FOCUSSING ON RISK ASSESSMENTS

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: february 2009 :: RMTnews 11 E very year the RMT’s National Health and Safety Conference focuses on a general health and safety area. In previous years the conference has covered issues such as accident investigation, welfare facilities and workplace violence. This year’s conference has been designed to fit in with the European campaign for safety and health at work for 2008-09 which will focus on risk assessment. The European focus is a two- year campaign aimed at employers, workers and safety representatives, and is intended to promote the benefits of completing and implementing a risk assessment. The campaign seeks to demystify the risk assessment process to show that risk assessment is not necessarily complicated, bureaucratic or a task only for experts. The campaign also aims to raise awareness on this issue, provide information and practical advice, encourage activities that have a positive impact in the workplace, and identify and recognise good practice. CAMPAIGN There has been a long campaign by the wider trade union movement to secure a legal right for health and safety representatives to be consulted on all risk assessments. While RMT will actively participate in this campaign, the union believes legislative change is some way in the future and that the need for involvement of safety reps cannot wait. RMT will therefore be launching a campaign to persuade employers to enter into voluntary agreements to involve safety reps in the risk assessment process. Early talks have been held with a number of companies who we expect will take the lead in this process. Although the management of risk is and must remain the responsibility of employers there is much evidence and support for the view that worker representation in risk assessment makes the resultant assessment more likely to accurately reflect the hazards in a workplace and the measures that are put in place to control the risk arising from the hazards more effective in ensuring worker safety. RMT has already developed a one-day course in understanding risk assessment and this course is being made available to all delegates to the RMT health and safety conference. This course gives our safety reps the ability to look at a risk assessment, understand the approach the employer has taken and then to examine and improve the final product. If the RMT campaign is to be successful the union will have to develop this course so that safety reps have the ability to not just evaluate a risk assessment but to take part in the process as equal partners alongside management. In fact, it will probably prove to be necessary to train safety reps alongside managers. COMMONLY RISK ASSESSMENTS FOLLOW A FIVE STEP APPROACH: 1. Identify the hazards. 2. Decide who might be harmed and how. 3. Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions. 4. Record the findings and implement them. 5. Review the assessment and update if necessary. Health and safety reps understand this process and, more critically, they have an understanding of the work that is involved and how best to control the risks arising from the work. RMT believes it has a central role to play in the process and that employers who exclude safety reps from risk assessment are more likely to have in place risk assessments that are not fit for purpose. If employers are to be believed when they express their commitment to health and safety they must be seen to react positively to the RMT’s campaign. This year’s RMT health and safety conference in Doncaster will be focussing on risk assessment FOCUSSING ON RISK ASSESSMENTS Copyright © Rogan Macdonald/reportdigital.co.uk