4. What training would you recommend for EACH type of worker on site at MOMO Parcels?

MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH AND SAFETY

UNIT GIC1
For: NEBOSH International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety and
 NEBOSH Interview Preparation

UNIT GNC1
For: NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety

SCENARIO

MOMO Parcels is a package distribution organisation with a depot site located on the edge of a large city. The workforce comprises of the depot manager, operations manager (OM), four shift managers, and eight supervisors. There are also 75 workers working across two shifts: a day shift and a night shift, operating seven days a week. MOMO used to have a second site, but because of financial difficulties within the last 12 months it was closed. This closure resulted in all workers at that site being made redundant, including the health and safety adviser for the overall organisation.

To adjust to this change, the shift lengths at the remaining site increased, becoming 06:00 to 17:00 and 20:30 to 06:00, with the site closing for three and a half hours a day. Every day, 100 outbound delivery vehicles collect parcels from the site to deliver to their final destinations. These vehicles are driven by self-employed drivers.

The site consists of a large yard area and a warehouse. The site operates a one-way system, with a single exit and entrance. Clear signage directs vehicles to either the front or back of the warehouse building, depending on if they are delivering parcels to the site for sorting, or collecting them for final delivery. The north side of the building has four loading bays, accessible for heavy goods vehicles; during the night shift, pallets of parcels are offloaded from these vehicles to undergo sorting. On the south side of the building, there is a large, tarmacked area with painted bays, and large doors into the building; outbound delivery vehicles park here while loading parcels for their delivery routes.

Workers move pallets stacked with parcels in cardboard packaging, from the vehicles into the warehouse, using manual pallet trucks. The parcels are then removed by hand from the pallets and put onto a conveyor belt. The parcels are positioned with their label facing upwards for identification. The cardboard often flakes off the parcels into tiny pieces during handling, microscopic pieces becoming airborne, while larger pieces fall to the ground.

The conveyor belt used to be made of rollers that required workers to manually move parcels along it. It was replaced with the automatic conveyor belt from the second site, shortly after that site was closed. The first time the new conveyor belt was used after it was relocated, workers were shown where the emergency stop button was, in case of an incident. Following this, they were allowed to begin working on it immediately.

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The new conveyor belt moves quickly, and some workers have raised concerns that it is moving parcels much faster than the previous one allowed. Sometimes, parcels get stuck in the side of the conveyor belt and pieces of packaging come apart, having to be manually removed. All of the conveyor belt workers have small cuts on their hands, whereas other warehouse workers have not received any cuts.

Workers along each side of the conveyor belt sort the parcels based on the label information and the delivery route that will need to be taken. The parcels are then placed into route-specific parcel bags that are kept on large shelving units nearby. The number of routes and bags needed has increased following the closure of the second site.

When the parcel bags are full, they are lifted into a roller cage and moved to a holding area for each route. One of the yearly risk assessments, that the depot manager has an external assessor provide, identified that two people would be needed to lift each full bag. The depot manager asked the supervisors to demonstrate to the workers how they should do this, and it became common practice. Recently however, individual workers often move the bags alone, before rushing back to the conveyor belt. Workers on the conveyor belt also used to rotate sweeping the warehouse floors and surfaces; however, this task is now rushed, or not completed at all.

During early morning loading activities, outbound delivery vehicles enter the site and queue in the tarmacked area; drivers then load up their vehicles, before leaving. With the increase in drivers and routes, dispatching parcels on time has become more challenging.

The depot manager was previously responsible for overseeing both sites for over 15 years. Even though there is now only one site, more workers are reporting feeling rushed and increasingly tired.

Several conveyor belt workers have also been complaining about suffering from dry throats and allergy symptoms, which has become a concern to their supervisors. Recently, a new accident book was requested because the current one was almost full. The depot manager reviewed the book and noticed that the latter half contained incidents occurring within the last 12 months; most of these were in relation to manual handling, and slips and trips. They ordered a new accident book, but in the past, it had taken several years before a new book was required.

The depot manager considers the issues raised by the workers and decides to focus on the health concerns first. They decide that they need a specialist cleaning contractor to carry out a deep clean of the warehouse every three months.

The contractor

Since the closure of the second site, the OM’s workload for the remaining site has increased. They used to walk around the warehouse several times a day. However, they now have to spend more time in their office completing paperwork, hoping that they will not have to work overtime; they only have time now to complete a walk around once a day, near the end of their shift at 17:00. Lately, they have been thinking about work so much that they have not been sleeping well. They try not to complain, as they know that the rest of the workforce has also been working hard.

