NEBOSH IGC 6th August 2020 Solved Paper

July 22, 2023August 6, 2020 Written By Badar Javed

NEBOSH IGC 6th August 2020 Complete Solved Paper

Paper Solved By:

Shehzad Zafar

Task 1: Justifying Health & Safety Improvements

Question 1

What financial arguments could you use to justify your proposed recommendations to segregate FLTs and the workers? Marks: 10

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

Following Financial arguments can be used to justify proposed recommendations to segregate Fork Lift Trucks and the workers:

From the past history of accidents, it is evident that every time accident occurred, the company had to face several direct and indirect costs following an accident like also in this case So in order to avoid this cost preventive measures should be taken as here segregation can prevent such accidents in future.
Rehabilitation costs of workers from first aid to hospital several costs will be applied.
Legal cost to be paid in the form of compensation claims or to get lawyer services to defend the cases as the injured worker is seeking advice for applying compensation claim.
Even the extent of claims that will be covered by insurance may result in increased premiums in future which will also add cost.
Enforcement or labour inspectors can also be fine for non-compliances found and poor working conditions that do not meet the minimum criteria of taking actions as far as reasonably practicable on their visits following an accident.
Disruption in the business while dealing with the injury in form of lost time injury and then due to investigation process.
If existing workers may be asked for overtime to cover lost time then overtime costs will be applied
As workers revealed that several collisions of forklift resulted in damage to product and spillage so this is also financial loss of company as to repair the products and then it might remain unsold or may be sold at low price or may need to be discarded as waste like mostly in case of spill.
Spillage of hazardous chemical can also result in fire at workplace and the financial loss can be incredibly go out of financial margins.
Sick pay that has to be given to the worker in recovery time from injury while he is off from the work as in this case worker may take 6 weeks to recover from injury.
As the recovery time can be extended so replacement worker needs to be hired on temporary basis that may incur additional cost for hiring, training or retaining.
Damage to the public image and reputation of the company if it will not meet minimum social expectations to take care of health and safety of their workers
Reduction in the staff morale as they believe that management is not committed to their health and safety may also affect their efficiency, quality and the productivity.

Conclusion

So, looking at the above points, the company really needs to consider the recommendation to segregate FLTs and the workers on higher priority.

Video Explanation By Shehzad Zafar

Task 2: Checking management system effectiveness

Question 2:

You email a report to the overall Store and Warehouse Manager, in a further attempt to convince them that safety needs improving. The report contains unsafe behavior that you have observed, unsafe behavior associated with historic incidents, and unsafe behavior relayed to you from other workers. Also, the report contains voluntary feedback on safety given to you by workers and managers.

what unsafe behavior would be included in the report? Marks: 6
what voluntary feedback would be included in the report? Marks: 4

Formal Start of Answer

1. What Unsafe Behavior Would Be Included in The Report? Marks: 6

Following are several Unsafe behaviors to be included in the report:

Hiring criteria of management not acceptable as they have hired young drivers where driving at work is high risk job. Young drivers are more vulnerable as they are not mature enough to perceive the risk of their jobs and are not fully skilled. As in recent accident he was using mobile phone during driving which is also unsafe behaviour.
Past Accident revealed that Young driver was not completely focused on the work and ran over the oil spills that cause the fork lift to skid.
Past Accident also indicate that goods carried by the forklift was not secured properly as the load fell down in this case.
I observed that proper housekeeping is not being done by workers as aisles are obstructed so disturbing the walkways.
I also found Pedestrian workers negligent as they stepped in the vehicle routes while avoiding obstacles in the aisles.
Workers not reporting in the written form and only do verbal and informal complaints as the workers told me there were frequent collisions between forklift and workers so when I checked the records, I found no written records.
Management is not implementing formal reporting procedures may also not documenting or keeping any records of verbal complaints and no proper investigations are being carried out even though management is aware of this issue but not considering it.
Neither Spillages are being cleaned up regularly nor any arrangements are being taken by the management to prevent such spills.

2. What Voluntary Feedback Would Be Included in The Report? Marks: 4

Voluntary Feedback provided by the workers and the managers include the following:

Feedback from the workers:

Management does not take their complaints seriously; Warehouse workers have told me that they have complained to the management many times about the unsafe working conditions but management is not interested in solving the matters.
Managers do not visit the warehouse on regular basis showing lack of the interest towards improving the health and safety standards.
There are no health and safety worker representative who may be approach by the workers for consultation and to help the workers to raise issues and concerns related to health and safety.

