Health and Safety Topic – Workplace Safety: A Guide to Health and Safety Policies and Procedures #2

 

In our first article on health and safety policies and procedures, we covered the following key points:

 

Legal Foundation

 

Grounded in the UAE Labour Law and other Federal, Emirate level and activity specific laws. Your policies will help UAE employers comply with legal standards and provide a safe work environment.

 

Health and safety policies and procedures in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are governed by various laws and regulations aimed at ensuring the well-being of employees in the workplace. Here is an overview of the key aspects:

 

Legal Framework

 

Federal Law No. 33 of 2021 (UAE Labour Law)

This is the primary legislation governing labor relations in the UAE, including health and safety.

• It mandates employers to ensure the health and safety of their employees and to provide a safe working environment. It includes health and safety risk assessments.

UAE Fire and Life Code

• The minimum requirements of UAE Fire and Life Safety Code of Practice surpasses all other requirements unless other requirements are higher than the latest edition of UAE Fire and Life Safety Code of Practice

Ministerial Resolutions:

• Several ministerial resolutions complement the Labour Law, providing detailed guidelines on health and safety standards. These include Ministerial Decision No. (32) of 1982

 

Now we will look them on a drill down basis:

 

Health and Safety Policy Framework Key Requirements in the United Arab Emirates

 

All the necessary steps to establish a thorough safety management system, including risk assessments, emergency responses, first aid, equipment use, and incident reporting.

 

Workplace Safety

 

• Employers must take all necessary precautions to protect workers from work-related injuries and diseases.
• This includes maintaining machinery and equipment in safe condition, providing safety gear, and ensuring safe working practices.

Medical Examinations

 

• Employers are required to provide medical examinations to workers at the time of hiring and periodically thereafter.
• Specific sectors, such as construction, may have additional medical requirements.

Reporting Accidents

 

• Employers must report workplace accidents to the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MOHRE) and provide medical treatment to injured workers.
• Serious incidents must be reported immediately, and detailed records must be kept.

Health and Safety Committees

 

• Larger organizations are encouraged to establish health and safety committees to oversee the implementation of safety practices and to conduct regular safety audits.

 

Health and Safety Enforcement and Penalties in the UAE

Inspections

 

• MOHRE (Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization) mohre.gov.ae conducts regular inspections to ensure compliance with health and safety regulations.
• Non-compliance can result in fines, penalties, or even the suspension of business operations.

Employee Rights

 

• Employees have the right to report unsafe working conditions without fear of retaliation.
• They can lodge complaints with MOHRE, which will investigate and take appropriate action.

 

 

And on a general note, lets look at the Challenges Addressed by the Creation of Health and Safety Policy and Procedures:

 

Complicated compliance and challenges with the legal system

Insufficient resources, particularly in small and medium-sized businesses

Problems with employee engagement resulting in insufficient use of policies

Challenges of adaptation in quickly evolving work contexts

gaps in the essential knowledge and experience of health and safety

An abundance of data and updated regulations

Monitoring and enforcing policy compliance can be difficult.

 

Strategies for Maintenance

 

Keeping up with legal developments and industry networks

Pursuing ongoing professional development

Reviewing internal compliance on a regular basis

Choosing a committed policy champion

We will now proceed with best practices.

 

Best Practices in Policy and Procedure Management

 

To put it briefly, best practices are crucial for reducing the likelihood of diseases and accidents at work. To help you comply with health and safety laws and regulations, they offer systematic and standardized guidance on the safest ways to execute jobs.

In the end, you will streamline their operations, which will improve quality control, make better use of resources, and save expenditures related to diseases and accidents, such medical bills, court charges, and insurance premiums.

 

Let’s explore our tips

 

Effective Management of Health and Safety Policies and Procedures

 

Centralised Document Management

 

Store all policies and procedures in a centralized digital document management system. You might use your existing LMS system to expand it and establish a knowledge management system where these can be stored and accessible. It makes sense that you would arrange documents in an understandable, rational way.

This guarantees that staff members have access to the most recent versions and that updates are distributed instantaneously.

 

Accessibility

 

Ensure policies and procedures are accessible to all employees, including those with disabilities. Consider using accessible formats and languages as necessary to accommodate a diverse workforce.

 

Communication Channels

 

Think about the various ways you can disseminate policies and procedures, including via email, the internet, meetings, and physical notice boards. Regular communications should include reminders regarding the location of these documents and their significance. Since, let’s be honest, we frequently “forget” where things are.

 

The Role of Training and Ongoing Support

 

It should go without saying that providing training will enhance comprehension and acceptance of your most important policies and procedures, especially for new hires or whenever there are major changes made. These talks ought to be interactive and filled with real-world scenarios or examples. Remember to schedule frequent refresher courses and devise simple methods for answering inquiries.

Since there is never a flawless system, think about setting up a way for staff members to offer input on guidelines and practices. This can boost employee involvement with health and safety activities and assist identify areas for improvement.

 

Reviewing and Updating Policies and Procedures

 

The vault that houses an organization’s policies and processes is undoubtedly one of its dirtiest sections. We advise reviewing all health and safety rules and procedures at least once a year. This guarantees their continued relevance and compliance with the law as it is. Naturally, the individuals who drafted your policies may have departed, frequently a very long time ago.

Policies and procedures should be reviewed not just on a planned basis but also in response to particular occurrences, such as modifications to laws (such The Building Safety Act), incidents, or the discovery of new hazards.

 

It is likely that a review team with members from several departments and levels exists. If not, now is an excellent moment to put this into practice. These individuals have the potential to serve as your health and safety champions, evaluating the efficacy of policies and suggesting modifications as needed.

As part of the evaluation process, have this team confer with staff members, health and safety committees, and outside experts. This guarantees that the policies are workable and based on actual circumstances.

 

As always, communicate and train your employees on the new policies and procedures.

 

Overcoming Non-Usage of Policies and Procedures

 

Things like policies and procedures may not get looked at. It is human nature to file things away in the recesses of our minds if they don’t seem important day to day.

 

Some of these reasons are:

 

Excessively complicated or challenging-to-understand policies and processes may discourage use.

Documents that are seen to be out-of-date or irrelevant are likely to be ignored.

It’s possible that workers are unaware of current policies or where to locate them.

Non-compliance may result from a work environment where health and safety are not given priority.

 

What can you do?

 

Some of these have already been covered by us.

Simplify policies’ wording and structure to make them easier to read and comprehend. This ensures that all employees, regardless of experience level, can understand the policies and procedures.
Use flowcharts, diagrams, and pictures to highlight important ideas and make difficult-to-understand information easier to understand.

To make material easy to find and follow, logically organize your content using headings, subheadings, bullet points, and numbered lists. You’d be shocked at how many people are ignorant of this.

 

Regularly update policies to ensure they are relevant and reflect current practices and technologies.

 

Boost policy visibility with frequent updates, instruction, and convenient access.
Make sure papers follow accessibility guidelines so people with impairments may access them. This entails providing text-to-speech capabilities and guaranteeing that every image has an alt text that describes it.

To improve buy-in and compliance, involve staff members in the creation and revision of policies.
To emphasize how important it is to abide by rules and procedures, acknowledge and encourage compliance as well as good health and safety behaviors.

Establish achievement measures and disseminate success narratives. These metrics offer concrete proof of the areas in which the current techniques work and those in which they may need to be modified.

 

Corporate OHS – Health and Safety

 

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