H&S Management with my workplace

[Cara307]

Hi all,

I'm new here and it's my first post so go easy on me I have just finished my studying for the Gen Cert, so hopefully will sit the exam in December.

I am ultimately looking for opinions regarding my workplace. I am currently employed in a technical role for a relatively new company with >100 employees based across two sites and we are still expanding. One in the UK and one in Europe.

Within the company, we have no dedicated H&S manger. The current nominated H&S advisor, who is qualified to NGC level I must add, has another role and is far too busy to deal with anything H&S related at the moment. It's frustrating for me, as lets just say the company is lacking in the H&S department right now when it's desperately needed.

The H&S policy is bare to say the least and the Safety management plan is non existent. We have generic RA's in place but have not been updated in well over a year.

At least 1/3 of the workforce is workshop based and the rest are office based. From what I can see not one employee has ever had an H&S induction or had statutory/mandatory training for things like Manual Handling, DSE, fire awareness etc.

Another example of failings is that Workshop personnel will have to use RPE depending on what tasks they have for the day. However, no one has ever had instruction or even been Face Fit Tested despite me recommending for it to be done.(I am a qualified/competent Fit tester may I add) Lets just say my arm was chewed of by the workshop supervisor for advising this, he was adamant that all RPE was adequate despite one employee complaining of dust sneaking past the seal.

Has anyone ever experienced poor management of H&S within their workplace and how did you deal with it? I feel like I am still too new to start stirring the pot considering I've only been in the company 6 months.

Any advice?

[Alexis]

Hi all,

I'm new here and it's my first post so go easy on me I have just finished my studying for the Gen Cert, so hopefully will sit the exam in December.

I am ultimately looking for opinions regarding my workplace. I am currently employed in a technical role for a relatively new company with >100 employees based across two sites and we are still expanding. One in the UK and one in Europe.

Within the company, we have no dedicated H&S manger. The current nominated H&S advisor, who is qualified to NGC level I must add, has another role and is far too busy to deal with anything H&S related at the moment. It's frustrating for me, as lets just say the company is lacking in the H&S department right now when it's desperately needed.

The H&S policy is bare to say the least and the Safety management plan is non existent. We have generic RA's in place but have not been updated in well over a year.

At least 1/3 of the workforce is workshop based and the rest are office based. From what I can see not one employee has ever had an H&S induction or had statutory/mandatory training for things like Manual Handling, DSE, fire awareness etc.

Another example of failings is that Workshop personnel will have to use RPE depending on what tasks they have for the day. However, no one has ever had instruction or even been Face Fit Tested despite me recommending for it to be done.(I am a qualified/competent Fit tester may I add) Lets just say my arm was chewed of by the workshop supervisor for advising this, he was adamant that all RPE was adequate despite one employee complaining of dust sneaking past the seal.

Has anyone ever experienced poor management of H&S within their workplace and how did you deal with it? I feel like I am still too new to start stirring the pot considering I've only been in the company 6 months.

Any advice?

Good Morning Cara and Welcome to HSfB.

Excellent first post which shows how dedicated you are to your H&S journey and how to do it the right way without going in boots first, although, you seem to have a huge task ahead, which may well just warrant a boots first aimed at management.

I know lots of our members have had to cope with similar situations and I also know they will share their thoughts when they have time to reply.

Good luck with your exam Cara.

[Blackstone]

Hi Cara,

For a company of over 100 people not to have at least 1 dedicated H&S person is a major gap.

Sounds like, from what you describe, the culture isn't that great.
If you are not the H&S person then trying to change things will be difficult.
Even with a H&S person, if top management particularly, along with Manager and supervisors are not supportive to change, it will be difficult to make positive change.

I've been in a company with poor attitude to safety where i've made good changes. Trouble is, every time top management undermine those changes, workforce, managers and supervisors start to wonder why they need to comply. Ultimately after a few years i left even though we made good changes, the attitude from above didnt change.