SCENARIO
Ritzy Printing (RP) is a printing company. The workforce consists of 80 workers, an early shift manager (ESM) a late shift manager (LSM) and a managing director (MD). The organisation is generally very busy and regularly takes on workers on short-term (temporary) contracts. The temporary workers carry out various print-related tasks. RP currently has a very large order for some brochures, and the delivery date is due very soon. You have just joined the organisation as their health and safety adviser. The previous adviser retired two months ago.
The MD has decided that, because of the tasks the temporary workers carry out, a brief induction session covering the organisation’s history is considered sufficient. As the temporary workers carry out many different tasks (for which there is no job description) they are shown how to do the tasks when required, by one of the permanent workers. Once the temporary workers have been shown what to do, they are left to carry out the tasks by themselves.
Due to an increase in sickness absence, extra temporary workers have been recruited. The MD is keen to get these new workers started and keep to the target of all deliveries out on time. The MD offers all workers a bonus as an incentive, if all deliveries are out on time. If this target is achieved the bonus will be paid at the end of the year to all those workers employed at the time.
The ESM starts to allocate tasks to the temporary workers. These tasks are in the busiest areas of the organisation, where the most help is required.
A young temporary worker, who started with RP the previous week, has been tasked with monitoring one of the print runs (which involves a series of large printers, each of which prints a different colour onto the pages passing through them) in the printing department. The role of keeping the printers running would normally be carried out by a competent worker, so the young temporary worker is told that if there are any issues to let the ESM know. There is signage on the printers supporting this, which states ‘No clearing printer jams without authorisation and isolation of power’.
Towards the end of the shift, one of the rollers in a printer seems to be jammed. The young temporary worker is unsure what to do. They lift the interlocking guard (a guard that when in place prevents the machine from operating) to check if they can see what is jamming the roller. They do see what the problem is and go to find the ESM. When they cannot find the ESM, they decide to unjam the printer themselves, as they think this will be helpful. As the young temporary worker clears the printer jam, the printer unexpectedly restarts, trapping the worker’s hand between the printer rollers. A second temporary worker is walking by as the accident happens and immediately calls the emergency services, as they do not know what else to do.
The injured young temporary worker manages to get their hand free from the rollers but is in considerable pain. The second temporary worker leads the injured worker to reception where a firstaider carries out emergency first aid.
When the paramedics arrive, they assess the injury and then take the young temporary worker to hospital. You see the ambulance leave as you arrive for work, so go to find out what has happened. Initially, you ask the first-aider if you can take a statement from them. They agree, so you go to find somewhere more private to carry out the interview. The second temporary worker returns to the printing department.
As soon as the ESM hears what has happened, they arrange for the printer to be restarted. The ESM then telephones the MD, who is off site, meeting a perspective customer. The MD is annoyed by the interruption. The MD tells the ESM that as the early shift has nearly finished, they should investigate the accident the following morning. The MD also asks if the print run has recommenced. The ESM knew the MD would ask this and is pleased to be able to tell them that it has.
The LSM has arrived for their shift and is told by the ESM that there has been an accident, but it has been dealt with and the printer is operating as normal.
You have finished taking the first-aider’s statement and, assuming the ESM will have started the investigation, you go to the printing area to see how it is progressing. You ask the ESM if they saw what happened. The ESM confirms that they did not, and that the MD has told them to investigate in the morning. You are surprised by this. You ask where the accident happened and are pointed towards the print run that is in operation. Confused, you ask why the accident scene has not been preserved. The ESM explains that there is a very tight deadline with the current order and there was nothing to see. During their interview, the first-aider mentioned that another temporary worker witnessed the accident. You ask the ESM where that worker is now, and they reply that the worker will have gone home as their shift has finished. The ESM then leaves for the day.
The LSM is keen to help with the investigation, so you ask them for the existing health and safety documentation. They say that all the risk assessments were completed by your predecessor, and they are not sure where the risk assessments are. They do, however, provide you with the maintenance log for the printer involved; the last entry logged was in December 2019. You recommend that the printer is taken out of commission and not used until the investigation is completed, but the LSM tells you that the MD has given instructions for the print run to continue.
Human Resources (HR) have provided you with a telephone number for the temporary worker who witnessed the accident. You telephone them and ask if they are okay. The worker explains that what they saw was very upsetting. They ask how the injured worker is. You reply that you still need to speak to the hospital, but you will keep them updated. You ask the worker to describe what happened. You thank them for answering your questions and say that you will talk to them again when they are back at work. After this, you get an update on the injured worker’s condition. You plan to go to the hospital later to speak to the injured worker.
You return to your office and search for filed risk assessments. You eventually find one for the printer which is dated 2017. It covers the use of the printer but does not cover how printer breakdowns are fixed. You return to the LSM and ask if the printers frequently jam, and if there is any additional documentation that covers how to unjam the printers. The LSM replies that the printers do jam and, as far as they are aware, the previous health and safety adviser was working on a safe work method for this
RP was later found guilty of contravening International Labour Organisation R164 - Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation,1981 (No. 164). They were fined €20000 and ordered to pay costs of €8547.60.
Task 6: Human factors contributing to the accident with the printer
Solution:
Following individual human factors could have contributed in poor health and safety behaviour of employee:
- Lack of experience of the young temporary worker could have contributed in the poor health and safety behavior of the employees.
- The young temporary employee is likely to have insufficient knowledge about the potential hazards at the workplace due to poor induction training. This might have contributed to the poor health and safety behavior of the workers.
- When it comes to health and safety behavior, attitude of the employee is very important. If the young employee’s attitude towards his work is not safe, this can be a major part in poor health and safety behavior of worker.
- The temporary worker has short term interests with the company. So, he is likely to have low level of motivation for his job and this could have lead to poor health and safety behavior of the worker.
- As the injured worker in the scenario is young, there is a question about his mental and physical maturity. Lack of mental or physical maturity could have led to the poor health and safety behavior.
- Due to above factors, we can say that risk perception is increased by experiences. But that young worker lacks experience and this could have led to poor health and safety behavior of employee.
- Poor health and safety behavior of an employee can be caused by the use of alcohol or other substance misuse at work and could have led to this accident.
- Not all employees have same pressure handling ability. The work related pressure due to tight deadlines could have caused employee behave unsafely.
- When it come to poor health and safety behavior, employees age is an important factor. Young workers are prone to more mistakes due multiple factors linked with age like experience, knowledge etc.
- Self-interest of the worker is very important to discuss for poor health and safety behavior of employee. If an employee does not believe personal safety important, this can lead to poor HSE behavior.
- Worker might have been suffering from some domestic problem but employer did not know about that being a temporary employee. But this can seriously affect the HSE behavior of the employee.
- Overconfidence can be a cause of the poor health and safety behavior. Sometimes young workers or even experienced workers believe that they can’t be hurt by this little task and this confidence lead to poor HSE behavior.
- Temporary worker may also have an urge to prove himself a good worker in front of his manager and this could have led him to demonstrate unsafe health and safety behavior.
- Lack of situation awareness by the employee could have cause this poor health and safety behavior of the employee injured.
- Memory of the employee can also be factor of importance when it comes to poor health and safety behavior. Maybe the employee had received the instructions about this task but he had forgotten.
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