NEBOSH OBE IG1 Feb 2021 Solved Question Paper

Scenario

You are a co-ordinator for a behavioural safety audit (BSA) programme at a food manufacturing site.
Behavioural safety is just one of a range of approaches that senior managers want to introduce to the
site to change the organisation and improve health and safety. Successful implementation of the BSA
programme is one of the occupational health and safety objectives for the whole site. Each BSA involves
a trained observer who observes site workers, including contractors, carrying out a task. The observer
looks for both safe and unsafe behaviour, as well as noting the general workplace conditions at the time.
There is a follow-up conversation between site worker and observer, usually immediately after the
observation. In this conversation, observers give praise to site workers on observed safe behaviour as
well as considered verbal feedback on unsafe behaviour. The idea is to encourage safe behaviour and, if
site workers are behaving unsafely, try to establish why they behave in that way and discuss what can
be done to change it.

Your job is to co-ordinate the activities of ten trained observers across the site, one of whom is a young
apprentice, and one an expectant mother with a child due in six months. The observers are workers who
have volunteered to actively monitor their respective manufacturing department. They use a checklist of
critical behaviours that were identified from studying past accidents and incidents in the organisation.
The checklist is common to all departments to carry out daily BSAs. As co-ordinator, you collect the
completed checklists daily, collate and evaluate data, and conduct weekly feedback meetings with
workers in each department. All the associated forms, checklists and procedures are carefully version
controlled.

You report to a supervisor who is not convinced of the value of the BSA programme. This same attitude
is also shared by some of the other long-serving middle managers. You know that the introduction of the
BSA programme will need careful management if it is to be accepted by your supervisor and the other
managers. However, you do have the support of at least one member of the site senior management
team, nominated as the site behavioural safety Champion. They have already provided resources for you
to develop behavioural safety awareness training and ensured all 150 staff attended. Separate financial
support was also provided for carrying out observer training for the ten volunteers. This included special
communication facilities for an observer with hearing difficulties.
Your supervisor talks to you about an accident that occurred two weeks ago, where a contractor
suffered a knee injury. The contractor works for a national contracting maintenance company and was
brought on site to do a specific job. The supervisor thinks the accident is an obvious case of ‘human
error’ that is not worth the time to investigate further. Your supervisor hands you the accident report to
read and suggests that any reasonable person would come to the same conclusion. Reading the report,
you note that the injured contractor was rescued by the site’s emergency response team, taken to
hospital and was off work for a week. Your supervisor thinks that most accidents are unavoidable, and
that people are to blame because they behave unsafely. You disagree and argue that blaming individuals
is a mistake and demoralises the workforce. It is a core value of the BSA programme that the root cause
of unsafe behaviour is often management failures, and these must be determined so that lessons can be
learnt. Your supervisor asks you to investigate the accident further, confident that it will prove that it
was all down to human error.

When the injured contractor is well enough to return to work, you arrange a meeting and ask some
questions. Although the contractor has a lot of experience in contracting work, including involvement in
permit-to-work systems at other sites, this was the first time they had worked at this food
manufacturing site. You ask how the injury occurred. They reply that while adjusting a piece of
equipment alone, they slipped on a working platform, made of scaffolding poles (tubes) and scaffold
boards, that was erected by the contractor.

When you ask the contractor how they feel about being injured at work the reply really surprises you.
They say: ‘It is accepted as part of our job, unsupervised, we live with the risks and accept the
consequences, without complaint’. You respond by explaining that their employer and the food
manufacturing site where they are working have a joint responsibility to care for them. The contractor
confirms that, before starting the job, they had received specific induction training and job-specific

information from the site supervisor, although that was the last time that they saw them on that day.
You also ask about the safety of the work environment and they indicate it appeared to be fine. You visit
the accident scene and observe that oil, used by a site maintenance technician to lubricate equipment
above the working area, has leaked onto the working platform below and coated the boards.

You discover that the work carried out by the contractor was done under the authority of a permit-to-
work (PTW). So, you also decide to investigate how the permit system operated on that day. You ask the
contractor about the sequence of events on the day of the accident. They recall that a job instruction
was received, then the contractor walked to the site office where PTWs were written and issued. The
contractor, trained in the responsibilities of what accepting a permit meant, presented a job description
note to the manufacturing site’s PTW issuer and a brief discussion took place. They appeared to be
extremely busy, and the contractor overheard them say that they were issuing up to 75 PTWs a day!

