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OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) is the world’s leading professional body for people responsible for safety and health in the workplace.
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Safety in a changing climate
In my first few weeks as chair of IOSH’s Board of Trustees, I’ve already heard a huge amount about the passion and drive members have for preventing harm and protecting workers all around the world. That’s something we have in common. Like you, I believe everyone should be able to return home from work every day unharmed.
As the world of work continues to change and new risks to health and safety emerge, we need to continually seek improvements and find ways of protecting people.
Among the drivers of alterations to our workplaces is climate change. Its implications for OSH aren’t something that has been widely discussed in the media or elsewhere, notwithstanding some coverage in this magazine including the powerful March-April 2025 cover story, which brought attention to the disproportionate impact of climate change on female workers.
It’s not just climate change but the proposed solutions to it that require the expertise of OSH professionals. For example, the transition to green energy – as discussed in several articles in this issue – brings new hazards to the fore. The OSH profession will play a crucial role in managing risks here as well.
LIKE YOU, I BELIEVE EVERYONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO RETURN HOME FROM WORK EVERY DAY UNHARMED
That is why IOSH recently published a white paper, The heat is on (IOSH, 2025), which highlights some of the many risks and explores how businesses and OSH professionals can manage them in accordance with the hierarchy of control. It also issues a number of calls to action for governments, businesses and OSH professionals.
At the same time, the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Global Safety Evidence Centre published The impact of climate change on safety at work (Lloyd’s Register Foundation, 2025), a review of the evidence on how climate change heightens risks for workers, including sector-specific impacts such as those on construction, manufacturing, mining and quarrying.
These reports are hugely important as they make clear the significant threat to the health and safety of working people around the world. This threat relates in some form to all industries and is something every OSH professional should consider.
We must keep learning and evolving as we seek to strengthen our profession and ensure that working people remain safe and healthy in a changing climate.
Ruth Boumphrey CHAIR, IOSH BOARD OF TRUSTEES
THE KNOWLEDGE
6THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Stats, facts, news and views
10INSIDE THE REPORTS
AI and digitalisation, plus the elephant in the room: psychosocial hazards
12INTERVIEW
Professor Neil Greenberg on what his military career taught him about building mentally tough teams
14PROSECUTIONS
Recent court cases
18 THE WIDER VIEW
What’s new online: our latest webinars, videos and podcasts
20PODCAST INTERVIEW
IOSH president Kelly Nicoll answers all members’ questions in ‘Ask Me Anything’
24MEMBER OPINION
Megan Hine of Draeger on speeding up the energy transition
26BUSINESS LEADER FORUM
People and culture: the third module of IOSH’s business assurance model
28OSH PRINCIPLES
Our journey to establish the 10 foundational tenets of decent work
40 MENTAL HEALTH: RIGHT OR BENEFIT?
Psychological injury should be treated more seriously
THE PRACTICE
46 DRUGS IN THE WORKPLACE
A matter of substance
From cocaine to codeine, the implications for workplaces of drug use among staff 50 HOW TO...
Implement drug testing
The legal, practical and ethical complexities of drug policies
TECHNICAL MATTERS
Using mobile towers
What are the risks and controls around using aluminium towers?
Far from plain sailing
Analysis of adverse health outcomes among seafarers and port workers
32
CLASSROOM CRISIS
The shocking reality of abuse faced by teachers in UK schools
THE BUSINESS
58 SHIPPING
Ammonia ambitions
The serious OSH challenges of using this toxic gas as an alternative fuel for ships
62 CONSTRUCTION AND AI
AI insight on-site
Is artificial intelligence a useful tool to generate risk assessments or just a chance to cut corners?
66 SPOTLIGHT: AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS
Flight risk
A personnel shortage is adding more pressure to workers holding lives in their hands
Reading IOSH magazine can contribute to your continuing professional development. Scan the QR code to access the MyIOSH CPD portal.
