NEBOSH

International General Certificate

Unit IGC1
Management of international Health & Safety

Element 1

Foundations in Health & Safety

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 Licence details

RMS Publishing
Victoria House, Lower High Street, Stourbridge DY8 1TA

© RMS Publishing.

Second Edition March 2012.

All rights reserved. No part of this presentation may be stored in a retrieval system, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
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omission or error.

Issued to: Induction Consultancy & Training

Single Licence
Licence No: 860431

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 Foundations in health and safety

Learning outcomes

1.1 Outline the scope and nature of occupational

health and safety
1.2 Explain the moral, social and economic reasons
for maintaining and promoting good standards of
health and safety in the workplace
1.3 Explain the role of national governments and
international bodies in formulating a framework for the
regulation of health and safety

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 Foundations in health and safety

Contents

1.1 The scope and nature of occupational health and

safety
1.2 The moral, social and economic reasons for
maintaining and promoting health and safety
1.3 The role of national governments and international
bodies in formulating a framework for regulation of
health and safety
1.4 Sources of information on National Standards

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 Foundations in health and safety

Contents

1.1 The scope and nature of occupational health and

safety
1.2 The moral, social and economic reasons for
maintaining and promoting health and safety
1.3 The role of national governments and international
bodies in formulating a framework for regulation of
health and safety
1.4 Sources of information on National Standards

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 Foundations in health and safety
The scope and nature of occupational health and safety
The multi-disciplinary nature of health and safety
Health and safety embraces a number of disciplines:
• Finance
• Insurance
• Health
• Personnel
• Production
• Design
• Purchase
• Information technology (IT)

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 Foundations in health and safety
The scope and nature of occupational health and safety
Meaning of and distinctions between common terms
Health, safety, welfare and environmental protection
• Health
- “A state of well being”
• Safety
- “Absence of danger of physical harm”
• Welfare
- “Facilities for workplace comfort”
• Environmental protection
- “A measure used to prevent harm to the environment
of the world”

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 Foundations in health and safety

Contents

1.1 The scope and nature of occupational health and

safety
1.2 The moral, social and economic reasons for
maintaining and promoting health and safety
1.3 The role of national governments and international
bodies in formulating a framework for regulation of
health and safety
1.4 Sources of information on National Standards

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons

• General argument
• The size of the problem
• Societal expectations of good standards of health and safety
• Health and safety requirements
• The business case for health and safety

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
General argument
Three good reasons for preventing accidents in the workplace:
1)Moral
2)Social
3)Economic

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
The size of the problem
• ILO estimates that 2.2 million work-related deaths take place
annually
• Biggest groups of work-related diseases are cancers,
circulatory diseases and communicable diseases
• Reported that there are 270 million accidents at work each year
• In the European Union (EU), the European Agency for Safety
and Health at Work has identified that a worker is involved in a
work-related accident at least every five seconds, and every
two hours one worker dies in an accident at work
• Every year 5,580 people die in the EU as a result of work-
related accidents

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
The size of the problem
• 1,097 workplace fatalities were recorded in Canada in 2005
• On average, equates to almost five work-related deaths per
work day
• In the USA, 5,702 people suffered fatal injury and
approximately 4,600,000 people were injured in 2005
• The reported statistics for 2010 were 4,547 fatal injuries and
approximately 3,500,000 injuries
• In Kuwait during 2006, 2,818 work-related accidents and 31
deaths occurred
• In Bahrain during the same period, 2,247 occupational
accidents and 19 deaths occurred

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
The size of the problem
• In the UK the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics
reveal that:
- 171 workers were killed at work during the year
2010/11, representing 0.6 fatalities per 100,000 workers
- The construction industry (42%) and agriculture (38%)
accounted for most of these
- Falls from height, being struck by a vehicle and being
struck by a falling object account for approximately 50% of
all fatal injuries
- More than 118,000 other injuries were reported under
RIDDOR 1995 and about 26,400,000 days were lost in
total due to work-related ill-health and injury
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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
Societal expectations of good standards of health
and safety
Societal opinion tends to fall into two parts:
1) Strategic, influenced by the general mass of public
concerning its tolerance of specific workplace hazards or
situations
2) Local influences tend to surround acceptability or
unacceptability of the practices of a specific organisation

