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Making the Management System Work – The Health and Safety Policy 2.2

Introduction to Health and Safety Policies

Health and safety policy gives direction to an organisation by setting priorities, the policy shall
have effect in organisation’s framework so that everyone associated with the organisation is
aware of health and safety aims and objectives, the detailed arrangements and the standards
that are established to protect business, employees and others who might be affected by
business undertakings.

The policy should influence decision made by the organisation, hence decision from the top
management should influence on allocation of resources and setting standards for health and
safety; the middle management must ensure that the decisions made by them meets the aims of
the policy and does not deviate from the sets aims and objectives.

When it comes to health and safety it always differs from each organisation and there is no
standard format. The aims, the hazards and risk the control measures applied may differ from
each organisation, hence the policy must be customized to fit individual organisation.
For example: the risk involved in a construction company may vary from the risk involved in a
supermarket. The aims and objectives are different for each organisation.

The policy empowers the organisation to disseminate the commitment and its approach to
health and safety.

Standards and Guidance

The ILO Occupational Safety and Health Convention, C155, sets principles for the national
policy of members, with the aim of preventing accidents and injury to health arising out of,
linked with, or occurring in the course of work, by minimizing, so far as is reasonably
practicable, the causes of hazards inherent in the working environment.

The convention requires each member to:

• formulate, implement, and periodically review a coherent national policy on occupational
safety, occupational health, and the working environment.
• take account of national conditions and practice; and
• develop the policy in consultation with the most representative organisations of employers
and workers.

Each member’s national occupational safety and health (OSH) policy should take account of:

• the design, testing, choice, substitution, installation, arrangement, use and maintenance of
the material elements of work (workplaces, working environment, tools, machinery and
equipment, chemical, physical, and biological substances and agents, work processes)
• relationships between the material elements of work and the persons who carry out or
supervise the work, and adaptation of machinery, equipment, working time, organisation
of work and work processes to the physical and mental capacities of the workers.
• training, including necessary further training, qualifications and motivations of persons
involved, in one capacity or another, in the achievement of adequate levels of safety and
health.

ENSIGN| Unit IG1 – Element 2 – How Health and Safety Management systems Work and What They Look Like 6