If a worker makes mistakes when performing safety sensitive work, people can get hurt.
Safety sensitive work is tasks or procedures that are part of a job which can cause harm to people if done incorrectly. Many businesses provide specialized services that require their employees to perform tasks that can put the worker, co-workers, customers or the general public at risk of being harmed. Employees performing safety-sensitive work must follow specific work procedures to keep themselves and the people around them safe.
Safety sensitive jobs can be found in many workplaces. High risk work tasks include working with dangerous machinery or chemicals at industrial worksites or being exposed to infectious disease or violent situations in a social or health services work environment. Examples of positions that involve safety sensitive work include drivers, machine operators, health care workers, police officers, and industrial labourers.
A key management responsibility is to carefully plan the work procedures and train and supervise staff. The Plan-Do-Check-Act method is a simple way to approach and maintain high quality safety sensitive work procedures.
Plan – Employers should review the work procedure, planning so the work is designed to have safe outcomes.
Do – The next step involves employee training. Workers and supervisors must understand the hazards, risks and know how to correctly do the work.
Check – Supervisors must monitor employees performing the work to confirm that it is done correctly.
Act – Retraining, re-design of work procedures and possibly re-assignment of employees not capable of safely performing the work are potential outcomes of supervision activities.
Many factors lead to safety sensitive work incidents such as poor work design, poor supervision or employees unable to competently complete the work. It is important to remember that previously safe work methods may change and become unsafe. If equipment degrades, it can cause safety incidents. The skills of individuals previously capable of doing the work may change. Personal or health issues including illness or alcohol or drug use are common reasons why an employee’s may be unable to competently perform their job.
It is a manager’s responsibility to identify and correct situations where work is being performed dangerously. Since safety sensitive work can cause major injuries including fatalities, it is a good management practice to focus supervision efforts on these high risk work procedures.
To read more about this topic, consider this list of safety sensitive occupations.