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
Health and safety requirements
• A number of countries have established an employer’s
‘common law’ duty of care, which is owed to workers
• A legal obligation imposed on an individual requiring that they
exercise a reasonable standard of care while performing any
acts that could foreseeably harm others
• This duty of care could be considered as formalising the implicit
responsibilities held by an individual towards another individual
within society
• In the UK the employer’s duty of care in common law has been
established for some time
• Obligates the employer to take ‘reasonable care of those that
might foreseeably be affected by its acts or omissions’

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
The business case for health and safety
Insured and uninsured costs
• ‘Accident Costs
Iceberg’
• Represents the ratio
of insured to
uninsured costs
incurred by a main
contractor during the
building of a
supermarket

Source: RMS/UK HSE HSG96

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
The business case for health and safety
Insured and uninsured costs
• Direct costs
- Lost time
- Damage to equipment
- Medical or first-aid costs
- Time and materials to clean up after the accident
- Insurance, indemnity or compensation payments
- Court costs
- Fines

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
The business case for health and safety
Insured and uninsured costs
• Indirect costs
- Lost time by other workers who stop work or reduce
performance/supervisor or other managers
- Weakened morale
- Preparing accident reports, attending hearings,
inquests courts
- Interference with production leading to failure to fill
orders on time, loss of bonuses, penalty payments
and similar losses

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
The business case for health and safety
Insured and uninsured costs
Sample costs of accidents
Total loss Annualised loss Representing
1 Construction site £245,075 £700,000 8.5% tender price
2 Creamery £243,834 £975,336 1.4% operating costs
3 Transport £48,928 £195,712 1.8% of operating costs 37% of
company profits
4 Oil platform £940,921 £3,763,684 14.2% of potential output
Source: The costs of accidents at work, HSG96, HSE Books

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
The business case for health and safety
Employers’ liability insurance
• To satisfy requirements for employers to carry appropriate
insurance
• So that a worker, who is harmed due to the fault
(negligence) of their employer, is assured of receiving
compensation even though the employer might have
insufficient resources to pay compensation directly
• This form of insurance enables organisations to meet the
costs of compensation and legal fees
• This type of insurance is exerting significant pressure on
employers to improve their standards of health and safety

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
The business case for health and safety
Employers’ liability insurance
• Designed to protect workers who have suffered a personal
loss
• Separate provision will need to be considered for the many
costs associated with a workplace accident that may not,
depending on the policies carried, be covered by insurance

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 Foundations in health and safety
The moral, social and economic reasons
The business case for health and safety
Employers’ liability insurance
• Other costs that may be incurred relate to:
- Production delays
- Damaged goods and equipment
- Accident investigation
- Loss of expertise or experience
- Hiring and training replacement staff
- Loss of goodwill and reputation
- Clean-up operations
- Possible fines and associated legal fees

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 Foundations in health and safety

Contents

1.1 The scope and nature of occupational health and

safety
1.2 The moral, social and economic reasons for
maintaining and promoting health and safety
1.3 The role of national governments and international
bodies in formulating a framework for regulation of
health and safety
1.4 Sources of information on National Standards

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 Foundations in health and safety
The role of national governments and international bodies

• The International Labour Organisation (ILO) sets out

conventions and member states subscribing to the work of
the ILO agree to be bound by conventions that they have
ratified
• Member states use the conventions to guide their approach
to health and safety
• Particularly useful to emerging countries as not gained
experience of the issues necessary to consider when
managing a complex industrialised country
• Saves them developing their own approach

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 Foundations in health and safety
The role of national governments and international bodies

• The ILO has set out a number of conventions and

recommendations
• Relate to the management of health and safety, recording
and notifying accidents, health and safety for the workplace
and work equipment
• ILO conventions set out what should be done by member
countries at a national level and what should be done at
employer level
• Workers’ rights and responsibilities are included within the
conventions

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 Foundations in health and safety
The role of national governments and international bodies
Employers’ responsibilities
• According to ILO Occupational Safety and Health
Convention C155, employers have multiple responsibilities
• These include (article 16) ensuring that, so far as is
reasonably practicable, the workplaces, machinery,
equipment and processes under their control are safe and
without risk to health
• Must also ensure that, so far as is reasonably practicable,
the chemical, physical and biological substances and agents
under their control are without risk to health when the
appropriate measures of protection are taken

