Five step to a safer workplace

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The Act emphasises the need for employers (including the self-employed) to manage safety and health in order to prevent workplace injuries and ill health. The basis for the management of safety and health is the written safety statement. This document sets out an action programme for safeguarding the safety, health and welfare of your employees while they are at work. It should be prepared after you have identified the hazards and assessed the risksthat may be present at your workplace.

To successfully manage safety and health, employers and self employed persons should know what hazards are in the workplace. A hazard is defined as anything with the potential to cause harm.

Having identified the hazards, you now have to assess any risks (the likelihood of the harm occurring, and the severity of the consequences if it does) arising from those hazards. Categorising the risks (for example, a high risk of injury from manual handling, a medium risk of exposure to chemicals or a low risk of contact with moving parts of machinery) allows you to prioritise the measures necessary to ensure safety, health and welfare at your workplace .