THE EVIDENCE
70ROUNDUP
Hot topics
The latest research and reports
72DEEP DIVE
Research: in depth
A closer look at a new study
THE LAST WORD
74 MILESTONES
Safe systems of work
Duncan Spencer takes a practitioner’s view of civil law milestones
KNOWLEDGE
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS ISSUE
‘The creation of the BSR was a watershed moment for housing and construction in this country. However, it is also clear that the BSR processes need to continue to evolve and improve to ensure it plays its part in enabling homes this country desperately needs to be built’
ANDY ROE, NEW NON-EXECUTIVE CHAIR OF THE MHCLG BOARD ASSUMING THE BSR’S FUNCTIONS
1.
REGULATION BSR to move out of HSE control after criticism
2. FATALITIES
Number of people killed at work falls in GB
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has announced that the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will move from the GB Health and Safety Executive (HSE) remit as part of a package of reforms.
The shake-up includes a new fasttrack process to speed up new-build applications and unblock delays at Gateway 2 (a pre-construction stage for higher-risk buildings), an overhaul of the BSR’s senior leadership, and the addition of more than 100 new staff members to help clear the approvals backlog. It is being presented by the government as a step towards a single construction regulator, one of the Grenfell Tower inquiry’s recommendations.
However, some industry commentators argue that the move is a response to criticism of the HSE, which has overseen the BSR since its creation in 2022. In July, a House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee inquiry was launched to scrutinise the BSR’s performance after significant delays in the progress of higher-risk building projects were reported.
As property risk and compliance services provider Tetra Consulting notes, the committee is particularly concerned about the systemic delays at Gateway 2 and the wider impact on construction and remediation programmes.
The GB Health and Safety Executive (HSE) released provisional figures in July indicating a decrease in the number of people killed at work, and in the leading cause of fatal injuries to workers: falls from height.
The HSE’s Work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain 2025 finds that a total of 124 workers were killed in accidents in 2024/25, a decrease of 14 fatalities from 2023/24.
Significantly, 35 workers were killed after falling from height, the main cause of work-related fatal injury in almost every year since at least 2001/02. This figure is 15 fewer than the 50 deaths reported for 2023/24.
Two sectors – construction, and agriculture, forestry and fishing – continue to account for the greatest number of deaths, just under half of all fatal injuries to workers in 2024/25. Find
3. UK REGULATOR
HSE sharpens its focus on RIDDOR and ill health
The GB Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is ramping up efforts to tackle work-related ill health, overhaul RIDDOR reporting and review its Fee for Intervention (FFI) scheme, all while keeping enforcement sharp and regulation smarter.
At the HSE AGM, chief executive Sarah Albon said in her keynote address that with more than 13,000 inspections and a 96% prosecution conviction rate, the HSE is doubling down on smarter, risk-based regulation to protect both people and productivity and make Britain one of the healthiest countries in the world to work in as well as one of the safest.
The cross-party body is also looking into the BSR’s performance in improving building safety at all stages of a building’s lifecycle, including the occupation phase.
Read more at: ioshmagazine.com/ BSR-move
As part of its work to underpin the government’s growth agenda, she said that the HSE was looking into potential changes to definitions, occupational diseases and dangerous occurrences reported under RIDDOR to simplify reporting requirements and processes and to make compliance more efficient while still protecting workers. And on one thorny issue – the FFI cost recovery scheme – Sarah told attendees that the regulator planned to review it so that it ‘remains fair and proportionate for everyone’.
4. LEGAL Sentencing Council changes guidelines for VLOs
The Sentencing Council for England and Wales has amended its guidelines for health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter, food safety and hygiene offences in a move that could result in very large organisations (VLOs) being handed heavier fines.
IOSH NEWS
Don’t fall silent: IOSH launches new work at height campaign
IOSH has launched a major new campaign aimed at tackling the ongoing risks associated with working at height, as falls continue to dominate workplace fatality statistics year after year.
