Legal Aspect of the Situation Regarding HSE

Question:

Describe the legal aspect of the situation regarding HSE and new guidelines in this purpose.

Answer:

Introduction:

The fact of the case is about Alexandra Johnson who is employed as a cook in a primary school. She is a very good kitchen staff and generally friends denote her as Alex. But in recent time people observed change in her behavioural pattern. The manager of the institution found that she came late to the work place and the smell of alcohol came out from her body. But the management could not prove that he consume alcohol in the working hours. The work pressure is very high on her. Two additional members of the kitchen are on leave. So, it’s became very stressful to her to work alone. In this situation manager of the institution tries to help her out from this situation but they are not achieved the desired goal. Cooking for children after alcohol consumption is very risky. The situation is risky for her health also because she is working in front of the fire. The authority find two major issue relating to its matter one is alcohol addiction of the employee and another one is the stressful work environment of the employee.

Legal aspect of the situation regarding HSE:

Legislation covers the matters of pressure at work is unexpectedly gradually. But no proper kind of legislations covers the matters gradually. Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 provides certain provisions in this regards. Section 2 states that there is a common responsibility upon all manager to make sure the health, protection and wellbeing at work place for all the workers as far as practicable (Robson et al., 2013). The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 is also an important legislation in this connection. Section 3 of this policy provides a duty on all of the employers to prepare an appropriate and adequate appraisal of the peril regards to fitness and safety of their employees, to which they are faced at work place. Employers have to make sure that there are appropriate organize method in work place to keep away from these perils wherever probable.  In the case where it is impossible to avoid the risk, the employee has to take necessary step in this regard. Safety representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 is the set of legislations along with the organization of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 provides protection legislature strong legally authorised right. Each and every employer must check any such security representative to construct and uphold actions so that workers can assist efficiently to endorse health and safety process in the place of work and make sure the efficiency of those methods properly.  There is another important piece of legislation which is helpful.   The Working Time Regulations 1988 is a legislation which helps to manage the working hours in the work place (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2012).  Extended hours and shift of work can obviously be connected to the matter of stress. The Working Time Regulations 1988 give a chart regarding the working hours and the maximum limit of working hours as well.

• The working hour should not be more than 48 hours and that period includes overtime. Even though workers may decide on that matter.
• The night shift hours must be of 8 hours.
• A regular rest time for minimum 11 hours is required for the employees.
• A week off the right of each and every worker in the association.
• A Break after every 20 minutes is required if the working hour is more than 6 hours a day.
• A week of paid leave per annum is required to every employee and it is mandatory under this Act.

New guidelines in this purpose:

On the other hand in the recent years the major steps are taken to comply with the health and safety issues in the work place. Employees always demand for the formal structures in this regards. The “Health & Safety Executive” provides new strategy on the trouble to assist employers to fulfil their legal responsibility (Robson et al., 2013). Its organization principles set out an arrangement presenting the factor of hazard assessment a corporation for pressure of work and other safety issues and also provide the procedure to tackle the issue. The Standards investigate several areas like:

• The amount of demands imposed on the employees;
• The height of direction to the employees on their job;
• The protection which the employee obtain from the employer and work mates;
• The clearness of a workers responsibility within the administration;
• The type of associations at workplace;
• The way that modifications are controlled.

The principles are intended to construct an arrangement that employers have the responsibility to take care of the level of stress to his employee. On the other hand as most manager and workers is acquainted with the fact that stress does not begin and end at the entrance of the work place. It is consequently practical to teach executive in marking the symbols of pressure in the work place, and aiding them to be trained to act understandingly to the people when they faced the stress and discomfort in the work place (Donoghue, 2001).

Application of the duty of care in case of Alex:

After the discussion of the provision of the regulations and general duties of employer we can a summary of employer’s duty.

The employer must ensure health and safe work place for each and every employee. Along with that the employer has certain other duties like:

Proper maintenance of the work place and check all the health and safety measures in the work place. The employer has the duty to ensure all the safety in the work place.

The employer must provide data, instruction, and training to the employee so that they can overcome the risk (Hollinshead, 2010).

As far it is possible the employer should maintain the entire necessary step to provide the all kind of protection to the employees.

The employer has the duty to provide nice and favourable working environment to the employee which create stress free surroundings of work.

So in this case, the employer of Alex has the responsibility to provide a stress free work environment to her. If the other co staffs are absent, they can appoint temporary staffs on that basis to provide assistance to Alex. The employer has the duty to get the knowledge about the matter of stress and the reason for alcohol consumption. If the reason is stress they have to reduce the working pressure according to the health and safety regulations (Collings and Wood, 2009).

But the reason is not stress the employer can send her to counsellor for mental stability. Along with that they can advice her not to take alcohol during working hours because it will create a danger to her life as she is working in front of the fire. Even if she did not consume alcohol in the working hour, it is the duty of the employer to ensure that she should not consume and come to the office (Gilmore, 2009).

The employers can ensure certain rules and regulation which will increase the safety in the work place.

HR needs to take good communication skill and maintain the confidentiality to the matter. The HR need to take more flexible approach in this regard.

