A New Focus on Health & Safety
The Team has recently welcomed Seonaid Scott as Health
& Safety Adviser. Seonaid has worked in several other local
authorities and is looking forward to working with all her
colleagues to improve Health & Safety. Staff at Kelliebank have
welcomed Osagi Okounghae as Health & Safety Officer, and a
trainee Health & Safety Officer is also currently being recruited
to the central team. manager, but there is also the
opportunity for issues to be
raised at service
bi-partite meetings as well
as the Operational Health &
Safety Forum that is currently
being set up.
A revised Health & Safety Policy is currently being discussed
by CMT. This outlines the roles and responsibilities held by
employees at all levels in the Council. Once it has been agreed,
you should have a meeting with your manager who will
explain the responsibilities that you have. Having a common
understanding of who is responsible for what will really help us
to start to improve the Safety Culture across the Council. The Health & Safety Team
also worked with the
Trade Unions to promote
European Health & Safety
Week.
All senior managers have now attended updated Health and
Safety training and are IOSH training. Trade Unions are also
undertaking walk-about sessions so that staff can raise any
concerns or questions with representatives.
While it is up to managers to ensure that the workplace is safe,
all employees have a legal duty to ensure that they comply with
the measures put in place to ensure the health and safety of
staff, service users and other members of the public.
Employees also have a duty to report anything they feel is
unsafe, whether this is an incident, a piece of machinery, or a
working method. Initially, this should be raised with your line
Dana and Julia Smell Danger
and Take Action
Two members of staff took action and helped stop a potentially
serious gas leak from putting the lives of their colleagues at risk
recently.
Dana Scjalokaite and Julia McVey went in to the basement
at Marshill to clear up some materials from the elections. As
they entered, they smelt a strong smell of gas. The building
was evacuated and the Scottish Gas engineer was called out.
He confirmed that there was indeed a leak, and without the
employee’s action the gas would have built up in the basement.
Dana recalled: “We were not sure if what we could smell was
really gas or not, and when the building was evacuated I
panicked a little bit, thinking what if it’s not gas and we just told
people to leave the building and how stupid it will be if it’s not
gas! But when the gas engineer arrived and confirmed it was,
I was really glad that we went to Marshill that day and found
the leak, as we were thinking about going the week after, who
knows what would have happened then.”
Well done to Dana and Julia for their quick thinking and for
speaking up about a hazard they encountered.
Grapevine
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