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 Foundations in health and safety
The role of national governments and international bodies
Employers’ responsibilities
• This includes provision, where necessary, of adequate
protective clothing and protective equipment to prevent, so
far is reasonably practicable, risk of accidents or of adverse
effects on health
• Employers must also provide measures to deal with
emergencies and accidents, including adequate first-aid
arrangements

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 Foundations in health and safety
The role of national governments and international bodies
Employers’ responsibilities
Storage of gas cylinders/office workplace

Source: RMS

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 Foundations in health and safety
The role of national governments and international bodies
Workers’ responsibility and rights
• The ILO sets out workers’ responsibilities to protect
themselves and those around them from harm
• Expected to co-operate with the employer with regard to
obligations placed upon the employer
• Including reporting any situation that presents imminent risk
or serious danger
• Workers should receive adequate information and training on
measures taken by the employer to secure occupational
safety and health

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 Foundations in health and safety
The role of national governments and international bodies
Workers’ responsibility and rights
• Similar legislation has been in place in South Africa since
1993 through the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1993
• Include responsibilities of the employee regarding reporting
health and safety matter, Section 14, General duties of
employees at work
• Section 15 of the Trinidad and Tobago Occupational Safety
and Health Act 2004 follows a similar pattern

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 Foundations in health and safety
The role of national governments and international bodies
Role of enforcement agencies and consequences of
non-compliance
• ILO - Occupational Safety and Health Convention C155 sets
out broad requirements for member countries to follow to
ensure health and safety requirements are set into national
laws and enforced
• Different states take different approaches to legislation,
regulation, and enforcement
• In the EU, member states have enforcing authorities to
ensure that the basic legal requirements relating to
occupational health and safety are met

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 Foundations in health and safety
The role of national governments and international bodies
Role of enforcement agencies and consequences of
non-compliance
• In the UK, on behalf of the Government, the Health and
Safety Commission (HSC) identifies the need for legal
requirements, arranges drafts and consultation
• Health and safety legislation is enforced by the Health and
Safety Executive (HSE) and local authorities under powers
provided by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
• In the USA, OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, has been regulating occupational health and
safety since 1971

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 Foundations in health and safety
The role of national governments and international bodies
Role of enforcement agencies and consequences of
non-compliance
• In Malaysia, the Department of Occupational Safety and
Health (DOSH) under the Ministry of Human Resource is
responsible to ensure the safety, health and welfare of
workers in both the public and private sector
• DOSH enforces the Occupational Safety and Health Act
1994

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 Foundations in health and safety
The role of national governments and international bodies
International standards and conventions
• The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)
• An international standard-setting body
• Composed of representatives from various national standards
bodies
• Founded in 1947
• Produces world-wide industrial and commercial standards
• Acts as a consortium with strong links to Governments
• Approximately 158 members of the ISO, each of which
represents one country
• Main products are the international standards
• Also creates technical reports, technical specifications, publicly
available specifications, technical corrigenda and guides
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 Foundations in health and safety
The role of national governments and international bodies
International standards and conventions
• The International Labour Organisation (ILO)
• Founded in 1919
• It is the only 'tripartite' United Nations agency
• Brings together representatives of governments, employers
and workers to jointly shape policies and programmes
• Derives Conventions that members ratify, and when ratified
member countries are expected to meet the requirements of
the convention
• Also produces recommendations, guidelines, codes of
practice and reports on issues that affect health and safety
• Also produces a number of informative books, including the
very useful health and safety encyclopaedia
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 Foundations in health and safety

Contents

1.1 The scope and nature of occupational health and

safety
1.2 The moral, social and economic reasons for
maintaining and promoting health and safety
1.3 The role of national governments and international
bodies in formulating a framework for regulation of
health and safety
1.4 Sources of information on National Standards

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 Foundations in health and safety
Sources of information on National Standards

• Acts, regulations and orders

• Regulatory authorities and agencies
• National standards and approved codes of practice
• Official guidance
• Role of the courts
• Absolute and qualified duties

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 Foundations in health and safety
Sources of information on National Standards

Absolute and qualified duties

1) Absolute
2) Practicable
3) Reasonably practicable
4) Reasonable

Source: RMS/Corel Clipart

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 Foundations in health and safety

UK relevant statutory provisions

• Reporting of Injuries Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences
Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995
• Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HASAWA) 1974
• Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations
(PUWER) 1998
• Irish Safety, Health and Welfare Act (ISHWA) 2005

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