The Don’t Fall Silent campaign calls on employers and policy-makers to prioritise prevention strategies, improve training, and embed a stronger safety culture across high-risk industries. It focuses on five key areas: Planning – Ensuring work at height is only undertaken when absolutely necessary and properly planned.
• Competence – Verifying that workers are trained, supervised and capable of working safely at height.
• Equipment – Using appropriate and well-maintained equipment.
• Culture – Creating an environment where shortcuts are not tolerated and workers feel empowered to speak up.
• Collaboration – Encouraging all stakeholders to share best practices and take collective responsibility for safe outcomes.
Read more at: ioshmagazine.com/
Under the previous 2016 guidelines, there was no structured approach for entities with turnover greater than £50bn. Magistrates and crown courts had to improvise when scaling fines appropriately.
Step 2 of the amended guidelines now advises courts that ‘particular regard should be had to making the fine proportionate to the means of the organisation, sufficiently large to constitute appropriate punishment depending on the seriousness of the offence, and sufficient to bring home to the management and shareholders the need to comply with health and safety legislation’.
The amendments seek to provide greater clarity and consistency in sentencing entities whose turnover far exceeds the threshold typically used in the existing guidelines, and Kevin Bridges, regulatory expert at Pinsent Masons LLP, argues that they could result in a significant increase in the starting points for fines.
Mary Lawrence, partner at Osborne Clarke LLP, says: The mood music over the last few years has been that judges feel that higher sentences are needed. This amendment to the guidance confirms that approach is appropriate and encourages judges to do so.’
Read more at: ioshmagazine.com/ sentencing-guidelines
Landmark OSH declaration marks ‘historic moment’ at Expo 2025
A bold new global movement to transform the future of work launched at Expo 2025 in Osaka-Kansai, Japan – marking a historic moment for OSH on the world stage.
For the first time in over 170 years, workplace safety, health and wellbeing has taken centre stage at a World Expo, with the signing of a founding declaration that aims to shape safer, fairer and more sustainable working lives across the globe.
‘This is more than a document – it’s a call to action,’ said Marijana Zivkovic Mtegha, IOSH representative and chair of the World Assembly Working Group. ‘In a world shaped by rapid change, we need bold collaboration to protect workers and design the future of work we all want to be part of.’
Read more at: ioshmagazine.com/OSH-world-expo
‘Silent crisis’: IOSH warns urgent action is needed
Millions of workers across the globe are facing a ‘silent crisis’ of unsafe, unfair and exploitative working conditions, IOSH warned at the International Labour Conference in Geneva.
Ruth Wilkinson, IOSH’s head of policy and public affairs, delivered a stark message to global leaders, highlighting the daily risks faced by workers – from exposure
to harmful chemicals to long working hours and poor ergonomics.
‘Every day, millions of workers around the world face a silent crisis – one that unfolds not in headlines, but in hospitals, homes and workplaces,’ Ruth said in a powerful address.
‘Our failure to act decisively will weaken resilience, undermine economic growth and fail humanity itself.’
Read more at: ioshmagazine.com/ OSH-ILO-conference
Inside the reports
Bridget Leathley CFIOSH explores recent OSH developments to reveal challenges and takeaways for best practice.
DIGITALISATION
NEW AND OLD
Revolutionising health and safety: the role of AI and digitalisation at work from the International Labour Organization (ILO) is less a manifesto for a revolution than a précis of the past 10 years of more gradual change, plus some wild cards for the future.
The report was heralded for some weeks before, so I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed by the paucity of new insights. It’s a useful summary for someone new to the area, but all the topics are ones we’ve covered previously in IOSH magazine: robots, exoskeletons, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), wearable devices, sensors, extended realities such as augmented reality and virtual reality (VR), algorithmic management and, of course, artificial intelligence (AI).
There were a couple of wearable ideas I hadn’t come across before. I like the idea of safety gloves made with chromogenic material that changes colour when in contact with specific hazardous substances, but I’m less certain I’d be comfortable wearing a helmet in a mine, where on detection of poisonous gas my visor automatically closes and I’m fed a supply of pure oxygen!