Feedback from the manager:

I tried to convince warehouse manager that something needs to be done to improve the health and safety but I have been told that No allocation of resources have been made for improving health and safety.
The manager told me even if he has no issue with allocating budget or resources for improvements in health and safety, but he is only afraid that it would cause too much disruption to work though they are forgetting that even accidents can cause a lot of disruption.

Video Explanation By Shehzad Zafar

Task 3: Managing Contractors

Question 3

The site management has accepted your proposed health and safety improvement solution to segregate FLTs and the workers. They have made the budget available. The organization intends to use external contractors for the work.

When selecting the external contractors, what would you consider when assessing their competence? Marks: 10

The selection of the right contractor is a big challenge so the following evidence need to be assessed carefully in order to check their competence:

We will ask contractor to provide their health and safety policy to check their level of commitment towards health and safety.
They can also be asked to provide their samples of risk assessment and safe system of works.
They should also be required to share the qualification and the competence level of their workers. It can be done by asking for their resumes.
Local laws should be considered which may dictate the required membership or license by professional organizations and that should be meet and demanded by the contractor. Accreditation or membership with the professional and the certified bodies like ISO should be given priority in selection.
They should provide the details for the completion and experience of similar tasks in past years. It can be done by asking reference of their previous and current clients so that their credibility and performance can be checked.
Accident records should also be assessed carefully to estimate the risk during contract work. and to find the reasons of their accidents.
Record of the Enforcement actions taken by authorities should also be assessed that will help to determine the level of compliance with safety laws or breaches made by them.
They should be required to give proof of adequate resources like access to specialist safety advice or equipment.
Contractors should be demanded to show their method of quality assurance for the activities and materials. Contractor should also be requested to produce details and maintenance records of equipment they are expected to use.
Insurance arrangements for the workers in case of accidents should also be demanded from them to arrange.

Video Explanation By Shehzad Zafar

Task 4: Working within a health and safety management system

Question 4

To satisfy the expectations of the Inspector, you have developed a formal safety management system in line with ISO 45001.

Based on the scenario only, what are the likely benefits to the organization of having this formal safety management system? Marks: 10

As per the scenario, the inspector wants to see a more effective management system in his next visit so I have developed a formal management system in line with ISO 45001. Organizations can enjoy several benefits from having formal health and safety management system. Some of the benefits are discussed below:

As in scenario it is evident that frequent accidents have been occurred in past so formal safety management system will help to prevent such accidents along with associated costs followed by incidents.
As from scenario it is seen that workers consider management non serious regarding health and safety so Effective safety management system resumes worker’s confidence back that management gives priority to their health and safety that may result in maximizing efficiency and the productivity.
From scenario it is evident that incident reporting and recording procedures are neither adequate nor following formally so effective safety management system will help to establish, implement and maintain these procedures as well.
As rule breaking is very common so effective safety management system also helps to bring positivity in the safety culture and increased level of compliance to safety standards.
Robust Management system will help them to get accreditation by ISO recognizing their compliance level with ISO standards that will surely beneficial in incident investigation by enforcement, prosecution before court, civil claims and getting Insurance at reduced premium for employees.
Inspector found the risk assessment very general so effective management system will help in updating risk assessments and making it more specific to workplace as well as suitable and sufficient with continuous updating and reviewing.
Formal management system will help to improve the level of inspections specially poor housekeeping can be controlled like in scenario obstructed aisles and oil spillages are examples of poor housekeeping.
Formal Management system also help to improve supervision level as in this case driver was using mobile while driving indication poor supervision.
Effective Management System also helps to identify training needs of workers and managers so that workers may know the hazards and limitations of their jobs while managers may aware of their responsibilities regarding health and safety.
Formal Management system will also improve the level of consultation as workers wants to raise their concerns but in scenario it is evident that neither there are any formal arrangements of consultation present at workplace nor worker representatives are nominated.
It is also evident that there is no defect reporting system or record keeping of complaints found so formal management system also help to record the complaints and then resolving issues.

A formal Management system also helps to continually improve safety standards in the workplace and will give a competitive edge and improved Goodwill to the organization.

Video Explanation By Shehzad Zafar

Task 5: Influencing health and safety culture

Question 5

To improve performance in the organization, you know that you need to positively influence health and safety culture. You feel the culture at the warehouse is currently negative.

