Safe Quarry - Health and Safety Authority

PART 2 SAFETY AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT
(b) there is a significant change in work equipment
or systems of work.
A person’s competence will decline if skills are not
used regularly.Training may,therefore,need to be repeated
periodically to ensure continued competence
in the skills that are not often used.Information
from personal performance, safety and health monitoring,
accident investigation and near-miss incidents
can help identify a need for additional training.
People working at a quarry must not undertake any
work for which they are not competent – except
under the careful instruction and supervision of a
competent instructor or supervisor. Operators of
equipment and mobile plant as listed in Schedule 1,
such as loading shovel drivers, or crane operators
etc, must receive accredited training as detailed in
the Schedule and a copy of the relevant certificate
or registration card should be held at the quarry.
There is a lead in period of 18 months from the date
of commencement of the regulations for skills
training set out in Schedule 1.
A person shall be deemed to be competent where,
having regard to the task he or she is required to
perform and taking account either of the size or the
hazards, or both, of the undertaking or establishment
in which he or she undertakes work, he or she
possesses sufficient training, experience and knowledge
appropriate to the nature of the work to be
undertaken.
In short, competency is the ability to apply knowledge,
understanding, practical and thinking skills to
achieve efficient and safe performance to the
standards required in employment. This includes
solving problems and being sufficiently flexible and
skilled to meet changing demands.
Everyone who works at a quarry must be properly
trained and have appropriate experience and
knowledge to enable them to do their work safely.A
few will need other qualities such as management
or interpersonal skills, or formal qualifications, for
example, geotechnical specialists, shotfirers and
explosives supervisors. Management training must,
where appropriate, include training in safety
management, risk assessment and developing and
using safe systems of work.
The risk assessments and occupational standards
should help to determine the safety and health
competencies for particular jobs. By comparing the
competencies needed against those that people
already have, managers can determine what
additional skills are required, and how these can be
achieved, for example, through training and
coaching.Care should be taken when using existing
workers for training.Such training can be useful, but
may also lead to bad practices and attitudes being
passed on to a new generation of workers, for
example, concerning the use of personal protective
equipment. Safety and health training is an important
way of developing competence and helps to
encourage safe working practices. It can contribute
positively to the safety and health culture, and is
needed at all levels, including top management.
Safety representatives selected and appointed in
accordance with Section 25 of the Safety,Health and
Welfare at Work Act 2005 must be allowed reasonable
time off from their duties to acquire knowledge
and skills to discharge their functions adequately.
11. INSTRUCTIONS, RULES AND
OPERATING PROCEDURES
(Regulation 14)
14. The operator shall -
(a) ensure that suitable instructions and operating
procedures are in place at the quarry with a view
to securing the safe use of work equipment,
(b) ensure that copies of all instructions, rules and
operating procedures required to be made under
these Regulations are kept at the quarry and
given to any person at work at the quarry to
whom they apply, and
(c) take all reasonable measures to ensure that each
person at work at the quarry understands the
instructions, rules and operating procedures made
under these Regulations that apply to that person.
The operator is required to prepare instructions, rules
and safe operating procedures. The aims of any rules
or operating procedures are to ensure the safety and
health of the quarry workforce and others that may be
at risk.These rules should be prepared where there is
a safety and health need,for example,those regarding
the wearing of safety helmets, and the implementation
of control measures based on risk assessment.
SAFE QUARRY GUIDELINES TO THE SAFETY, HEALTH AND WELFARE AT WORK (QUARRIES) REGULATIONS 2008 21