SCENARIO
Keystone Hardware (KH) is a hardware store located in a retail park just outside a large town. It opened 10 years ago. Areas that are only open to the workers include a large warehouse, offices, worker toilets and rest area, and two greenhouses (see supporting document 1). The public areas consist of a large sales floor, two large outdoor areas surrounded by perimeter fencing, a small café and customer toilets. In these two outdoor areas there are small sections that have an awning covering them. These areas are where smaller, packaged supplies are displayed on shelves and stands. The outdoor areas are accessed via automatic doors at the rear of the store. There is a car park outside with a wide paved pathway leading to the store entrance; both areas are well-lit and well-maintained. On entering the store, to the left is the café area and customer toilets. There is an access road to the rear of the warehouse for deliveries, and areas for customer collections to the front of both outdoor areas.
There are several departments in the store selling a large range of items. These departments include: Gardens and Landscaping (items ranging from large ceramic pots to small plastic pots, garden ornaments and potted plants of various sizes), Building Materials (including items such as 25kg bags of cement, sand and gravel, wood of various sizes, fixtures and fittings), Heating and Plumbing (selling radiators and portable heaters, fires and fire surrounds, and boilers). KH also sells workwear and tools, including lawnmowers, cement mixers and small, boxed hand tools, and offers a woodcutting service.
KH is open to the public 7 days a week, Monday – Saturday 08:00 – 20:00, and Sunday 10:00 – 16:00. The store employs 80 workers including three managers. The store manager (SM) manages the whole store team, as well as having specific responsibility for all the indoor areas. They are new to the role having joined KH from a competitor just a few months ago. Two other managers report to the SM, these are the building materials manager and the garden manager. The building materials manager is responsible for outdoor area 2, the warehouse and the delivery area at the rear of the store; and the garden manager is responsible for outdoor area 1.
KH is always busy with customers at weekends, but especially now, while there are price reductions on radiators, gas fires and fire surrounds. This has resulted in workers being inundated with requests for help with the loading of these heavy items into customers’ cars.
The warehouse and delivery area
The warehouse is well-organised, with strong racking and clearly marked-out pedestrian walkways. The delivery area for vehicles is limited in size and is located between the access road and the warehouse. There are two forklift trucks and ten pallet (pump) trucks that operate in this area. All equipment is kept in a good state of repair. Delivery vehicles vary in size; from small vans that are unloaded by hand, to large delivery trucks that are unloaded using the forklift trucks.
Offices
There is access to the offices from the delivery area, the access road and outdoor area 1. Each of the managers has a desk in the office. This office is also where the Human Resources and Accounts departments are located. The SM is sitting at their desk eating their lunch and has just read an article in Woodworking Monthly, a trade magazine (see supporting document 2). It concerns a study of wood dust exposure in a situation very similar to that at KH. The SM is particularly concerned about the reference to carcinogens in this trade magazine article.
Outdoor area 1: Gardens and Landscaping
In the Gardens and Landscaping department, a ramp leads down from the store into outdoor area 1. There is a combination of gravelled pathways and paved areas that guide the customers around the department. Plants and shrubs are grouped on different stands to make it easier for the customer to view them. These stands are positioned on paved sections of the area. Garden ornaments are placed between the plants and shrubs to encourage customers to purchase these with the plants.
This department also sells a range of plant foods and pesticides. The Gardens and Landscaping team work very hard to help ensure that all plants have sufficient water and shade when required. They do not have an automated watering system, so watering is carried out regularly by one of the workers using one of the two long hose pipes in this area. At the rear of outdoor area 1, there are the two greenhouses. These have been in place since KH opened. Some of the paving around the greenhouses is uneven and some of the lighting in this area is no longer working. Workers enjoy working in these greenhouses, especially when it is cold outside. However, on sunny days, workers try to avoid being inside.
The Café
The café at KH is always extremely busy. The seating area is surrounded by tall screens. These help to shield the customers in the café from cold air that comes in through the open entrance doors. However, workers in the café often complain that they are too warm. These screens also make the boundaries of the café clear. Workers in the café use hand-held trays to carry orders of food and drink from the kitchen to customers’ tables. These trays can be heavy when loaded and have a slippery surface coating on them. There have been regular incidents where workers have dropped trays or items from the trays. There have also been complaints from workers that the loaded trays can be too heavy. Unfortunately, there is rarely enough time to make more than one trip with a single order. The SM is aware of workers’ concerns and is considering what can be done to reduce these incidents and help the workers.
Outdoor area 2: Building Materials
As with the gardens and landscaping area, there is a ramp leading down into outdoor area 2. The floors in the Building Materials department, warehouse, and delivery area are concrete. These have cracked and are broken into pieces in some areas due to the use of vehicles and forklift trucks.
Pallets of materials are positioned close to one another around the perimeter of the outdoor building materials area.
The vertical panel saw (VPS)
KH offers a woodcutting service. Customers purchase the wood in store and have it cut, or they can bring in their own wood to be cut. This is carried out using a VPS that has been in use since the store opened. The VPS is located at the back of the store, between the two sets of automatic sliding doors for the outside areas, that are constantly opening and closing.
The task of carrying out the cutting is not allocated to one individual worker. Instead, there are five workers who are trained on how to operate the VPS safely. Depending on which of the workers are available each day, they decide between themselves who will do the cutting on that day. Whenever Worker X is working, they always volunteer to take on this role and the SM is happy with this arrangement. Worker X then takes on tasks in the area close to the VPS, this way they are nearby when a customer wants to use the cutting service. Worker Y also likes to work on the cutting service, but the SM has noticed that Worker Y is often breathless and coughs a lot while working on the VPS. The SM is conscious that the customers do not want to be near someone who is coughing, while waiting for their wood cutting to be done.
Plan of action
Back in their office the SM reviews their ‘To Do’ list and adds to it ‘Review noise exposure at VPS’. The list is already quite long and includes reviewing the approach to manual handling risk assessments. Since reading the trade magazine article earlier they have also added to the list, ‘Review exposure to wood dust’. The SM recognises that they are going to need some help to address these health and safety issues that they have identified. The SM contacts an occupational hygienist (OH) that they used in their previous employment. The SM is going to need the OH’s help to take some measurements and give some advice on the wood dust and noise exposure for workers using the VPS. The OH is available next week to discuss, advise, and take some measurements.
In the meantime, the SM starts to write down what they now know about the VPS and how it is used. They also refresh their memory by re-reading two documents that they have used previously, the British Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) document L108 and relevant ILO guidance documents. The SM knows from experience that they may need to take some immediate action in relation to noise exposure from the VPS. The SM reviews a personal protective equipment (PPE) catalogue to select some new hearing protection equipment to order and use (see supporting document 3).
Two weeks later the SM receives the results of both the noise level measurements and wood dust measurements from the OH (see supporting document 4). They can see that the noise exposure is too high, especially as they now know that the VPS is used for longer than Worker X had indicated.
Supporting Documents
1. Site plan of Keystone Hardware (KH)
2. Extract of article in Woodworking Monthly trade magazine
3. Catalogue page for hearing protection equipment
4. Extracts from Occupational Hygienist’s (OH) report