What are the negative indicators of safety culture at the warehouse? Marks: 10

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

There are several indicators evident from the scenario on assessing altogether that the safety culture is negative at the warehouse:

Some of them are discussed as below:

Many non-compliance to safety rules, procedures and standards indicate poor culture some are discussed below:

Poor stacking and storage that is poor housekeeping like obstructed aisles.
Use of mobile during driving.
Oil spillage in busy vehicle routes
Lack of supervision and maintenance

Near misses and accident rates are high that is the prime indicator of poor safety culture. Increased number of accidents is evident as workers revealed that such accidents occur frequently.
Workers absence rate is high that indicate that workers are either not willing to come or not able to come due to work related illness, injuries or fear to become victim or for some other reasons.
High turnover rate also indicate that workers are not happy in their organization and therefore do not stay for long as they may not feel safe.
High volume of complaints been made by workers regarding poor conditions that is another indicator of negative culture and the way of reporting was not formal and management did not listen to their concerns that means not serious in addressing issues. Workers are not happy with management.
Management did not make consultation arrangements as there is no safety representative though the workers need to be consulted for their concerns.
Management is not setting good leadership example and showing lack of interest in improving or assessing safety standards as workers complained that managers rarely visit the workplace.
Management give priority to smooth running of business and due to fear of the business disruption management is hesitating in issuing budget for health and safety improvements.
Risk assessments are general and not suitable and sufficient that also indicate poor management commitment and performance.
No investigations have been carried out previously as no controls are implemented to prevent recurrence of incidents as it is evident that incident discussed in scenario is repeated and several similar accidents or near misses have been happened before.

Video Explanation By Shehzad Zafar

Task 6: Developing safe systems of work (SSoW)

Question 6

Because of the recent incidents, you have decided to review the first-aid arrangements in the warehouse.

What do you need to consider so that first-aid needs are realistic and proportionate for the warehouse workers? Marks: 10

Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant information from the scenario. You do not need to include specific first-aid equipment.

The following points need to be considered to decide that the first aid needs are realistic and proportionate for the warehouse workers:

First Aid Personnel:

Work Pattern or shift pattern as in this scenario it is 4 days on and 4 days off so it is another important factor to consider as to give minimum required cover for each shift.
of first Aider or appointed persons is always directly linked to number of workers on sites. It should be decided to meet and exceed the legal requirement. Their annual leave and sick leaves should also be considered as who will take charge during absence of shift first aider.
Review Hiring criteria as first aid personnel should be certified and experience.

Appointed person: Ensure he should be trained for basic emergency and also how to contact emergency services. Also, ensure he should be Provided with Communicating equipment and contact numbers of emergency services are displayed.

First Aider: Ensure first aiders are Fully trained at a higher level of first aid at work

Arrangement of refresher trainings for the first aid personnel should be made and recorded.

First Aid Equipment:

General risk level of workplace should be considered as in this case its high as the accident can cause death and fractures. As Mostly collision accidents happen so nature of accidents also involve fractures etc. poor stacking may cause trips. Oil spillage may cause slips. Manual handling activities are also being carried out so manual handling injuries should also be considered. To deal with this situation, arrange several fully stocked first aid kits installed at different locations and also first aid safety equipment like stretchers, resuscitation equipment, bandages, slings etc. should be available.
Arrangements should be made for replacement of expired and used items from kits.
General Risk level is high as there is young driver indicating presence of vulnerable group required extra ordinary arrangements.
Increased number of accidents requires that first arrangements should be capable to tackle several casualties at a time.

First Aid Facilities:

As warehouse is large workplace so dedicated treatment room should be available.
Spread of Workplace: Centrally located dedicated room should be available that can easily assessable by the emergency services.
First Aid room should be clean, proper ventilated and well lit.
It should have hand wash facility, chair, clinical waste bin with proper arrangement of disposing of infectious waste.

Geographic Location:

It is also important to consider the distance of hospital from the site as in this case distance is 8 km and roads are well in condition so that’s the benefit for this store as emergency services will be able to approach instantly.

Video Explanation By Shehzad Zafar

Task 7: Investigating Incidents

Question 7

You have decided that the recent accident, when a worker’s leg was broken, needs to be investigated.

Decide what level of investigation (minimal, low, medium, high) is appropriate in this case, clearly justifying each step you take that leads to your decision.

Marks: 10

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

As it is decided to carry out the investigation of a recent accident, now the level of the investigation has to be decided.

