________

Training and supervision Incident and accident reporting

• Who trained you to do your

job? ______________

• Who supervised you while you were learning?

______________

• How do you report incidents and accidents at your work?

by telling my supervisor

by filling in a form

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 10

What is a system?This workbook is about health and safety as a system. Do you know what a system is?

A system is a set of connected parts. There are lots of systems in New Zealand. Let’s have a look at the land transport system in New Zealand. You will know a bit about this system if you drive a car or use buses.

A system has a number of stakeholders (organisations and people) who do various things to make the system work. Let’s look at the stakeholders in the land transport system (Government, Police, Councils and so on) and what they do as part of that system.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

Land transport

system

Governmentpasses laws about transportgives money to New Zealand Road Transport Authority

New Zealand Road Transport Authority

looks after:drivers' licencesvehicle registrationswarrants of fitnessroad maintenancepassenger transportroad and travel infomationroad safetyroad rules

Councils:fine people who park for too long in the wrong placetow away cars parked in the wrong space

You:have to get your driver's licencehave to follow rules for driving (road code)

Policecharge people who don't follow the road rulesinvestigate road accidents

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A health and safety systemThe Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 (the Act) says that employers have to have a health and safety system for their workplace. A health and safety system has a number of parts.

All parts of the system work together to make sure workplaces are safe and healthy for employees. Let’s have a look at each of the five parts of the system.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

Health and safety

system

Hazard management -

Section 7,8,9,10 of Act

Emergency procedures -

Section 12 of the Act

Training and supervision -

Section 13 of the Act

Incident and accident

reporting - Section 25 of the

Act

Employee participation -

Part 2A of the Act

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Hazard managementSections 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the Act are about the hazard management system.

Workbook 3 had information about hazard management. That information covered controlling hazards using ‘eliminate, isolate and minimise’. There is a summary below, but if you need more information, go back to Workbook 3 and look at the hazard management section (on pages 24 – 37) again.

Section Employer’s responsibilities

7 Your employer has to have methods to: identify hazards assess hazards to work out if they are significant hazards.

8 As the first step, your employer has to try to eliminate a significant hazard.

9 If the significant hazard can’t be eliminated, your employer has to try and isolate the hazard.

10 If your employer can’t eliminate or isolate the hazard, they must minimise the hazard.

Writing activity – identifying hazardsWrite down four ways you can identify hazards. If you can’t remember, go back and look at pages 25 – 27 of Workbook 3.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

! Remember, in Workbook 1, we talked about rights and responsibilities. Hazard management is your employer’s responsibility.

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Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 14

Writing activity – hazard management review activityFill in this table showing what you know about controlling hazards using ‘eliminate, isolate and minimise’ in your workplace.

Managing hazards

Examples of hazards eliminated from your workplace

Examples of hazards isolated in your workplace

Examples of hazards minimised in your workplace

Hazard register Do you know where it is kept?

Yes/No

Do you have a copy of it?

Yes/No

Examples of actual hazards

Examples of potential hazards

Examples of permanent hazards

Examples of temporary hazards

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 15

Writing activity – workplace signsIn Workbook 1, you identified five different types of signs.

Fill in this table. If you can’t remember, go back and check in Workbook 1.

Sign Type What it means

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 16

Emergency proceduresThis is covered by Section 12 of the Act.

Under Section 12 of the Act, your employer has the responsibility to give you information about what to do if there is an emergency at your workplace. These are called emergency procedures.

In your workplace, you will have emergency procedures about what to do if there is a fire.

There will be other emergency procedures depending on what happens at your workplace and where your workplace is. For example, emergency procedures could also be about a chemical spill, an earthquake, a flood, a robbery or a gas leak.

Writing activity – features of information and instruction documentsFill in this table. If you can’t remember, go back and look in Workbook 2.

Information documents tell you: Instruction documents tell you:

Examples at your work: Examples at your work:

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

! Remember, developing emergency procedures is your employer’s responsibility.

! Remember in Workbook 2 you learnt about two types of documents: instruction and information.

! Remember: If you can’t remember what the words mean, look in the glossary at the back of this workbook.

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Emergency procedures are instructional documentsInstructional documents have words that tell you what to do. Emergency procedures are instructional documents because they tell you what you have to do to keep yourself safe in an emergency.

Emergency procedures contain instructions telling you what you have to do to deal with the emergency and in what order.

You need to follow the instructions in the order they are written down. The instructions have been written in that order because it is the best way to deal with the emergency.

Let’s look at an emergency procedure for a fire.

Raise the alarm by breaking the glass.

Evacuate people from the area.

If it is safe to do so:

activate emergency stop

switch off power to all equipment

shut any isolation valves.

If it is a small fire, use your fire extinguisher – contain and extinguish the fire if it is safe to do so.

Call the Fire Service (dial 111).

If it is a large fire, do not attempt to extinguish the fire – retreat to a safe distance.

