Workplace safety

Workplace safety includes all safety measures, rules and regulations set by the government. We would already like to emphasise the importance of employee participation at this point. The purpose of safety measures is to make the workplace safer. Their aim is to avoid accidents and provide protection against accidents. They are not only about prevention, but about protection as well. They have to provide a safe working environment for people, vehicles, infrastructure, machinery and buildings.

It is the employer’s responsibility to protect everything and everyone in the company properly. The Labour Act provides strict regulations organisations must follow in their operations. To ensure health and safety at work, employers must prioritise safety measures: from information and training to the installation of physical safety barriers. When they sign an employment contract with the employee, they guarantee that they will protect them.

Employers who do not meet the safety regulations can be held liable with disciplinary, civil or criminal penalties.

While employers are responsible for providing protection and clear safety policies, it is up to employees to follow these closely. Ultimately, everyone is responsible for respecting the workplace safety procedures and policies. By following the rules, everyone helps to reduce the risk of accidents.

In every warehouse, in every manufacturing environment, in every industry, there are risks that lead to accidents. We spend an average of 8 hours in the workplace. For that reason alone, the risk of accidents at work is higher there than in other places. Danger is always lurking around the corner. It is impossible to prevent accidents completely, but it is possible to make the workplace as safe as possible.

Identifying the risks in the workplace is not an easy task, but it is worthwhile. Risks depend on the type of industry, the type of work and environmental factors. A good way of identifying and analysing risks is the PEEPO method. Let's look at this in more detail.

The PEEPO method sets you well on your way to greater workplace safety. That is important because the consequences are not to be sneezed at! We think primarily of the consequences for workers in the event of an accident at work. Personal injuries are terrible and cause a lot of inconvenience, and not just in the short term. The psychological aspect also takes its toll. 

In addition to personal injuries, accidents can have a significant financial impact and lead to a drop in productivity. Consider the replacement or repair of critical machinery. Damaged utilities, buildings and infrastructure are also costly. Not to mention the cost of downtime due to damaged vehicles, buildings or infrastructure.

There is also the possibility that, as an employer, you may have to pay compensation to the victims if your safety provisions are found to be lacking. Your insurance premiums may also go up.

Recognising the risks and consequences of hazards in the workplace is one thing, but the most important step is to examine how you can prevent them. Because prevention is better than cure.

There are many steps you can take to improve workplace safety. Below, we present a roadmap that goes from preventive measures to safety barriers, the only safety measure that provides effective protection from impact.

• Perform a risk assessment

We spend a large part of our lives at work. It is therefore important that the working environment is safe for employees. A company must communicate any risks to its employees and use sufficient resources to enable all employees to do their jobs safely. Every worker has a right to protection. This means different things depending on the situation and needs. A risk assessment allows you to establish the initial safety focus areas and take the appropriate preventive measures. By assessing the work environment and observing how people work and interact with the equipment and each other, you can identify where accidents are likely to occur, where people or assets are at risk of harm, and where safety measures are lacking. Here are some investigative methods for carrying out a risk assessment.

• Establish a traffic plan

In addition to a risk assessment, you need a traffic plan. This plan identifies the different traffic flows and bottlenecks within your organisation. It provides insight into hazardous situations, such as areas where forklift traffic and pedestrian pathways cross. The traffic plan and risk assessment lead to recommendations for physical protection in the form of safety barriers to limit the damage in the event of an accident.

• Staff training

It is important to provide effective training to machine operators and to sufficiently involve other employees in the preparation of the safety measures. Prevention and training ensure that everyone understands and respects the measures. Training sessions such as safety presentations help to clarify the organisation's safety measures. Employees who have worked in your organisation for years, new employees and student workers all have a vested interest in being educated on the company's safety aspects. After all, safety is an issue that affects everyone in the organisation. The success of the introduced measures depends on everyone taking their share of responsibility.

• Apply pictograms and floor marking tape

In addition to the employee training and guidance, the signs implementing the safety principles in the workplace also play an important role. Prevention through signs reduces risk and makes it safer to move around hazardous areas. For example, you can make a hazardous area safer with pictograms and floor marking tape. In addition to the identification of hazardous areas, road markings also help to define lanes, pedestrian zones and vehicle zones. They are, in short, an effective prevention tool.

• Provide personal safety equipment

People working at height, handling heavy and bulky objects or using materials handling equipment are exposed to significant risks. It is therefore essential to provide those people with personal protective equipment that protect them in hazardous conditions.

When working at height, workers need a hard hat, strong harness, gloves, safety shoes ... In the chemical industry, safety goggles provide protection from hazardous products. This personal protective equipment is necessary, but does nothing to protect the building, infrastructure, vehicles or machinery. That is where your collective protective equipment comes in.

• Install collective protective equipment

Awareness, prevention and personal protective equipment are one thing, but you still depend on the goodwill and awareness of all employees to follow the rules. And even if your employees are exemplary when it comes to safety, there will always be circumstances causing them to deviate from the prescribed path.

To prevent serious accidents at work, you have to ensure overall safety with polymer safety barriers and other physical safety solutions. Physical safety barriers have two functions. They prevent accidents and they provide physical protection. Workers are more likely to notice the safety barriers and are encouraged to adopt a more cautious attitude. And if an accident does occur, the safety barrier provides optimal protection to pedestrians, infrastructure, buildings and vehicles.

Polymer safety solutions are available for a wide range of applications, sizes and situations. We summarise them for you here:

Safety and crash barriers are particularly useful for segregating different areas, preventing collisions between pedestrians and vehicles, maintaining a certain safe distance or preventing falls from height. In addition, fall protection or fall arrest devices can also be part of your company's safety solutions. They are very useful for guiding people and preventing people or objects from falling from a height.

Click here for more information on preventing falling objects.

Strategically placed bollards also improve workplace safety significantly. You can use polymer bollards to shield areas from vehicles, protect corners at entrances and block traffic flow without vehicles sustaining any damage in the event of a collision. This is also the strength of polymer bollards over their steel counterparts. In the event of a collision, there is little or no permanent damage to the bollard itself, to other infrastructure or to the vehicle. Placing them at vulnerable key points in your working environment can save you a lot of money.

There are also several types of safety gates. Sliding safety gates are a space saving solution for providing access to an area. There are also gates with a self-closing door that swings open or opens vertically. When the person has gone through it, the safety gate closes automatically, allowing all pedestrians to move safely within the work area. 

Tip: combine the safety gates with handrails at a loading dock or other entrances and exits, for instance.

You use racking protection and column and corner protection to prevent vehicles from damaging the building or goods. This type of protection forces forklift drivers to pay more attention to vulnerable infrastructure. If they do hit it, the impact protection will ensure that the racking and forklift are not damaged.