From Document HSG245 it is found that the level of investigation is based upon

1- Likelihood (Certain, Likely, Possible, Unlikely, Rare)

2- Possible Consequences (Minor, serious, Major, Fatal)

a) From the Likelihood criteria described in HSG as shown in figure below

In Recent cases; the likelihood for a similar incident to occur again falls into “certain” or “likely”

As it is written
“certain: it will happen again and soon”
“likely: it will reoccur, but not as an everyday event;”

So there are two parts
1- It will happen again or It will Reoccur
2- It will happen soon or not as an everyday event

For the first part “it will happen again or It will reoccur” let’s decide

Now from the scenario, it is obvious that it is repeated and a similar incident has been occurred in past too.

Also from the scenario, it comes out that the labor inspector thinks that it is only a matter of time (this phrase is used when something is certain to happen) before workers are more seriously injured or even killed in the warehouse.

Obviously, he shared his views on the basis of his observations in the workplace regarding the likelihood of the reoccurrence as it is
also repeated.

Coming to the Second part that “ it will happen soon” or “not as an everyday event”

It is also evident from the scenario that workers told that such incidents and near misses happen frequently so it can be expected soon from past incident history

but no one reported it as a daily routine and neither record is found so better to choose “it will
not as an everyday event”.

Conclusion: the likelihood of the reoccurrence is “Likely”

b) Now moving towards second Part “Potential worse consequence of this event”

The recent incident resulted into
“major injury/ill health: (as defined in RIDDOR, Schedule 1), including fractures”

A leg has been broken from the incident.

But Inspector thinks that it may also result in Fatality in the future and that is very obvious too. So consequence can also lie in the “Fatal” category on the basis of scenario.

But the question is related to deciding on the basis of the recent accident so potential
the outcome was a Major injury

Conclusion: Potential Consequence is Major Injury

So using HGC245 following decision has been taken
“Level of the investigation will Be HIGH”

Video Explanation By Shehzad Zafar

Task 7: Investigating Incidents

Question 8

You try to determine some of the human factor causes of the recent accident, when a worker’s leg was broken, by looking at the available investigation evidence.

What individual human factors could have negatively influenced the behavior of the young FLT driver? Marks: 10

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

Several individual human factors could have influenced the behavior of young forklift truck drivers.

Some of them are discussed below:

Age of young person obviously below 18 is not suitable for high risk jobs.
Young person has lack of knowledge and experience so it shows lack of competency as in case young driver is not competent at all and need proper training.
Young person usually fails to decide timely so here he failed to judge timely and applied delayed brakes.
Young driver in this case violating driving rules and using mobile that caused distraction so need close supervision.
Young person’s physical and mental maturity is not fully developed and it takes time to be fully grown up so they cannot be considered as skilled driver at young age.
Risk perception of young person remains poor and they cannot perceive hidden risk so young person’s usually take risk.
Driver attitude towards driving was unsafe, negligent and not acceptable as he drove the forklift over the oil spill.
Low morale of workers and less motivation towards health and safety is another factor in workers including young driver due to receiving less priority to health and safety from management and poor safety culture.
No disciplinary actions have been taken in past incidents so no fear of such actions promote motivation towards unsafe practices.
As it is fact that skill develop overtime so young driver is not considered to be a skilled driver.

Video Explanation By Shehzad Zafar

Task 7: Investigating Incidents

Question 9

The investigation into the recent accident, when a worker’s leg was broken, is now focusing on management failures.

Based on the scenario only, what management failures could have contributed to this accident? Marks: 10

Several management failures, evident from the scenario, have contributed to the accident.

Some of those are discussed below:

Management not closely supervising workers even though in scenario it is mentioned that the workers include vulnerable group like young drivers.
Poor housekeeping is evident from the scenario as the aisles are obstructed and oil spills are spotted that also indicates absence of general inspections at the workplace
Oil leakages can be due to leakage from forklift trucks and that require maintenance so lack of maintenance is also another evident management failure.
Insufficient arrangements like a common gate used by both pedestrian and vehicles and Failure to provide segregation to workers from vehicles as well as the route lay out is not proper.
Management is failed to provide the effective trainings to worker and workers unsafe behavior demands training on priority.
No safety rules or signs displayed or enforced by the management.
High risk job is given to young worker that is a big question on hiring criteria of management.
Management did not develop safety procedures and risk assessments are either not carried out or not being updated to meet legal requirements.
Management does not have formal arrangement of consultation with workers and no safety representatives have been nominated for this purpose.
Management is less interested in managing health and safety so managers training is missing for raising their awareness regarding health and safety
Management not giving hear to worker’s complaint lowering the health and safety importance in the eyes of workers.
Management not carrying out proper investigations after incidents and same types of accidents are happening again.
Resources are not deployed yet for health and safety standards improvements.
No formal safety management system exists and inadequate record keeping and poor reporting procedures are evident.

