SAFETY MANAGEMNET

Prepared and Complied by Win Myint Law A.G.T.I. BE Mining, M.MES, ASEAN Engineer
Consultant
Mineral Exploration Logistics and Mining

SAFETY CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATION

INTRODUCTION

An analysis of Industry Accident Reports over the last few years show that more than 80% of
accidents causing injuries are due to human behavior, that is to say they are caused by unsafe
practices. The aims of the following of this Safety Management course are:

To impart an understanding of international, national, regional and local safety laws

and regulations.

To create an awareness of the Companys commitment to safety practices and the

responsibility of its employees to the same.

To establish guidelines of practice for preventative supervision and safety auditing.

To discuss procedures for accident and near-miss reporting.

Discussion on Law and Policy for Safety Management.

Detailed examination of Safety Management and Organization.

Review the role of independent Safety Advisers,

Contingency Planning.

Training.

Auditing of Records.

Accident Reporting.

Personal Equipment and Conduct.

Safety management

Management commitment

Safety policy

Line responsibility

Safety advisor

Safety standards and procedures

Safety performance

Safety plan and objectives

Safety inspection and audit programme

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Safety training

11

Personal Equipment

12

Tools

13

Accident investigation and reporting

14

Safety motivation and communication

15

Contingency planning

Safety management

You are all involved one way or another in the supervision or management of people at work.
You already know that it is every employees duty to work safely so that they protect
themselves and others from accidental injury. However, Safety does not just happen it has to
be managed. We will consider what areas of Management Skills are applied to working
safely.

Management commitment

Each member of the Management Team must show to those he supervises that he is fully
committed to working safety, A Manager can show this commitment to Safety in a member
of ways.

By assigning high priority to Safety performance in all business activities

By taking a personal interest in accidents and following up investigations in the
interests of preventing further accidents.
By putting experienced, competent people in charge of Safety
By being prepared to spend money to create or restore safe working conditions.
By setting a good example at all times you must wear your Safety
Helmet Boots; you must wear your Safety Belt in the vehicle; you must always
drive safely within the rules set down and within your own capabilities.
By always being involved in Safety inspections and Safety meetings, down to the
lowest level at which they are held.
By always promoting Safety in public, in meetings, in front of the workers
By always including Safety considerations in day-to-day instructions
By including Safety as a priority item at Safety and Management meetings

In the past, the Industry has also had a fairly bad accident rate. Through this, grew a selfimage amongst the workers that accepted accidents and almost expected to take a number of
injuries on even the simplest of projects. This attitude must change. It is a Managers
responsibility to ensure that his employees are properly equipped, trained and motivated to
work safety. In your work Contracts, you are already under a duty to work safely. Your
company has a policy to provide you with a safe working environment. In the final event, the
safety record of any party will be directly proportional to the active, concerned management
of that party by you.

Safety policy

A health and safety policy is a written statement of principles and goals embodying the
companys commitment to workplace health and safety. Senior management must be
committed to carrying out that policy consistently and completely. Health and safely must
enjoy the same high priority as the organizations other major goals.

The policy statement should:

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)

7)
8)

contain a written statement of principles and goals

be signed by the chief executive officer
be dated
recognize the need to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety
Act and construction regulations.
acknowledge the right of every employee to work in a safe and healthy
environment
spell out managements commitment to providing a safe and healthy
work environment by eliminating or minimizing the hazards that can
cause accidents and injuries
recognize the priority of safety in relation to other organizational goals
and policies
encourage cooperation with unions and workers to involve all employees
in putting the health and safety policy into practice.

1. The acceptance of the principle that all injuries can and should be
prevented.
2. Management at all levels is responsible for preventing accidents.

Line responsibility

Managers and Supervisors are responsible for demonstrating, as we have already said,
personal commitments to the safety programme and reacting to:
1. Poor safety performance.
2. Excellent safety performance.
3. Lack of standards for safety practices.

4. Low standards.
5. Inappropriate or poor safety programme, plans and objectives.
6. Safety reports and their recommendations.
7. Unsafe working conditions and practices.
8. An inconsistent approach to safety by different people.
9. Inadequate training or instruction.
10. Accident and incident reports and the action needed to stop them happening again.
11. Idea and suggestions for improving safety.
12. Inadequate discipline.

Senior Management

Superintendent

Supervisors (foreperson)

Workers

Subcontractors

Health and safety Advisor

All Employees

Safety advisor

A Safety Advisor must be a person of who co-ordinates all aspects of safety in the best and
most workable manner. They should also have an excellent understanding of the environment
and the nature of the job. They must have received training in Enchance Safety Management
Principles.

They can conduct;

Safety induction programmed
Audits
Training
Risk analysis/Contingency planning
Transport Management Supervision
Regular meetings in all levels
In addition to the day to day co-ordination of safety, they may also be a Paramedic with
responsibilities for casualty handling and evacuating, health and hygiene.

