Task 3:

Following are my comments about the approach of MSL management in assessing the risks;

1. The risk assessment conducted for the warehouse is 4 years old as it was conducted in 2018 and
has not been reviewed and updated since then.
2. The risk assessment has been developed alone by the Health and safety manager and input has
not been given by the top management including MD and other directors and managers.
3. Workers are required to be involved in the risk assessment process as they can provide very
useful feedback regarding the risks and their controls however MSL has ignored them also.
4. Some of the significant risks have not been identified and assessed as the audit also revealed
that stress and DSE use risks have not been included.
5. As accidents are frequently occurring at MSL and enforcement action has also been taken
against the company which shows that the existing risk assessment is ineffective in controlling
the risks.
6. Directors have very poor approach in managing the risks and they believe that there is no risk in
work if common sense is used.
7. The scenario shows that effective controls are not identified for different risks and the
management consider only immediate causes for the accidents as the Directors believe that
only human errors are the causes of accident.
8. The management is much interested in making money and they are too much busy to take part
in the risk assessment process.
9. As there are different kind of workers at the MCL company including order pickers, team
leaders, drivers and sales team which needs to be included in the risk assessment, and staff
turnover rate is also very high, so the risk assessment must be updated accordingly.
10. Generic fire risk assessment has not been developed and even the Health and safety manager
has no idea that what should be included in it.
11. The workers are not being briefed about specific risks in their jobs and no written job
descriptions are being provided to them which exposes them to different risks.
12. Workers absence and sickness records are not kept and hence Health hazards and risks cannot
be properly analyzed and controlled.
13. The team leaders have also poor approach in assessing the risks as they think that if workers do
job according to instructions, then no risk will be left.
14. There are some temporary workers also joining the MCL as the warehouse manager told that
three temporary pickers are joining today and these must also be considered while conducting
the risk assessment.
15. The risk assessment conducted previously was communicated to workers and team leaders in
order to aware them of the significant risks and controls which is a positive aspect.
16. Separate risk assessments were developed for both warehouse and workers working from
home.