Winter & Company stresses the importance of ensuring health and safety at work

Winter & Company is a leading health and safety consultancy firm in UK, managed by a group of very experienced and highly talented technicians and headed by Mitchell Winter, TechIOSH and Managing Director of the Company. Winter & Company is known throughout the industry for providing excellent health and safety consultancy services. Mitchell Winter stresses the importance of ensuring health and safety at work. He also emphasizes the importance of adhering to the rules and regulations as laid down by the government.

The UK government has made it mandatory for all the employers to make sure that they maintain certain norms and standards for the safety and health of their employees. The Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states that the employers must follow the strict guidelines as laid down by the government. The Act prescribes various measures that the employers need to take to provide for the health and safety of their employees. If they employers do not comply with the directions as laid down by the Act, they are liable to be severely punished for it.

There are different aspects of health and safety that the employers as well as employees have to look after. As soon as a new employee joins the company, the employers have an obligation to inform them of the company’s health and safety measures and policies. The initial introduction includes a health and safety training session and fire drills etc to let the employees get familiar with the potential risks and hazards that they might face in the company and the ways to counter those risks and hazards in an emergency. If it is a factory where the employee might have to lift and shift goods on a daily basis, the employers must provide the employee with manual handling training. The manual handling training program would help the employee to know how to lift and shift goods properly in a systematic way without causing any injury to the body. The program also includes training on handling lifting and shifting equipments likes cranes, trolleys etc.

Fire drill and fire safety is another very important part of any organization. There should be proper systems in place to prevent fire and also various equipments and escape plans in case of a fire. The employees must be informed if there are any risk factors that need to be look after while at work. They should be given proper training to prevent any fire. They should also be trained to protect themselves in case of a fire emergency by following the company’s fire escape plan. The employers must do a risk assessment to determine the threats and dangers that the employees might face while at work. In case the company deals with chemicals etc, the company should be audited and assessed for Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. It should adopt proper measures to make the company disable friendly. The employers must also carry out a risk assessment for Stress, young persons at work, lone workers, new and expectant mothers, disabled people etc.

The employees have an equal responsibility to ensure their health and safety at work. They should follow the guidelines of the company’s health and safety plan. The employers can consider hiring a health and safety consultant to carry out the general risk assessment. Health and safety consultants in UK also provide various healthy and safety training programs for companies and help them implement the guidelines as mentioned in the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974.