Challenges
Described as ‘an in-depth desk review’, this is not a systematic literature review. It is not surprising that the references are dominated by EU-OSHA and ILO reports. There is a smattering of peer-reviewed research, but mixed in with commercial blogs. The latter might be produced by thoughtful writers pondering technology use and risk – but they are not evidence of digitalisation.
Some references offer evidence of effectiveness, such as the use of multi-sensory VR simulators to train Australian firefighters. Others, like the autonomous helmet and chromogenic gloves, appear to be a long way off This highlights another problem with this report: it blends genuinely revolutionary ideas such as these with technology that has become standard (such as UAVs), without context for readers who are new to the area.
Takeaways
If you’re considering implementing any of these technologies, the report might provide some case studies to bulk out your business case. It will also be useful to test your risk assessments against the suggested hazards
(which the authors call ‘potential risks’). The second part of the report looks at efforts needed to address the concerns of the ‘digital transition’.
‘Transition’ implies this is a process that will finish, but it seems likely we will need to continue to address changes to workplaces as technology continues to evolve. The role of international, regional and national organisations in overseeing change is summarised, with IOSH getting a mention for its webinar series in 2024: b.link/YT-IOSH-AI.
At company level, the advice repeats a message we read frequently but experience less often: involve your workforce in the design, implementation, use and monitoring of technologies, and document your governance of the data.
To read the full report, go to b.link/ILO-revolutionising
Bridget Leathley is a freelance health and safety consultant and a health and safety trainer.
WELLBEING
THE ELEPHANTS WE HAVE BUILT A ROOM AROUND
Affinity Health at Work is a commercial company with a mission ‘to improve the working lives of all’. As well as client work, Affinity runs a research consortium, making its outputs publicly available. Its report, Addressing the ‘elephant in the room’ of psychosocial hazards: identifying how to address potentially harmful work demands and workload, is based on a systematic review of academic and practitioner literature, followed by Affinity’s own study with four organisations.
Most IOSH magazine readers have been aware of what Affinity considers ‘the elephant in the room’. The GB Health and Safety Executive’s Management Standards (demands, control, support, relationships, change and role) and the accompanying approach have given the elephants names and suggested techniques for taming them. Yet instead of addressing work demands, we’ve inadvertently built a workplace environment that feeds the problem.
Challenges
Hybrid working, while promising to give us more time, has blurred work-home
boundaries, making it difficult for people to take breaks and detach from work. The technologies designed to support communication interrupt focus time and fragment our attention, making it difficult to focus for long on a single task. The data that should make decision-making more effective overloads us with information, leaving us struggling to make the most of all the systems available.
Helpfully, this report provides examples of organisations that have made successful changes to reduce these problems. These include small changes such as introducing microbreaks, or more comprehensive replanning to ensure meetingfree days each week.
The original work in this report is participatory action research (PAR) with teams of people from four organisations. Rather than health and wellbeing specialists determining what measures might support people, the teams identified interventions they believed could help them the most. These included better use of existing communication and task-
management tools, supporting learning and introducing ‘focus time’. The results were mixed; wellbeing improved for all organisations, but only three of the four organisations reported reduced stress, while burnout scores increased in one organisation.
Takeaways
To get rid of the elephants, we need to dismantle the rooms we built around them. This means moving beyond reactive measures like employee assistance programmes to preventive interventions such as job redesign and systemic changes to reduce job demands at source. While it
might be tempting to cherrypick some of the techniques from this report, the important takeaway is the PAR approach. Support the people doing the work to propose changes that address their work demands. While taking care to avoid survey fatigue, some measure of stress before and after an intervention will provide evidence for expansion of any successful pilot programmes. Expectations must be managed, so leadership clarity from the start as to what changes will be supported (and what won’t) is essential.
