The Health and Safety Environment in the Recruitment Industry

Date: June 08, 2009

Health and safety awareness and assessments could prevent temporary worker deaths argues Alan Ratcliffe, of Ratcliffe Management Consultancy. In this informative article he highlights the need for the recruitment industry to take health and safety responsibilities seriously...

In February of last year, a temporary worker arrived at his assignment at a refuse depot in the South of England. A truck arrived at the depot and the worker began to carry out his job of unloading the rubbish. A forklift truck, used for lifting the bins, was parked nearby with the keys in the ignition so he asked his co-worker and best friend to drive the forklift in order to continue their duties. Despite being unqualified and having no formal training on how to operate a forklift truck, the co-worker obliged.

The forklift was used to elevate the temporary worker onto the loading bay, a very unsafe practice. Unfortunately, the temporary worker fell, impaling his leg on the forks. His colleague then panicked and jerked the truck forward causing further intensive injuries. The temporary worker suffered massive bleeding to his leg and later died in hospital.

The affects of an incident such as this on any recruitment business could be disastrous, from a reputation, moral and financial perspective. In this particular incident, a representative from the agency had to inform the partner of the deceased man that her young child's father had been killed. In addition to this the company could face prosecution under the new Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act and receive a civil claim from the worker's family.

The media have placed much focus and often attributed blame on ‘Health and Safety legislation' for prohibiting seemingly trivial activities such as children playing conkers. However, there remains a need for all businesses to comply with this legislation and ensure their staff and those they come into contact with are healthy and safe.

The recruitment industry is a sales driven business and as a result may consider health and safety merely an occasional hindrance. However, there are hazards in every workplace and all businesses have a duty of care towards their branch staff and temporary workers.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) consider recruitment agencies have a duty of care to ensure they place temporary workers into assignments that are deemed to comply fully with health and safety regulations.

Alan Ratcliffe, Managing Director of Ratcliffe Management Consultancy, has been working as a health and safety consultant within the recruitment industry for 15 years. Mr Ratcliffe has witnessed a significant increase in health and safety activities within the UK. Mr Ratcliffe said: "Recently I was involved in a situation whereby a worker was sent on an assignment and he was injured within two hours of starting his job. The response from the HSE stated if his injuries had been more serious (than a broken bone) both the recruitment agency and the client would have faced prosecution due to reasons of inadequate training by the client and negligence from the agency for their failure to enforce appropriate training."

There is an obligation for any business under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations to fully asses any working environment and put measures in place to reduce risks. A branch can implement this fairly easily, providing an employee has been trained on how to conduct a suitable risk assessment. However, conducting risk assessments within the workplace of a client requires a much greater level of training and expertise.

Mr Ratcliffe comments on the main issues affecting recruitment businesses in relation to health and safety: "Two issues which are becoming increasingly problematic for businesses is the assessment relating to cars and home working. Many customers are asking for flexible workers to be mobile and use their own vehicles for work purposes. This presents a major hazard, as it is very difficult to monitor all vehicles and ensure they are fully compliant ion areas such as insurance, tax and roadworthiness. In the nightmare scenario whereby a flexible worker is involved in a fatal accident and is found to be uninsured, the employer will be liable, in the case of a flexible worker both the client and the recruitment businesses could face liability charges.

"Homeworking is another problematic area. Recruiters are often asked whether a flexible worker could work from home. However, the worker will still fall under the Health and Safety at Work Act and the employer has an obligation to assess risks and reduce to a minimum. The same issues apply whereby it would be virtually impossible for a client or recruitment business to assess every flexible employee's home on a regular basis to ensure they are compliant."

The health and safety industry is very well regulated and there are excellent consultants and trainers offering their services. Many health and safety professionals are trained in high-risk industries, such as construction or manufacturing, where safety is a major priority. However, here is a danger that they do not fully understand the demands of a recruitment industry and their assessment could be lengthy, over complicated and not linked into the demands of the business. This process can create unnecessary time and cost.

Indeed the HSE is recognising that small low-risk businesses need to be treated differently from large high-risk companies, especially within the construction and manufacturing sector.

In May agency workers will receive equal treatment to full time workers. This will increase the onus upon recruiters to: -

1. Liaise with clients to identify health and safety risks

2. Identify skills, qualifications and training necessary for agency labour

3. Any personal protective equipment and who will supply it. There is an implication that, where the agency is the employer PPE must be provided free by the agency

4. Cooperate with the client to ensure that relevant information and arrangements to protect workers are in place

5. Ensure workers supplied are given the appropriate information about the health and safety risks before they commence work for the client.

Alan Ratcliffe is a civil engineer by profession with the early part of his career spent in high-risk industries such as construction and quarrying. He has been a director in the recruitment sector for fifteen years. He established the health and safety department within the Pertemps Group and has now set up his own consultancy specifically to provide health and safety consultancy and training services to the recruitment sector.

Article reproduced by kind permission of Alan Ratcliffe, Ratcliffe Management Consultancy