If the fire involves a flammable gas or a compressed gas, apply water cooling if it is safe to do so.

Ensure someone is available to direct the Fire Service to the scene.

Workplace activity – emergency procedures

Do you know where the emergency procedures are in your workplace? Talk to your supervisor/team leader about where you can find them.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

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The words in the boxes are the words telling you what you have to do. They are listed in the order you have to do them.

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Review: Reading activity – putting emergency procedures into orderLook at this procedure for operating a fire extinguisher. It is not in the correct order. Number each sentence 1–8, 1 being the first thing you have to do and 8 being the last thing you have to do. Number 1 is done for you.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

Operating a fire extinguisher

Discharge the extinguisher in a sweeping motion across the base of the flames.

If the fire becomes uncontrollable or there is too much heat or smoke for safety, leave the area immediately and go to your assembly area.

Make sure the extinguisher is the correct type for the sort of fire.

When in position, aim the extinguisher at the base of the flames.

1. Carry the extinguisher to the fire.

Keep going until you have completely extinguished the fire.

Make the extinguisher ready for use by breaking the seal/moving the safety pin.

Keep yourself low to reduce the effect of heat and smoke.

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Evacuation

Every workplace will have an evacuation plan and evacuation procedures. These are part of emergency procedures. Evacuation procedures tell you:

how you leave your work area (called the ‘evacuation route’)

where you go to once you leave your work area (called ‘the assembly point’)

who you have to report to (often called the ‘warden’)

when you are allowed to leave your assembly area.

You stay at your assembly area until the person in charge (the warden) tells you can go. If you leave before that, someone might think you are still in the building and people will start searching for you and they could get injured.

Look at this evacuation procedure. The steps are not numbered but they are in the correct order.

Reading activity – words telling you what to do

An evacuation procedure is also an instructional document.

On the evacuation procedure above, circle the command words telling you what to do. Why do you think some words are in capital letters?

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

Evacuation procedure Shut down your machine.

Go straight to your department assembly point. Do NOT go to your locker.

Your warden will count everybody.Do everything that the warden tells you to.

Walk, DO NOT RUN, to the company assembly point outside the building.

Your warden will count everybody again. Stay at the assembly point until your warden tells you what to do.In an evacuation, the warden is the

person in charge.Do everything they tell you!

ASSEMBLY POINT

ASSEMBLY POINT

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Reading activity – things you can do when you don’t understand what you are reading

In Workbook 2, there was information about what you could do if you didn’t understand what you were reading. Fill in this diagram showing the different things you could do. If you can’t remember go back and look at Workbook 3.

Which things do you do the most? Explain why.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

I could

_________________________

_________________________

_________________________

I could

_____________________

_____________________

_____________________

I could

____________________

____________________

____________________

I could

______________________

_____________________

________________________

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Training and supervision

This is covered by Section 13 of the Act.

Section 13 of the Act says your employer is responsible for making sure that all employees are trained to use machines and equipment that you have to use for work.

Section 13 also says that your employer has to make sure you are supervised by someone who is experienced at working with the machines and equipment you use at work.

When you are being trained to use the machines and equipment at your work, you need to make sure you understand what your trainer is telling you to do.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 22

Here are some things that will help you before you do any training.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

! Remember: when you listen, you listen for a purpose. This means you have a reason for listening.

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Talking to your trainer/supervisor about health and safetySometimes you might want to ask your trainer/supervisor for more training. Before you talk to your trainer/supervisor, think about what you want to find out.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

.

Check what protective

clothing you have to wear

Check what protective equipment you have to

use

Ask your trainer to

watch you as you practise doing tasks

Take notes

Ask your trainer to

explain any technical

words

Ask questions to check you understand

Think about what already know about the training

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Speaking activity – speaking to your supervisor

Think about a time when you weren’t confident about doing something. Write down what you said and what happened.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 25

Review: Listening activity – different questions you can ask when you don’t understand

Look at the different questions you can use when you don’t understand when your trainer or supervisor is telling you something (on the next page). Write down what you could say for each one.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 26

Incident and accident reportingSection 25 of the Act covers reporting incidents and accidents.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

Ask to go to a quieter

area.

Ask to repeat.

You repeat back what you think

they mean.

Ask them to say it in a different

way.

Ask them to show

you what they mean.

Ask them to explain

it.

Ask them to

slow down.

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Section 25 of the Act says your employer is responsible for keeping a register of accidents and incidents.

Your employer also has to tell the Department of Labour when there is an accident and someone suffers serious harm at work.

The Department of Labour will visit your workplace and investigate the accident before work can start in that area again.

It is just as important to report incidents as accidents. Incidents tell your employer about hazards before people get hurt or sick.

Writing activity – reporting incidents and accidents at your workplaceFill in the table with details for your workplace.

Who has to report incidents and accidents?