The site’s permit issuer talked with the contractor about the exact nature of the job and clarified
understanding of the hazards and risks for the proposed task. The task appeared to be a low risk one to
the permit issuer, and because of this and a high workload, they did not physically check the area where
the task was due to take place. The self-duplicating PTW forms were duly completed and authorised,
including relevant signatures. One copy was retained by the contractor, one copy put on display at the
job site, and one kept as a record in the site office. The permit was issued to cover the period 09:00 -
17:00 that day. The contractor also told you that the permit issuer talked about associated control
measures, including isolation of equipment before starting work and the wearing of head protection
while working on equipment.

Your investigation concludes that there were many organizational management failures and only one
identified human error. One of your recommendations is to review the original risk assessment for the
maintenance of equipment above the working area, at the scene of the accident.

Task 1:- What are the benefits of using the checklist of critical behaviors during these behavioral safety
audits (BSAs)?

Answer- The benefit of using the checklist of critical behaviors during this behavioral safety Audits
(BSAs) are as follows.

· Written record – This is evidence of that audit is performing, using of checklist is a written record of
critical behaviors which is beneficial of conducting weekly feedback meetings

· Fast & Easy process – its an easy and fast process for the observer to record the behaviors of work at
manufacturing unit at different departments.

· Determine all points are covered – While observing the safe & unsafe behaviors of workers using a
checklist ensures that all points as per checklist are covered and no any points are missed.

· Structured & Systematic – it’s a structured and systematic based to coordinate with all ten observers
to collate and evaluate data of the worker in each department across the site.
· Easy approach – it is an easy and efficient for the observer to monitors the behaviors to reduce the
chances that important area will not be missed.

· comparison - it provides an efficient method for comparison among checklists of the different
departments also will be used during the audit.

· Save time – Using a checklist saves time to the observers as they don’t need to think by themselves,
topics are covered as per points mentioned in the checklist.

· Version controlled – Checklist can be updated as per the requirement after collate & evaluate data of
the safe & unsafe behaviors of workers.

· Workers feedback- Safe and unsafe both behaviors are recorded using checklist, workers behaviors
are also being monitor if any unsafe acts are observed then they are approached for the feedback of the
workers to prevent it in future.

· Accountability- Observers feel accountability in using checklist as it is written record need to be

completed regularly as per the audit requirements.

Task 2:- What employer obligations are likely to have been contravened, leading to the contractor’s
accident in this scenario?

Answer- As per the ILO Article 10 of R164 1981 employer obligation likely to have been contravened
leading to the contractor worker's knee injury.

· Provide and maintain safe workplace – employer not provide a safe workplace to workers it was
found that during visit accident the scene there is an oil leak onto the scaffolding working platform.

· Provide adequate supervision of worksite supervisor was not available during the work as the worker
said they saw him last time on the day of the training.
· Eliminate physical & mental fatigue – PTW issuer having high workload they were issuing up to 75
PTW per day because of this did not physically check the area where work was taking place, worker was
adjusting of equipment alone there was no co-worker with him to help to adjust the equipment.

· Use safe work method – Before issuing the work permit Issuer did not physically check the area
where work was due to take place because of the high workload.

· Organization nature of activity – contractor worker was not having experiences in the food
manufacturing industry because they work in other industry only

· Provide adequate PPE – employer did not check and provide slip resistance shoes to the worker when
the permit is being issued only Hard hat is recommended to use as a control measure.

· Worker technical knowledge – worker not have technical knowledge about the task to be done as he
worked in another site never worked before in food manufacturing industry.

· Ensure working procedure – employer clearly mention the working shift of 8 hours but not clear the
rest time for worker welfare that also the high the exposure of risk due to long working hours or
increase the stress level of workers.

· No First aider First aid facilities – there was accident happen with contractor worker during working
on equipment after the accident rescue by site Emergency Response team and send him to hospital that
shown employer not provide certified first aider & First aid location for Initial treatment in the food
manufacturing unit.

Task 3:- You try to inform the supervisor that the root causes of unsafe behaviour are usually
management failures, Based on the scenario only, what management failures are likely to have
contributed to this accident?
Answer- There are lots of management failure are identified during the investigation which caused the
worker knee injury. Bellow written points are the root causes of the accident.

Lack of management commitment – During the investigation management are not intrusted to
investigate the accident further because they think it only a human error and not worth the time to
investigate further.

Lack of Supervision – Site supervisor was not available and there is no supervision during commencing
the task, a the worker said he did not see supervisor at site after the training, he was working alone for
the purposed task.

