Finding Your Way Around the Workbooks

Workbook 4

Contents

Introduction

Finding your way around the workbooks

Welcome to Workbook 4

Word list for Workbook 4

What is a system?

A health and safety system

Hazard management

Emergency procedures

Emergency procedures are instructional documents

Evacuation

Which things do you do the most? Explain why.

Training and supervision

Talking to your trainer/supervisor about health and safety

Incident and accident reporting

Employee participation

Glossary

Introduction

Congratulations 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?

/ Writing activity
Write 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?”

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

/
Glossary /

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

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 words
Tick 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?
/ 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

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.

A health and safety system

The 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.

Hazard management

Sections 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 hazards
Write down four ways you can identify hazards. If you can’t remember, go back and look at pages 25 – 27 of Workbook 3.
/ Writingactivity –hazard management review activity
Fill 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
/ Writing activity – workplace signs
In 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

Emergency procedures

This 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 documents
Fill 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:

Emergency procedures are instructional documents

Instructional 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 orderbecause 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.
/ Review: Reading activity – putting emergency procedures into order
Look 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.

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.

/ Readingactivity – 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?
/ Readingactivity – 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.

Training and supervision

This is covered by Section 13 of the Act.

Section 13 of the Act says your employer is responsible for makingsure 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.

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

Talking to your trainer/supervisor about health and safety

Sometimes 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.

/ 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.
/ Review: Listening activity– different questions you can ask when you don’tunderstand
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.

Incident and accident reporting

Section 25 of the Act covers reporting incidents and accidents.

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 accidentand someone suffers serious harm at work.

The Department of Labour will visit your workplace and investigate the accidentbefore 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 workplace
Fill 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

Employee participation

This is covered by Part 2A of the Act.

19APurpose of Part 2A

19BGeneral duty to involve employees in health system matters

19CDevelopment of employee participation system

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

19ETraining of health and safety representatives

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

19GMinister may approve occupational health and safety training

19HSystem of employee participation in Armed Forces

19IMeaning 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 participation
Ask your supervisor/team leader about the employee participation system at your work.

Congratulations you have finished all the workbooks!

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

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.

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.
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