Safety standards and procedures

Some of the companies are laid down the rules as Safety Standards and Procedures in the
following documents
Safety Policy of the company
Occupational Health and Safety Act and construction regulations
Safety compilation Handbook which has been written by the company health
and safety requirements

The safety manual and compilation handbook must be distributed to everybody on the
working crew. It is important to involve the management and supervision to carry out the
safety standards and procedures and they provide adequate training for workers likely to
follow these safety standards and procedures.

For examples some of the following rules are part of safety standards and procedure.
All accidents must be reported immediately to your supervisor/foreman, and
prior to leaving the workplace.
All workers must have proof of training indicating that they are trained in
WHMIS.
Workers must wear appropriate PPE when and where required.
Workers must perform all work following safe work practices and safe job
procedures.
Workers must maintain good housekeeping.
No fighting or horseplay is permitted at the workplace.
No theft or vandalism will be tolerated at the workplace.
No possession or consumption of alcohol or illegal drugs is permitted while at the
workplace.

You are not permitted to arrive or remain at work if your ability to perform the job safely is
impaired.

Safety performance

Safety performance is the activities carried out by the Safety Officer and all the working crew
members. The monthly safely report is an indicator of the safety performance done during the
previous month. For example, they may include.

Monthly crew safety meetings.

Daily toolbox meetings and weekly worksite Safety Meetings
Safety Memos of an unsafe act, incident, near miss, accident.
Lost Time Injury and Medical Treatment Cases
Crew medical boxes-check and refill schedule list
Fire prevention procedure and drill
All kinds of check lists for vehicles, equipments and machines used.

The basis of most injury statistics is the lost time injury (L.T.I) frequency rate. However, it
must be appreciated as seen in the diagram below that for each fatal accident there have been
100 L.T.Ls, 1000 non-L.T.I.s, 10,000 near misses and 100,000 unsafe practices. An unsafe
practice is defined as either unsafe acts by employees (like the local national in Gabon who
used bunches of detonators as a rattle to enhance his dancing) or unsafe working conditions
(uninspected scaffolding).

ONE
FATAL
ACCIDNET
100 LTI'S

1000 NON-LTI'S

10,000 NEAR-MISSES
100,000 UNSAFE PRACTICES UNSAFE
ACTS & UNSAFE CONDITIONS

Safety plan and objectives

The future safety plan for the working crews must be developed for the project periods. The
future safety plan includes detailed tasks and targets for implementation of safety procedures,
equipments, trainings, contingency, etc. Most of the companies have set an ambitious target
of zero LTIs for their project works.
It is managements job to quantify safety targets and objectives in the following areas:
Instructions, rules or documents to be written or reviewed by specific dates
The frequency of safety committee meetings and other safety meetings
The frequency of inspections and audits
The frequency of contingency plan rehearsals
A schedule for construction of safety facilities and implementation of new
procedures

Safety inspection and audit programmed

A well-managed inspection program can help to identify problems and assess risks before
accidents or injuries occur. A proper inspection program can:

Identify potential problems.

Identify deficiencies in equipment and/or machinery.
Assess and determine the degree of compliance.
Demonstrate management support for the health and safety program.
The companys program should address the following points:
o frequency of inspections
o who conducts the inspection
o use of inspection checklists
o communication of inspection results
o follow up on corrective actions required
o retention/forwarding of inspection reports

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10 Safety Training
Training
Health and safety training is the foundation of a successful health and safety program. Such
training should give management, supervision, and workers an appreciation of their personal
responsibilities for health and safety within the framework of the minimum standards
outlined by legislation.
It is not, however, a question of training only new workers and apprentices. All levels of
management, from the president to site supervisors, must be involved in health and safety
training. In addition to the transfer of knowledge and skills, training promotes positive
attitudes and a culture in which all parties within a firm collaborate to establish and maintain
worksite health and safety. Management and supervision need training in such topics as
health and safety program planning and accident investigation. Workers need training in
specific health and safety topics such as PPE, ladders, scaffolding, equipments and work
practices that protect both themselves and those around them.
Training requirements that are common to most construction workers include.
WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System)
Fall Protection

11 Personal Equipment
Protective clothing is your first defense, against sun burn, insect bites, thorns, bristles and
even nettles. It is essential that all clothing and equipment used on the job does not itself
become a hazard to you. Therefore, there are some simple rules which you must follow with
regard to clothing and equipment to ensure that you are properly protected.
With regard to the extremities (hands and feet), all field crew members must wear suitable
safety shoes or boots. In areas where there is risk of ground snake bites you must ensure that
there is sufficient low leg protection from the boots, up to about mid calf. Drilling crew
members must wear safety boots. Gloves should be worn under most field conditions and
must be worn by drilling crew members, welders and welders helpers. The crew chief will
decide exactly who is to wear hard hats but in any event they must worn by at least drilling
crews and shooters.