Negative attitude- Supervisor and some of the middle managers in the organization imposing the
negative attitude as they are not convinced the value of BSA program they always blaming the workers
and not accepting the management fail

Improper housekeeping – housekeeping is not done after lubricate above the working area which
caused leak onto the working platform leading slippery surface

Improper risk assessment – risk assessment was not found adequate for the maintenance of the
equipment above the working area it needs to be reviewed with proper recommendation and controlled
measured to identified.

Ignorance of joint site inspection – work area was not physically check before issuing the permit by the
permit issuer because of the high workload.

Blaming culture - Supervisor think that most accident unavoidable and people are to blame due to
behave unsafely, it shows the negative attitude of the employee which can pose a negative impact to
the employees working in the food manufacturing site.

Inadequate PPE – employer fails to provide adequate PPE to the worker as per the task and working
situation, only head protection is considered while slip resistance shoes also need to be considered as
per task.
Task 4:- Based on the scenario only, comment on the food manufacturing site’s application of the
permit-to-work system. alert-warning

Answer- My Comment on the food manufacturing site application of the permit to work system (PTW)
are as follows-

It was observed that the work carried out was done under the authority of permit to work system that
means PTW system is at the place and followed properly.

The Contractors are getting PTW training before accepting any permit and brief job discussion are
carried out between PTW Issuer and permit accepter.

The site permit issuer is taking care and talk with the contractor about the exact nature of the job and
clarifying the hazard & risk for the proposed task.

Permit to work documentation is properly followed and self-duplicating PTW form are completed and
authorized including all authorized signature. three copies are there one to be retained to the contractor
another copy displaying at job site and one keeping as record in the PTW Issuer site office.

Permit is issued to cover the period of 8 hours per shift if the work not completed during the shift then
permit need to be extended by the contractor.

Permit issuer also discussing about the associated control measures as per the task including isolation of
the equipment before starting the work.

PPE is also mentioning in the permit like head protection while working on any specifics equipment and
discussing with the permit accepter, also mentioning control measures onto the permit which is
accepted by the permit accepter.

Some deficiencies are also found of the application of the permit to work system are as follows –
Permit issuer facing high work load they were issuing up to 75 PTWs a day due to this many things are
missing and ignored like control measure additional and proper PPEs and they were also not getting
time to physically check the area of the work.

This is an important part of the permit to work system to do physical check of the area with the permit
accepter to identify the associated hazards, working and equipment’s conditions to apply the specific
and correct control measure to minimize the existing hazards, which is been ignored in this case.

Task 5:- The site supervisor gave the contractor induction training when they arrived on site. What
information should be included in this training? alert-warning

Answer- Induction training is important for the new worker coming to the site to allows the worker to
know about the organization hazards and associated information and all relevant information is known
and understood by the contractor below written information need to be included in the induction
training –

· Health & Safety policy of the organization – provide the information about the H&s policy and
procedure.

· Fire & emergency procedure and equipment’s – need to be included in the training and the location
of the emergency equipment need to be explained.

· Details of hazardous work place – give information about the workplace hazard and risk including the
control measures.

· First aid facilities – provide location of the first aid facilities and first aider personal details.

· Location of well fear facilities - show the locution of well fear facilities to locate easily from the
worksite safe.

· Safe movement of workplace – provide information about how to safe movement around the
workplace.
· Accident & incident reporting procedure – give instruction to report and accident & incident at work
site.

· Worker consultation arrangement – worker consultation need to be arranged by every employer and
provide information regarding the consultation arrangement of the worker.

· General safety rules – all general safety rules need to be provided and instructed such as designated
smoking area, No alcohol policy.

· PPE requirements – all mandatory PPE requirements should be explained including the additional and
specific PPE as per according to the area.

· Introduction to SSOW – permit to work system and another safe system of work procedure need to
be provided.

· Disciplinary procedure – disciplinary action needs to be explained in case of worker violates any
company rules and regulation

Task 6:- Based on the scenario only (a) what are the positive indicators of health and safety culture at
the food manufacturing site? (b) what are the negative indicators of health and safety culture at the
food manufacturing site?

Answer- 6 (a) Positive indicators of the health & safety culture of food manufacturing site areas follows-

Senior the manager introduced a behavioral safety program at the food manufacturing site to improve
health & safety culture.

BSA program set an objective for the whole site for occupational health and safety improvements.
All BSA involved are trained observers who observe the site worker including the contractor carrying out
the task at the site.

As per BSA program site worker are getting appreciation from the observer to motivate the workers if
safe behaviors are observed,

Senior managers have appointed observer’s coordinator for behaviors safety audit for successful
implementation of the BSA program.

