The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 placed general duties on all employers to protect the health and safety of their employees. Nowadays, most of the specific duties of employers towards employees are set out in legislation. This has happened mainly because of the UK being part of the EU. Laws have been implemented so as to comply with European Directives. It could be argued that this is one of the better things to come out of membership of the EU. The most important pieces of legislation to be introduced in relation to the duties of employers are:-
(1) Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (updated 2002)
(2) Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (updated 2002)
(3) Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (updated 2002)
(4) Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (updated in 2002)
(5) Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 (updated 2002)
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 set out what an employer has to do so as to comply with the regulations relating to safety in the workplace and include maintenance of the workplace, equipment, devices and systems; conditions of floors and traffic routes; steps to be taken to avoid falls or falling objects. The regulations also cover matters of health and welfare of employees, such as ventilation, temperature, lighting, cleanliness, provision of WC’s and washing facilities etc.
The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 cover the assessment, maintenance and provision of suitable personal protective equipment (e.g. gloves, goggles, overalls, footwear etc), the provision of information, instruction, and training in the use of such equipment.
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 cover, amongst other things, the provision of suitable work equipment, the maintenance of it, information, instructions and training in the use of it as well as protection against specific hazards.
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 require employers, so far as they reasonably can, to avoid the need for employees to undertake any manual handling operations which involve a risk of injury and where that can not be avoided, to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of such operations.
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 relate to workstations (commonly a desk, chair, computer and screen, printer, telephone etc) and require employers to perform a suitable and sufficient analysis of workstations to assess the health and safety risks. They also cover work routines, eye tests, the provision of training and information to employees.
The purpose of the legislation is obviously aimed at providing a safer working environment. In an ideal world there would be no accidents at work at all. In reality accidents at work do happen. If an employer fails to comply with one or more of the duties imposed and an accident happens as a consequence then in addition to facing the employees claim for compensation, the employer may also face a prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive. Employers could face heavy fines or even imprisonment in the most serious of cases. The risk of prosecution is quite an incentive for an employer to comply with all relevant duties relating to health and safety and workplaces are generally a lot safer nowadays than they were in years gone by.
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