To read the full report, go to b.link/Affinity-elephant
When you’re stuck in a submarine, deep under water – with no access to daylight or the outside world for months at a time – it’s the support of those around you that protects your mental health. So says Neil Greenberg, a consultant psychiatrist and professor at King’s College London, who spent 23 years as a doctor in the British armed forces.
He believes that psychological resilience is achieved by cultivating healthy teams, rather than just focusing on individuals.
‘The military spends a lot of time training people to not just do their job, but to rely on each other,’ explains Neil. ‘We need to work together to get the job done because if you don’t, bad things can happen.
‘In the military, there were definitely times I was scared. When you’re in a helicopter and there are bullets flying around, you think: “Gosh, this is dangerous.” But you get strength from the people around you. And healthy teams are those in which individuals know their colleagues are looking out for them, that they have their back.’
A study of firefighters in Australia found that – regardless of their challenging experiences – teams with the best supervision and support have around 10% of the risk of a psychological injury of those who don’t (Milligan-Saville et al, 2017).
After Neil graduated from medical school, he joined the Royal Navy and travelled to the Middle East, spent months at sea on a warship and in a submarine, and gained his green beret with the Royal Marines Commandos. It was during his time working with frontline personnel
BY PREVENTING PEOPLE GOING OFF SICK, EVERYONE BENEFITS – EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES
Cultivating resilience
Psychiatrist Professor Neil Greenberg, the new president of the Society of Occupational Medicine, shares what his military career taught him about building mentally tough teams.
WORDS EMMA BENNETT
that Neil became interested in the role of occupational health (OH) in keeping people psychologically fit.
Early intervention
Following five years as a trustee on the Society of Occupational Medicine board, in June this year Neil became the organisation’s president – the first psychiatrist to do so in its 90-year history. He says this reflects the growing understanding of the impact that mental health can have upon people’s ability to work.
With 2.8 million people in the UK locked out of work due to long-term sickness, the government is focused on ‘getting Britain working’, with £240m pledged to tackle the root causes (Department for Work and Pensions et al, 2024). Neil says that key to this will be ensuring that OH professionals can support people earlier and in a more proactive way.
‘OH professionals usually get brought in when things are really complex,’ he says, ‘and by that point it’s very difficult to help people to stay in their current job or to get back to work.
‘If you can get them involved early on, they can give managers and HR professionals advice about how someone’s health can be improved within the workplace. By preventing people going off sick, everyone benefits – employers and employees.’
This means including OH professionals in early discussions about how to manage workplace health, as well as increasing the working population’s access to them. Currently, only 45% of UK workers have access to OH services (Department for Work and Pensions, 2023).
So while society is becoming more aware of mental health difficulties and the need for people to take time out, the NHS does not necessarily have the capability to care for those people promptly. And without access to professional health advice it can be difficult for employers to know what reasonable adjustments could help someone to stay in work.
‘I’ve met plenty of people whose honest belief is they can’t work – they’re too anxious or depressed – it’s not that they’re lazy or just want benefits,’ says Neil. ‘But I’ve also seen people in the military who have lost limbs and thought their life was over, but with the right rehabilitation they go on to lead a fulfilling life.
‘Similarly, I truly believe, and scientific evidence supports this, that if we can get the right support, mentoring and treatment for people with mental health problems, they too can lead a fulfilling life – and their mental health can be improved by going back to work.’
Avoid bad outcomes
In IOSH’s 2023 membership survey, 73% of respondents said mental health and wellbeing should be part of the OSH professional’s role – meaning a quarter disagreed (Warburton, 2024). Neil counters this by stressing the
FOR AN EFFECTIVE, HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANISATION, YOU NEED TO CONSIDER STAFF MENTAL HEALTH
risks associated with poor mental health, especially in high-risk professions.
‘If people in safety-critical roles such as train drivers or those working in health and social care, have a mental health problem and their mind is not properly on the job, you’re going to get some really bad outcomes. If you want a healthy workforce, you must consider mental health.’