How do you have to report incidents and accidents?

What forms/documents need to be filled in?

Who investigates incidents and accidents at your work?

Have you seen the accident register? Yes/No

Do you know where the accident register is kept? Yes/No

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 28

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Employee participation

This is covered by Part 2A of the Act.

19A Purpose of Part 2A

19B General duty to involve employees in health system matters

19C Development of employee participation system

19D Provisions that apply if employer and employees fail to develop system for employee participation

19E Training of health and safety representatives

19F Calculation of maximum total number of days paid leave for health and safety training

19G Minister may approve occupational health and safety training

19H System of employee participation in Armed Forces

19I Meaning of employee in sections 19C (1) and 19F (1)

Part 2A was added in 2002 when the Act was amended (changed). Part 2A of the Act says that people who work in a workplace have knowledge that can be used to make that workplace safe and healthy. Employers should get information about health and safety from the employees who have to work with the hazards every day.

Your employer is responsible for making sure employees can participate in the improvement of health and safety at your work especially around hazard management (sections 7, 8, 9 and 10), information (sections 11 and 12) and training and supervision (section 13).

Here is some information about employee participation in health and safety systems at work:

If your company employs more than 30 people, an employee participation system must be developed. If your company employs fewer than 30 employees, an employee participation system will only be developed if at least one employee or your union asks for a system.

Employee participation

Unions representing employees must be involved.

System could include: health and safety representatives health and safety committee employees having a role in hazard identification

other things that everyone agrees on.

Everyone (employees, employer and union) must act in good faith.

Workplace activity – employee participationAsk your supervisor/team leader about the employee participation system at your work.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

! Remember: if you can’t remember what good faith means, look at the glossary at the back of this workbook.

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Congratulations you have finished all the workbooks!

Well done. You have done a lot of hard work.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

Health and safetyNow you can:

describe a health and safety system

identify five parts of a health and safety systemreview the hazard

management system at your workplace

identify the emergency procedures at your workplace

identify the training and supervision procedures at your

workplace

review incident and accident reporting at your workplace

identify any employee participation process at your

workplace.

Reading, writing, speaking and

listeningYou have:

learnt new health and safety words

practised your writing skills

reviewed what you can do when you don’t understand

what you are reading

reviewed what you can do when you don’t understand

when you are listening.

practised your reading skills

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Thinking about what you have learnt in this workbook, fill in your two action cards.

Thank you, for taking the time to do all this work. Maybe you can encourage other people at your work to complete the workbooks too.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4

Action card:Health and safety

By ___________I am going

to__________________________________________________________________________________________

____________

so I can ____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________

Action card:Reading, writing,

speaking and listening

By ___________I am going

to__________________________________________________________________________________________

____________

so I can ____________________________________________________________________________________________

____________

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Now you have finished, go and see your trainer about being assessed against health and safety, reading and speaking unit standards. You will need to make sure you have completed all the activities in all four workbooks. Don’t lose the workbooks. They contain important evidence of your skills and knowledge.

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Glossary

Word Means

Accidents Something that happens and then someone gets hurt.

Actual Real, already exists.

Analysing Looking at something in detail

Assembly point Where you have to go to when you evacuate your work area.

Behaviour The way a person does things.

Behavioural Relating to how people act.

Biological Relating to organisms, for example, the flu organism.

Cautionary Warning you of danger.

Chemicals Cleaning fluids, gases, acids, dyes and other things used in workplaces.

Duties Same as responsibilities – things you have to do.

Eliminate Get rid of.

Emergency Sudden state of danger requiring immediate action.

Emergency procedures A list of what to do in an emergency.

Employee participation Employees take part in something.

Evacuation Leaving a dangerous place.

Evacuation route The way you have to evacuate your work area.

Good faith Means employer and employees don’t do anything to mislead each other.

Hazard Something that can injure you or make you sick.

Hierarchy Where things are ranked one above the other, for example, eliminate first.

Isolate Put behind a barrier.

Mandatory Something you must do.

Minimise Reduce or make smaller.

Monitoring Keeping track of.

Permanent Long-lasting.

Physical Something you can see or touch.

Plant Machinery and equipment including vehicles such as forklifts and trucks.

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 32

Potential Possible, could happen.

PPE Personal protective equipment.

Protective clothing Clothing you have to wear to keep you safe at work, for example, safety glasses.

Protective equipment Things you use to keep yourself safe, for example, guards on machines.

Prohibition Warning that you cannot do something.

Prosecute Take someone to court because they have broken the law.

Register A list.

Responsibilities Things you or your employer have to do.

Rights Something someone has to do for someone else.

Serious harm Harm caused by an injury, such as burns or the loss of a body part, that could cause death or the person to be in hospital for two days or longer.

System Set of interconnected parts.

Systematically In a planned way.

Temporary Short-term

Health and safety at work – Workbook 4 33