Working at high level is not only an activity in manufacturing, construction and warehouses and that working high level safety has to be a consideration for farmers as shown by a case study highlighted by the Health and Safety Executive.
In the first example, a worker was cleaning a length of guttering running between two farm buildings. The weather was fine, so there was little risk of a slip, the roof had been boarded up to ensure the work could be carried out safely, but there was some pressure to get the job done quickly before the forecast heavy rain began.
Unfortunately despite all the precautions being in place and proper instructions having been given to the person doing the work, the farmer's son, he fell and had to be airlifted to hospital. He stepped back off the boards and onto a roof light that could not take his weight, something he could not explain afterwards.
The farmer has now added a safety harness and a back rail to the farm's safety equipment.
In many work places cleaning guttering and checking roofs is a regular routine piece of maintenance. Similarly cleaning out hard to reach roof spaces that can damage goods or materials being stored if there is a build-up of dust and dirt, need to be done at regular intervals.
If any such job needs to be tackled a risk assessment may reveal that expensive safety equipment is needed and if the company wants to use one of its owners to carry out the job it may need expensive, extra insurance. The worker also needs to be given the proper training to carry out the job.
All this requires good planning and organisation and may also involve ths hiring of suitable equipment.
A simple solution may be to bring in the specialists. Many commercial cleaning companies will be able to assess what is involved in the job and identify the correct safety equipment that needs to be in place.
It may be a lot more cost effective for a company to get in the experts to carry out high level cleaning perhaps once a year. It can have the additional benefit of ensuring the fabric of a building is in good repair and identifying any damage that needs to be dealt with but might not have been visible from a distance to prevent more expensive repairs later.
Commercial cleaning companies also offer reports and sign-off certificates that can be added to the company's records so that it can demonstrate that it has paid attention to the state of its premises and to the health and safety of its workers, which increasingly is documentation that insurance companies ask for and providing it can keep premiums under control.
Author Resource:
Peace of mind comes from using a specialist cleaning company to carry out a high level clean on work buildings without jeopardising worker safety or spending on hiring expensive equipment. By Ali Withers.
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