Greater training needed for health and safety

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) last week (14 August) released a report claiming that training for supervisors in roadside waste and recycling collections ‘does not properly reflect the hazardous nature of the waste industry’.

Carried out by the Health and Safety Laboratory, ‘Supervisor and team leader competence in roadside waste and recycling collection’ aims to identify the competencies required for roadside waste and recycling collection supervisors and team leaders to manage the health and safety of their crews and to redress ‘a lack of knowledge about the training and competence requirements’ for supervisors of household waste collection activities.

Explaining the origins of the report, the HSE notes: ‘Although the health and safety performance of the waste and recycling industry has improved in recent years, it is still low compared with other industries. This was highlighted in a government report published in March 2011, “Good Health and Safety – Good for Everyone”. Household (municipal) and commercial collection and sorting activities account for up to 80 per cent of reported accidents within this industry. There is general agreement across industry that household collection activities are particularly hazardous. It is widely recognised that team leaders and supervisors have an important role in persuading their crews of the importance of health and safety procedures and safety performance standards. To enable them to fulfil this role they need to have the necessary leadership, interpersonal and communication skills. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the training and competence requirements for these roles and whether any training-related improvements are required.’

Report findings

The Health and Safety Laboratory’s exploratory study aims to identify the competencies (knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours) required for roadside waste and recycling collection supervisors and to assess whether current training provides an adequate basis for these competencies to be developed and maintained.

The report’s findings include:

• overall, the training provision does not properly reflect the hazardous nature of the waste industry, with the report noting: ‘the majority of training provided in support of supervisors and team leaders focuses on developing their technical knowledge and skills rather than the attitudes and behaviours that underpin them’ and ‘there is little or no evidence that the training takes into account the complex working environment’; and
• when it comes to good health and safety working practices, focus tends to be on the acquisition of technical knowledge and skills rather than on demonstrating the attitudes and behaviours to support it, and an ‘overreliance’ on supervisors being promoted with little evidence of nontechnical sills development;
• crew members appear to prefer supervisors who are able to adapt their leadership style, with desirable leadership skills including ‘being visible, approachable, willing to listen to other points of view, treating others with respect, but when the occasion demands it, not being afraid to be tough and make difficult decisions’;
• the main conduit for health and safety between the supervisors and the crew members was the driver, although responsibilities on the drivers were not always formally recognised and their critical role in promoting good health and safety working practices seemed to be underestimated;
• spot-checks of crews out on collections are viewed by collection crews and team leaders as ‘spying’ and the negative connotations this implies is not helpful to instilling a health and safety culture.

Report recommendations

The report notes that the research ‘was only ever envisaged to provide WISH [the Waste Industry Safety and Health steering group] with a starting point for the industry to take forward improvements to the competency development and training of supervisors and team leaders’.

Recommendations include:

• members of WISH should fully support the competency sub-group in developing the competencies of their supervisors and team leaders using the examples contained in the ‘person specification’ from the main report;
• the industry needs to agree the definitions of types of behaviours and attitudes related to health and safety that are relevant for the industry;
• training provision must adequately reflects the hazardous nature of the industry;
• health and safety must feature more prominently and is higher up the list of essential requirements and priorities in job descriptions and training materials; and
• the role of the team leader (driver) needs to be recognised to promote good health and safety practices of crews during waste collections.

Health and safety in the waste industry

According to HSE, the waste and recycling industry is ‘one of Britain’s most dangerous sectors’, and 2014/15 year saw fatalities in the sector more than double to 11 people, after falling for several years.

In response to the dangerous nature of the industry, HSE has published the ‘Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) blueprint 2012-15’, which outlines 24 ‘immediate action points’ that employers can take to provide clearer training and safer workplaces. 

Key initiatives listed in the blueprint include:  

• producing agreed safety leadership standards for the waste management industry and guidance on ‘what safety leadership looks like and how it is demonstrated’;
• developing sharable training materials for promoting and enhancing worker engagement;
• publishing case studies and real life examples of ‘the positive impact of improved workforce competence, including examples of industry best practice and the potential business benefits’; and
• developing guidance and support on health surveillance (monitoring/screening).  

Read HSE’s ‘Supervisor and team leader competencies in roadside waste and recycling collection’ or its ‘Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) blueprint 2012-15’.