Harassment and Health and Safety Policy
Putting together a Health & Safety policy for your workplace
All business owners have a legal responsibility to ensure the safety and good health of their employees and the general public whilst they are on the business premises. However, if you are running a business which employs a staff of five or more people, then you are also legally obligated to have a written health and safety policy in place. Before you can accomplish this properly you need to know what the areas of risk within your business are, which can be achieved through a risk assessment. The findings of this assessment should form the basis for your policy.
The majority of companies in this position opt to divide their health and safety policies into three sections: the general policy statement, which lays out the company’s commitment to ensuring health and safety and what it hopes to achieve with the policy; the responsibilities part, in which the company clarifies exactly who is responsible for what; and finally the arrangements part, which outlines how the company plans to carry out the aims of the policy which were detailed in the first section. An example of a standard company health and safety policy is available on the website of the Health and Safety Executive, and this organisation – or your local council environmental health department – will also provide companies with assistance in formulating an effective policy, if this is required.
It is extremely important that all of the information contained in your company’s health and safety policy is known and understood by the employees of the company, and that they are fully aware of what their responsibilities are, should an incident occur. Therefore it is often useful for companies to consult with staff when developing health and safety measures for the workplace – especially as they are the people most likely to be impacted by any failures in this area.
These Health & Safety policies don’t just include physical injuries but also outline a companies responsibilities when someone is mentally injured be it through bullying, sexual harassment, stress or any other mental injury an employee could suffer. It is vital that you are very clear on this section of the document as it can be quite a grey area legally.
If you’ve suffered an injury in the workplace either physical or mental please contact theaccidentatworksite.com
