Health and safety in the workplace - it's our duty

There are many reasons why we should be concerned about health and safety in the workplace. However, a very important reason is legislation.

Few countries in the world do not have some form of occupational safety law and, for the member states of the European Union, there is a significant volume of legislation to comply with.

Where legislation exists, there will always be the potential for organisations to fall foul of it. Penalties for offences are getting higher and higher as courts recognise their usefulness in encouraging employers to improve health and safety.

In the UK, the highest fine imposed for health and safety offences now stands at £15 million, levied against Transco for a gas explosion that killed a family of four. It is also becoming increasingly common for prison sentences to be imposed on company directors and managers for health and safety offences.

Hopefully, the case for good health and safety in the workplace has now been made; the question is how can organisations provide it? There must be a clear, unambiguous commitment from the very top of the organisation to provide a safe place of work. The commitment must be stated and incorporated into the organisation's management system. In effect, health and safety must be viewed as important as finance, HR, enterprise, sales and marketing, and all of the other functions of an organisation.

To provide a safe and healthy working environment, suitably trained, qualified and experienced professionals are increasingly in demand. Workplace safety is a relatively young discipline and perhaps not as widely recognised as some of the more established professions, so it can be difficult for employers to know what sort of person they are looking for.

At the University of Greenwich, we are working towards making life easier for employers when selecting safety advisers and officers. We are also providing existing and future safety professionals with new, exciting routes to achieving the necessary high standards of qualifications that employers now expect.

There are other excellent academic routes for safety professionals to follow, but we feel that employers will increasingly be looking for graduate level qualifications, a demand that we have the knowledge and skills to satisfy.

Finally, we recognise the importance of professional recognition for our programmes and, perhaps more importantly, our graduates. To that end, all of our programmes are accredited by the appropriate professional body.

The B.Sc. (Hons) Occupational Safety, Health and Environment and the M.Sc. Occupational Safety and Health are both accredited by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health.

The next intake of students for the B.Sc. (Hons) Occupational Safety, Health and Environment, offered by the University of Greenwich through FHRD, is due on September 24. Those interested can contact Maria Pia Chircop on 2137-8895 or send an e-mail to mpchircop@fhrd.org.