Verbal feedback is introducing in case of unsafe behaviors, which shows the two-way communication
system if site worker behaving unsafely and discussed what can be done to change it this is to encourage
safe behaviors and avoid unsafe practices.

Observers looks for both safe and unsafe behaviors of the workers which shows the positive culture of
the organization

Checklist are being used for critical behaviors that was identify from past accident and incident in the
organization checklist is being filled daily with collating and evaluating data.

Weekly feedback meeting is conducting with workers in each department to listen to the workers issues
and discuss the existing findings of the food manufacturing site.

All the relevant forms checklist documented procedure is being updated and as per control version.

Management provide resources to develop behavior safety awareness training to all staff with separate
financial support for special communication facility for hearing difficulties staff.
Emergency response team is available and active in case of any emergency happens at the site for any
rescue purpose.

Contractor induction training and job-specific training is being conducted by the management to
improve the hazard awareness of the workers.

Permit to work is in place and implemented by the employer to the safe execution of the job at a food
manufacturing site.

Answer- 6 (b) Negative indicators of the health & safety culture of food manufacturing site are as
follows-

Supervisor having the negative attitude which is associated with accident as he thinks is unsafe behavior
is always a human error and that’s why accidents cannot be investigated further.

The supervisor is not convinced the value of the BSA program and also some middle managers are
thinking the same which shows the negative indicators of the health & safety management system.

After the accident knee injury of the worker supervisor view is that most accidents are unavoidable and
workers are to be blamed because they behave unsafely which indicate the blame culture of the
organization.

No recorded complaint and reporting system of the contractor when investigated injured worker said he
lives with the risk and accept the consequences without complaint which is a negative attitude of the
worker.

Permit issuer having heavy workload in issuing the permit which shows the excess work pressure of the
employees indicate the negative culture.

Managers introduced the BSAs program to observe the behaviors of the workers but not ready to focus
on the management failures issues which is the root cause of the accident, it gives direct negative
impact on the workers morale which indicates negative influence.
Task 7:- ISO 45001: 2018 incorporates the Plan, Do, Check, Act stages, Indicate which one of these
stages the following arrangements (extracted from the scenario) belong to.

Answer- 7(a) Occupational health and safety (OH&S) objectives (for the whole site). Plan – Establish
standards (objectives / aims / targets) for introducing BSA Programme improving health and safety by
management & based on risk assessment and legal requirements

Answer- 7(b) Hazard identification (hazards identified and understood by the permit issuer and
contractor). Do - Implementation when issuing PTW of set plans to achieve objectives and standards in a
systematic way.

Answer- 7(c) Competence (permit issued by a competent person). Do – Competent & trained person
issued PTW to complies & Implementation of safe system of work set plans to achieve objectives and
standards in a systematic way.

Answer- 7(d) Resources (providing resources for the OH&S management system). Do – management
provide resources for training of all 150 staff & also special resources for Vulnerable group of workers
example, young worker, expected mother, hearing disability worker for training to Implementation &
set plans to achieve objectives and good health & Safety at workplace and complies standards in a
systematic way.

Answer- 7(e) Emergency response (rescued by the site’s emergency response team). Do Implementation
of the active Emergency response team to rescue in any emergency event set plans to achieve
objectives and standards in a systematic way.

Answer- 7(f) Active monitoring (BSAs). Check - Time to time monitoring and measuring the progress in
accordance with planning and implementations.

Answer- 7(g) Managing incidents (incident investigation to identify root causes). Check – Re Active
monitoring and proper Investigation to avoided accidents & incidents in the future.
Answer- 7(h) Internal communication (weekly feedback meetings). Act - collating & evaluating the
checklist data from observer communicating with each department worker.

Answer- 7(i) Management review (accidents with serious consequences). Act - Review against the
accident & consequences & set objectives and take appropriate needful action for further control for
continual improvements

Answer- 7(j) Re-visiting plans and documents (re-visiting the risk assessment). Act – generic risk
assortment needs to be reviewed as per the current hazardous situation with taking appropriate control
measure to make the dynamic risk assortment.

Task 8:- (a) Based on the scenario only, what are the main types of workers you should take into account
in your workplace risk assessment? (b) One of the recommendations from your investigation was to
review the risk assessment. You decide to analyze the existing control measures for the maintenance
task where the contractor was injured.

Answer- 8(a) We need to considered special types of worker like vulnerable groups of workers working
in food manufacturing site this organization have 3 vulnerable worker who need to be involved in work
place risk assessment – 8(a)

· Young worker – Young apprentice in the organization having lack of experiences with mental
immaturity as well as poor risk perception required special attention during the risk assessment.