When the depot manager decides that the OM will be responsible for finding a cleaning contractor, the OM tries to delegate this selection process to an alternative worker. However, they are not able to think of anyone with enough experience. Before looking for cleaning contractors, the OM retrieves the ‘Management of contractors’ procedure document to read, and then follows it.

They find a cleaning contractor on the internet who MOMO has not worked with before. On the contractor’s website, the OM quickly looks at some of the health and safety documents, and safety statistics, before deciding that the contractor is a good choice. The OM contacts them and schedules the cleaning work to take place the following week when the site is closed between shifts, and gives the contractor their contact details. On the scheduled day, the contractor arrives and is greeted by the OM, who unlocks the warehouse and takes them inside. The contractor offers to get their full safety records from their vehicle, but the OM assures the contractor that they have already read most of these online.

As the cleaning will happen underneath the conveyor belt, the OM had told a supervisor on the last shift to have the conveyor belt turned off and isolated. The OM quickly reconfirms that the contractor’s task will be today and issues them a permit-to-work (PTW), telling them that they only need to read the sections about the task, and how long they will be working. The contractor agrees that the work should only take two hours, as written on the PTW. They sign it, then begin cleaning the warehouse floor. The contractor soon realises that the job is taking longer than expected and tries to find the OM to discuss this. However, the OM was eager to finish work and has turned off their work mobile phone and left the site. The contractor is uncomfortable being alone on site, but as they have received fewer jobs lately, they decide to continue with this new customer’s job as quickly as they can.

At 19:50, the contractor takes a break in their vehicle (parked outside of the site), just before the night shift workers arrive. When the night-shift supervisor enters the warehouse, they see that the conveyor belt is isolated and go to check the PTW station. The permit is there and has not been closed; however, they cannot see the contractor on site and the work was due to end at 20:00. At 20:10, the night-shift supervisor signs off the PTW. They have never done this before, but they have watched the OM do this, and feel confident that they are doing it correctly. They then take off the isolation on the conveyor belt and restart it, before walking away to prepare other areas of the warehouse for the upcoming shift.

The contractor returns to the warehouse shortly afterwards and resumes cleaning. On the other side of the warehouse, the night-shift supervisor is talking to the night-shift manager, who has just arrived, when they hear a scream and run towards the sound. When the supervisor sees the cleaning contractor underneath the conveyor belt, they rush to hit the emergency stop button.

The night-shift manager arrives at the scene moments later, confirms that the conveyor belt has stopped, and sees that the contractor’s hair has been drawn into the mechanism, pulling part of their scalp away from their head. They begin using their first-aid training while the supervisor calls for an ambulance. They then cordon off the area, and once the contractor is taken away in the ambulance, the night-shift manager begins an investigation.


Task 1: Contractor Management

1

Discuss whether the cleaning contractor was managed well.

Note: Your answer must be based on the scenario only.

 (14)

 

Task 2: Health and safety leadership

2

Comment on the positive aspects of the depot manager’s health and safety leadership.

Note: You should support your answer, using relevant information from the scenario.

 (6)

 

Task 3: Assessing the permit-to-work (PTW) system arrangements

3

Comment on the application of the permit-to-work system at MOMO Parcels.

Note: Your answer must be based on the scenario only.

(10)

 

Task 4: Training recommendations

4

What training would you recommend for EACH type of worker on site at MOMO Parcels?

Note: Your answer must be based on the scenario only.

 (9)

 

Task 5: Identifying data used to monitor health and safety performance

5

Other than legal indicators, what information could be collected and used as health and safety performance indicators?

(12)

 

Task 6: Individual human factors

6

What individual human factors might have influenced the cleaning contractor’s behaviour?

Note: Your answer must be based on the scenario only.

(8)

 

 

Task 7: Level of incident investigation

7

Discuss what level of investigation (minimal, low, medium, high) is appropriate for this incident.

Notes: You should reference the likelihood and consequence criteria described in HSG245.
You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant information from the scenario.

(10)

 

Task 8: Incident investigation

8

What are the root causes of the incident?

Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant information from the scenario.

(14)

 

Task 9: Employer`s obligations

9

Employers have obligations under Recommendation 10 (a) of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO’s) R164 — Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation, 1981 (No. 164) and Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

How might these employer obligations not have been met at MOMO Parcels?

Note: Your answer must be based on the scenario only.

 

(7)

 

Task 10: Benefits of worker involvement

10

What are the likely benefits of worker involvement in workplace health and safety?

 (10)

 

End of assessment


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