JULY EDITION

YOUNG
PEOPLE
ON OUR
WORKS
eight2O have a growing number of ‘Young Person’s’ (over school
leaving age, but not yet 18) working across its sites. We must
ensure that we are managing their site involvement and protect
them from potential hazards.
It is generally accepted that a ‘Young Person’ will not have the
same level of hazard awareness as others in your team. Therefore,
the following must be considered before putting them to work;
• The layout of the workplace;
• How they will handle work equipment;
• How the work and processes are organised;
• The extent of health and safety training needed/recieved
• Risks from particular agents, processes and work.
Young Persons: An Assessment of Risk
A risk assessment covering all activities must be carried
out before allowing a young person to work on your site.
Once complete this must be reviewed by your H&S Advisor.
When completing this, consider;
• The inexperience and immaturity of the young person;
• Their lack of awareness of risk;
• The nature and exposure to COSHH;
• The range and use of tools and equipment
• Any health and safety training e.g. site induction and TBT’s
• The tasks they are expected to carry out.
For more information speak to your H&S Advisor and make sure
they are aware of any ‘young persons’ starting on site.
IN THE
COURTS
Record
breaking fine
£1 million
A sewage treatment company has been fined for failing to prevent
incidents occurring, after 6 million litres of sewage spilled into the River
Ouse.
The works require 3 pumps to cope with the volume of sewage and a
backup in case these fail. For 5 months in 2013 the backup pump was out
of action. As a result, in August 2013, when one of the pumps failed, the
remaining pumps could not support the volumes.
The Environment Agency followed the incident up in 2014 and
discovered that again the backup pump was out of action and had not
been replaced. This led to the courts fining the company for failing to
implement pollution prevention measures.