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To protect your eyes, goggles or eye mask must be worn when buffing, grinding or chipping,
when spray painting or spraying chemicals and when operating a lathe, drilling press,
portable drill or other machine tools. When welding with the electric are, the welder must
wear a proper welders hood and his helper must wear goggles or a mask with flip-up colored
lenses backed with a clear lenses. Whenever welding, brazing or soldering with gas goggles
or mask must again be worn. Similarly when cutting with a gas torch. In general any helpers
and any other man working in the area must also have suitable eye protection.
Remember that Argon Laser and Argon Krypton Laser welding require special protective
lenses. Finally to protect your ears, should a sound level survey have been made on areas
where you might be exposed to damaging noise levels, you must wear ear defenders if the
noise, of the operations cannot be reduced.

12 Tools
In October 1990 one of the European crews that we were supervising had seven accidents in
its first operational week and the most serious one involved the head of a hammer flying off
the handle and hitting an employee on the head. The improper use of hand tools or the abuse
of them is a major cause of many minor but painful injuries. In general terms, always use the
correct tool for the job and replace the tools in their storage containers immediately after use.
Always replace worn parts and dispose of defective tools that cannot be repaired.
All electrical power hand tools must be double insulated or earthed. Three core cable must be
used and the plugs must be of the three prongs type to ensure earthling. In most Countries it
is a requirement by law that power tools operate on no, more than 110 volts. You must
therefore provide, where necessary, conversion of the local electricity to that required by the
hand tools. In addition all power tools must have proper guards and, if the guard has been
removed, do not use the tool.

13 Accident investigation and reporting

The prime objective of accident investigation is prevention. Finding the causes of an accident
and taking steps to control or eliminate it can help prevent similar accidents from happening
in the future. Accident can rarely be attributed to a single cause. Work environment, job
constraints, and supervisory or worker experience can all play a part. These factors must be
examined to determine what role each had in causing the accident.

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In order for an investigation to be a valuable tool in accident prevention, three things must
take place:
The information gathered must be analyzed;
Corrective action must be taken; and
The action must be monitored for effectiveness
Company health and safety programs should have the following items addressed in the
requirements regarding accident investigation:

What kinds of accidents must be investigated?

Who should investigate that?

What training should investigator have?

Who reviews the investigation report and follows up on any observations or

recommendations?

What should be investigated: All Lost Time Injuries?

All Medical Aid Injuries?

All with more than $ X in property damage?

Any with potential for serious injury or major financial loss?

When setting up an investigation make sure that you stick to the following guide lines:

Investigate properly.
Use as investigators those who have a real knowledge of the work situation.
Collect and record facts, note similar occurrences and investigate all relevant
background information.
State the objective as to prevent a similar accident happening again.
Identify the basic causes.
Recommend corrective action.

Once recommendations have been made they must be followed up and lessons learned
communicated not just within the local working environment but upwards and sideways
within the company and the industry. There is little point in keeping it to yourself when you
can prevent injury or death to someone else, somewhere else.

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Safety Motivation and Communication

Safety motivation should include a review of your company Health and Safety Policy and
Program to determine what further training and information the employee needs to do for job
safety. Companies should have clear requirements regarding the provision and use of PPE.

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These requirements should be effectively communicated to all affected employees. The

company should have a program in place to ensure that the requirements are being met.
Basic requirements
Most companies have basic requirements for PPE. For example, all persons on site
should be required to wear:

CSA Grade 1 Safety Footwear

CSA Class G or Class E Hard Hat

CSA Safety Glasses

Specialized requirements
Additional PPE or specialized PPE is often required. In some cases specialized PPE requires
specific training as well as regular maintenance and inspection. This may include:

Safety Vests

Respiratory Protection

Face Shields

Safety Harnesses

Goggles

Hearing Protection

Gloves

The Monthly safety operations meeting, Monthly Crew Safety Meeting, Weekly Crew Safety
Meeting, Daily toolbox meeting and filling Daily, weekly and Monthly Safety Checklist for
equipment will also help safety motivation.

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Contingency planning

The company shall establish Emergency Response Procedures for every project. This means
is that planning for emergencies must begin before any work commences on the project. A
quick and efficient response to an emergency will:

prevent the present situation from getting worse

protect workers and the public from further danger and injury

provide first aid to injured workers

protect material and equipment from further damage

isolate and secure the area to ensure that nothing is disturbed.

This element contains documents to help companies prepare for site emergencies, These
include emergency response steps and a checklist to identify the resources required on sites.
The following items should be addressed when preparing your emergencies response plan.

hazard identification/assessment

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emergency resources

communication system

administration of plan

emergency response procedure

communication of procedure

debriefing and post-traumatic stress procedure

Regarding the other key points, the companys emergency plan should identify
responsibilities, and any special training requirements.

Plans to cover actions in the event of anyone or all of the above emergency situations must be
in place from the start or any project. Furthermore, every member of the crew must know
what the standard plans and drills are and these plans must De rehearsed by all staff on a
regular basis.

But, it is most likely that you will never be able to reduce the risk to zero. Therefore, you
have to have plans in being to cater for the emergency situations. Remember that every
project has different needs and plans must be adapted to reflect local situations.