HRM Policies:

Underlying effectual human resources organization strategy is partnership on plan between HR and the association management, for the reason that the achievements of the company depends on the human resources. Wellbeing comprises something that is prepared for relieve and development of human resources and relates to the wages of the employees. Welfare assists in obtaining the confidence and inspiration of the workers so as to keep hold of the workers for long time period (Brewster, Sparrow and Vernon, 2007). The welfare events are not in financial terms merely but in any other kind or forms. Worker wellbeing comprises checking of working circumstances, formation of manufacturing synchronization during communications for health, manufacturing associations and indemnity against illness, disaster and joblessness for the employees and their family unit.There is certain HRM policy in this connection to ensure the heath and safety in the work place. We can discuss certain best HRM policy in this connection.

Programme relating to heath issues:

The programme must comprise of various activities which covers different issues of a human lifestyle. It includes the diet of the person, drinking and smoking habits and other physical activities of the employee. The employer must appoint any senior staff member to look after the matters. It can be a best policy for a people who are suffering from any kind of stress and other kind of issues. This is the most effective policy for the shorter period of time but it has a great impact on the employee. It can work like a re-energising session for the employee (Donoghue, 2001).

Programme relation mental health:

The employer can establish different programme for the reduction of the stress in the work place. It can provide the therapy and other diagnosis to the people who are suffering from the mental distress from the use of drug and alcohol consumption. This procedure is very helpful for providing the proper mental counselling and assistant to the patient (Robson et al., 2013).

Organisational approach:

This is for the also kind o HRM approaches mental wellness and support to the employee.

Recommendation for enforcement of proper heath care system in the work place:

The employers must firstly asses the organisational as well as individual issues in their respective institution.

The organisation must plan different related programme for the support of the health and safety issues in the work place.

The employer must construct different activities and programme relates to the proof and evidences collected from the work place about the employees.

The employer must ensure he organisational level programme to increase the awareness in the employees regarding the health and safety issues in the work place.

The awareness must be included the matters of physical heath as well as the mental health (Brewster and Mayrhofer, 2012).

The organisation must include individual interactive session which can increase the level of knowledge about the mental health, physical health, diet, drinking and smoking habit.

The employer must encourage the implementation of social networking support system in the workplace.The major duty of the employer is to develop and analyse the existing provisions and construct health promotions so that the system enhanced and the employee get benefit from the provision (Beardwell and Claydon, 2010).

By the above discussion we get to know the fact that the HRM policy is that policy which can help the employee in the bad conditions. The HRM policy must be made in that way which will help the employee. In this case study Alex suffers lots of stress in the work place which can be dangerous for her health and safety as well. So, in this regard as a manager I can suggest that Alex must be given counselling for the mental stress. We can adopt the above mentioned policies to reduce the burden from Alex. The HR manager must consult with her about the problem in work place and regarding her job satisfaction because she is a very serious and nice employee of the institution. If, the institutional issues bother her, it is a duty of the employer to reduce the. The burden and working hour must not exceed the limit prescribe under law and along with that the employer must take a note that he can get adequate rest in the work place.

Conclusion and recommendations:

The counselling and physical activity and therapy is required to Alex to reduce the drinking habit of her. Those HRM policies can help her to get out of the situation and encourage her to provide adequate concentration to the work place. The programme relates to mental health issues and physical health issues are most effective for Alex. It will increase her confidence and release her stress. But before apply anything the employer need to appoint at least one associate with her to reduce the work burden in this case.

References

1. Badri, A. (2015). The Challenge of Integrating OHS into Industrial Project Risk Management: Proposal of a Methodological Approach to Guide Future Research (Case of Mining Projects in Quebec, Canada). Minerals, 5(2), pp.314-334.
2. Badri, A., Nadeau, S. and Gbodossou, A. (2012). Proposal of a risk-factor-based analytical approach for integrating occupational health and safety into project risk evaluation. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 48, pp.223-234.
3. Beardwell, J. and Claydon, T. (2010). Human resource management. Harlow, England: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.
4. Brewster, C. and Mayrhofer, W. (2012). Handbook of research on comparative human resource management. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
5. Brewster, C., Sparrow, P. and Vernon, G. (2007). International human resource management. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
6. Collings, D. and Wood, G. (2009). Human resource management. London: Routledge.
7. Donoghue, A. (2001). A risk-based system to penalize and reward line management for occupational safety and health performance. Occupational Medicine, 51(5), pp.354-356.
8. Gilmore, S. (2009). Human resource management. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Pr.
9. Hollinshead, G. (2010). International and comparative human resource management. London: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
10. Kramar, R. and Syed, J. (2012). Human resource management in a global context. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
11. Marchington, M. and Wilkinson, A. (2012). Human resource management at work. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
12. Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A. and Sargeant, M. (2002). People management and development. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
13. MATSUMOTO, T. (2010). Current Situation and Risk-Based Approach to Safety of Machinery.Roudou Anzen Eisei Kenkyuu, 3(1), pp.37-46.
14. Mondy, R., Noe, R. and Gowan, M. (2011). Human resource management. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall.
15. Robson, L., Schulte, P., Amick, B., Stephenson, C. and Irvin, E. (2013). Response to Weinstock and Slatin’s (2012) Critique of IWH-NIOSH Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of OSH Training.NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, 23(2), pp.227-232.
16. Robson, L., Stephenson, C., Schulte, P., Amick, B., Irvin, E., Eggerth, D., Chan, S., Bielecky, A., Wang, A., Heidotting, T., Peters, R., Clarke, J., Cullen, K., Rotunda, C. and Grubb, P. (2011). A systematic review of the effectiveness of occupational health and safety training. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 38(3), pp.193-208.
17. Wilkinson, A. (2009). The SAGE handbook of human resource management. Los Angeles: SAGE.