It can be clearly seen from the scenario that management is not giving priority to health and safety over the business and even managers fear to bring safety improvements as they think it may cause disruption in business. Further management is neither focusing on active monitoring techniques nor taking reactive monitoring seriously.

Video Explanation By Shehzad Zafar

Task 8: Reviewing performance

Question 10

You invite the overall Store and Warehouse Manager to a health and safety management review.

A. Based on evidence from the scenario only, comment on how the organization is performing in the following areas

Answer with two related points for each area.

(i) Active and Reactive Monitoring. (2)

(ii) The Adequacy of Current Risk Assessments. (2)

(iii) Operational Procedures and Rules. (2)

(iv) Compliance with legal requirements. (2)

B. Based on evidence from the scenario only, what sources of benchmarking information could be used? Marks: 2

Formal Start Of Answer

A. Based on evidence from the scenario only, comment on how the organization is performing in the following areas

(i) Active and Reactive Monitoring. Marks: 2

Active Monitoring:

As no evidence can be found from the scenario regarding Monitoring activities like general inspections so it looks missing or if it is present then for sure ineffective as obstructed aisles and spillages are examples mentioned in the scenario. Training need is evident from the scenario as unsafe actions from workers indicate the need for training.

Though Risk assessments have been carried out as the inspector declared it very general so it indicates that risk assessments are not suitable and sufficient and obviously assessments are unsuccessful in preventing accidents. No evidence of review of assessments was found.

Reactive Monitoring:

Poor reactive monitoring found as no incident recordings found, informal way of reporting found as workers used to inform verbally. Only Record of injuries found Incident investigations are not being carried out as repetition of past accidents indicates that no control measures have been taken for prevention of incidents to reoccur and obviously data is insufficient to find out trends and patterns. Repeated Accident also prove poor performance as incident investigation leading to corrective actions are not evident.

(ii) The adequacy of current risk assessments. Marks: 2

Risk assessment is not proportionate to the level of risk and failed in incident prevention. Inspector found it very general as these do not reflect the actual risks in the warehouse so not meeting criteria of suitable and sufficient. As vulnerable person is present like young drivers in scenario so specific risk assessment need to be carried out.
It looks like that risk assessments were not reviewed or updated following accidents in past as it is evident that the accident is repeated so adequate controls are not identified or implemented or maintained.

So, risk assessments are inadequate.

(iii) Operational procedures and rules. Marks: 2

There is no evidence in scenario regarding presence of procedures for proper stacking and storage, safe movement, and safe driving. Formal Reporting procedures also looks missing at workplace. Even if these are present it is not implemented or may be workers are not trained for these procedures. Disciplinary procedures also not evident from scenario as no actions found to be taken in past.
Driving safety rules are either not available or if available it is not implemented as driver use mobile while driving with no fear. At workplace it is found that rule breaking is very common no strict safety rules are present and if present then inadequate supervision is evident.

(iv) Compliance with legal requirements. Marks: 2

As labor inspector issued enforcement notice so that proofs non-compliance with the legal requirements.
Risk assessments are not suitable and sufficient, absence of safety representative, informal reporting with no records, workers are not properly trained, in adequate supervision, poor inspection system are all proving non compliances with legal requirements. Failure to the compliance can cause prosecution so reasons for non-compliance should be identified and corrected.

B. Based on evidence from the scenario only, what sources of benchmarking information could be used? Marks: 2

From Scenario

KPIs Including Incident rates lost time incidents, and a number of enforcement actions taken can be used to identify the best stores among 9 local and 100 national stores. The benchmarking information includes

Safety processes like risk assessment, safe system of work, and
Safety procedures like reporting procedures, investigating and disciplinary procedures

that can be analyzed to find what is missing here and help in initiating their best practice initiatives at this workplace. This process of benchmarking helps in continual improvement.

The same could be used for benchmarking with any other organization externally but it is obvious that their information may not be easily accessible.

Video Explanation By Shehzad Zafar