· Expected mother – pregnant women are also available in the organisation, she is at more risk for
different types of hazard involved miscarriage, birth issue and ill health to the baby and mother, they
need to give special care in the risk assessment specifically.

· Disable worker (hearing issue) – Organisation have one difficulty in hearing disabled observer, he
also needs to be considered in the risk assessment as they also include in greater risk from particular
hazard like they cannot hear the emergency alarm, vehicle movement sound.
 Lone worker – Working alone are also a vulnerable group of workers who especially associated with
a certain type of hazard they also need to be included in the risk assessment

Answer- 8(b) My comment on the organisation control measured used as general hierarchy of control as
a framework are as follows –

Task was to do the equipment maintenance at site it was considered the low risk activity by the
operation hence engineering control was applied by proper isolation of the particular equipment and
the task was controlled by permit to work system. Elimination and substitution were not practical.

· Elimination - The task was not being possible to be eliminated by the management if hazard can be
eliminated than the risk by that hazard are not exists it might be done by avoiding the task that creates
the risk.

· Substitution –Process that substitute one hazard with another less hazardous risk which create less
risk but, in this task, this was not possible to substitute the hazard.

· Engineering control – Engineering control was used by isolating of the maintenance equipment, this
control was to use the lockout tagout of the equipment and the control panel with visible reason of the
isolation this prevents the equipment to avoid accidental start-ups and warn others that people are
working in this this equipment so this cannot be started. Only authorized person can remove the
isolation after confirming the equipment is ready to operate and ensures no one is working there at the
said equipment.

· Administrative control – Permit to work system are in place to control the task with adequate
precaution before starting the activity, job description is mentioned with discussing the required control
measures with the permit accepter. But there is no physical check of the concern site visit by the issuer
because of their busy schedule, control measures discussed and applied on permit on assumption base,
there is no risk identification of the current situation of the area hence fails to provide the correct
control measures on the permit
Supervision is also a part of an administrative control but in this activity, there was no supervision
available during the task, supervisor should be available with the worker at the site, but the worker was
alone while activity going on, the worker did not see the supervisor after the training session.

· PPE – All of the above control measure can be used but some time residual risk still remains, by this
case PPE is necessary to use.

For the task Head protection is recommended by the permit issuer also explained to a worker during the
task but not additional PPE was identified as per the working condition and task rerequirement

Also, Read Related Topics:-

NEBOSH IGC Next Open Book Exam Dates

How to Prepare NEBOSH OBE IG2 Practical Assessment Report

NEBOSH OBE IG1 August 2020 Solved Question Paper

NEBOSH OBE IG1 October 2020 Solved Question Paper

NEBOSH Previous Question Paper PDF Download

YOU MIGHT LIKEView all

NEBOSH OBE IG1 Feb 2021 Solved Question Paper

How to Write Nebosh Open Book Exam Answer

NEBOSH International Diploma New Syllabus- हिन्दी मे जानें

1 COMMENTSIf you have any questions and doubts, Please let me know.

UnknownJune 17, 2021 at 6:15 PM

Some point u have describe in good way but some points as such la k of mock drill as such first aid , fire
fighting , confined space and h2s not describe and not use also unsafe a t and u safe condition word ...
special checklist give the full details about a substance and equipment that how to operate this and
what are the hz about this and chemical composition how much it is corrosive and dangerous and
flamabfla so we add the good points another benefits of it to minimize and control the accident , means
life saving of workers , very easy to operate because it gives full details about operation and in increased
the safety standard during safety audit

About ptw questions your explanation not added poinyp the benifben of ptw because it is a legal
document or processer to examination of a hazardious area during a work so before starting a job u
should need to a cold hot , work at height permit to safe the life of workers as well as equipment and
remove all possible hazards....last points that explains the type of workes including risk assessment aslo
depends upon nature of work weather physical, chemical and biological work.with connect of that we
explain vulnerable workers , adults workers , aged workers gerontology, lone workers , disabled workes
weather it is hearing loss or organ loss workers , and accroding to heraircy first we considered
elimination of hazards , substitution of hzs , engineer control , administrative control , last wearing ppe
good but whenever you explain risk assessment without calculation of risk as such low , medium , high
we can't explain it because r=lmultiplication c good. Ut shows ratio as such 123 very high , medium ,
low .... thanks ikbalhusain72@gmail.com but overall all your answer excellent knowledge 7055693272

NEBOSH IGC Latest Syllabus Book free Download

NEBOSH IG1 Open Book Exam August 2020 Question & Answer.