Trained in recognizing and categorizing safety hazards in a workplace
Being a person trained in recognizing and categorizing safety hazards in a workplace (in addition to being able to make recommendations to minimize those hazards), you have been invited into a local business establishment (by the owner) who is looking for some guidance in setting up a Health and Safety Program.
The business is a gas station with an attached restaurant and convenience store. The owners are a middle-aged couple who bought the business about three years ago. There has been no money invested in the business for about the last ten years.
Some General Comments:
Regarding the gas bar, the only recent injury occurred just before the current owners bought the business; an employee slipped on ice and fell (resulting in one week on Workers Compensation). The workers have reflective vests to wear (to increase their visibility to traffic) and have been told to wear protective footwear, but neither regularly happens.
Regarding the restaurant, there are minor injuries on a monthly basis (minor cuts and burns in the kitchen). Nobody needs any time off, but staff are complaining about the age of tools, fixtures (e.g., lighting, and ventilation), noisy mixers that seem to vibrate more than they should, and the emergency fire equipment that nobody seems to know how to use (or if it works at all!!). Also, although they have been told that they should keep the floors and counters in the cooking area clean (for hygiene and safety reasons), clean-up activities usually don’t happen until the end of the day when the restaurant closes.
Regarding the convenience store portion of the business, injuries are minimal and rare (except for the occasional sore back resulting from moving stock from the storeroom to the shelves), but staff complain about the lonely night shifts. In addition, there was a robbery about two years ago which staff still talk about. Staff have complained about how easy it would be to rob the store, but they also complain that nobody seems to care what they think.
Overall, there are rarely injuries, despite complaints about the general condition (cramped, blocked hallways, worn flooring, and dark) of the loading docks where staff unload trucks with stock for the restaurant. But after the restaurant had to be evacuated last week because of intense fumes (a staff member mixed two different cleaning compounds together to clean the bathroom floors), the owner decided that something needed to be done. They have no formal safety training and they don’t know their own business’ equipment well enough to do the training themselves, so they called you for some recommendations.
Your Assignment:
Use the material discussed in this course to explicitly describe (with respect to each area of the business): i) how to identify the hazards, ii) how to categorize the hazards (should applicable categories exist), iii) recommendations how to deal with the hazards (e.g., eliminate, minimize, or control).