Neil also agrees with the provocation in the IOSH-Arup report (2024), that psychological injuries and mental health should be regulated in the same way as physical injuries. However, he says there should be a joint responsibility between the individual and the employer, because
many mental health problems are not caused by work – even on the frontline.
‘You’d imagine that in a war zone the most common reasons for mental health difficulties would be thinking you’re going to be killed or your buddy dying in your arms,’ said Neil. ‘But that isn’t true. It’s thoughts such as “My spouse doesn’t love me, my kids are ill, my boss isn’t treating me fairly.” Day-to-day stresses and people’s home lives have a big impact on their mental health.’
Consider the evidence
As the managing director at psychological health consultancy March on Stress, Neil works with organisations whose employees operate in dangerous and high-pressure environments. In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, he and a colleague went to New York to provide psychological care to Foreign Office personnel through their TRIM (trauma risk management) peer support training. Instead of providing counselling, their ethos is about empowering organisations and their employees to look after themselves.
Neil explains: ‘In the immediate aftermath of a trauma, sending in a mental health professional to provide counselling can do more harm than good. While many people may experience some short-term distress, in most cases they will get better with time and informal support. Our approach is to follow the evidence, which says having a supervisor and colleagues who are giving you good support makes a real difference.’
He warns OSH professionals against choosing wellbeing interventions that are not based on good scientific evidence. Instead they should prioritise training managers to feel confident speaking about mental health.
‘There are lots of fantastic interventions out there but the wellbeing industry can be a bit Wild West,’ says Neil. ‘If you want an effective, high-performing organisation, you need to consider staff mental health. And the most impactful thing any employer can do is to train up the most junior supervisors to support your people.’
LOGISTICS
Supplier fined after reversing lorry crushed banksman
A wholesale supplier to supermarkets has been ordered to pay £1m after a banksman was fatally crushed during a delivery.
THE INCIDENT
In February 2019, Lee Warburton was guiding a reversing HGV into a delivery bay during a routine delivery to a city-centre retail store in Manchester. The 53-year-old, who was employed by grocery wholesaler Bestway Northern, became trapped between the vehicle and a wall. He sustained crush injuries and died at the scene.
THE INVESTIGATION
Despite the presence of two workers and the use of a banksman, there were no controls in place to segregate pedestrians from vehicles or mitigate the risks of reversing manoeuvres in a confined environment.
The GB Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation concluded that Bestway Northern had:
• Failed to conduct a suitable risk assessment for vehicle reversing operations
• Lacked a safe system of work specifically addressing delivery and unloading procedures
• Provided inadequate training and instruction for banksmen, particularly in high-risk settings like urban delivery zones.
THE PROSECUTION
Bestway Northern pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The company was fined £1m and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £11,950 at a hearing at Manchester Magistrates’ Court.
Following the sentencing, HSE inspector Jane Carroll emphasised the ongoing risks associated with workplace transport: ‘This case demonstrates the catastrophic consequences when organisations fail to implement basic safety measures, such as clearly defined vehicle routes, exclusion zones and properly trained banksmen.’
Read the full story at: ioshmagazine.com/Bestway-Warburton
WAREHOUSING
FINE FOR TEXTILE FIRM
AFTER DIRECTOR DIES
British Millerain has been fined £220,000 after director Daniel Ames died from crush injuries, having been trapped between a reversing HGV and steel racking in the firm’s Rochdale warehouse.
THE INCIDENT
Daniel had volunteered to stay behind to assist an incoming HGV. Acting as a banksman, without formal training, he guided the driver as the vehicle reversed into the warehouse. During the manoeuvre, the driver lost sight of him and found him fatally crushed.
THE INVESTIGATION
The GB Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found British Millerain had often allowed HGVs to reverse into the warehouse. Staff confirmed the task had been performed for years without risk assessments or training. An improvement notice was issued after Daniel’s death, with the firm implementing a safe system prohibiting the use of untrained banksmen.
THE PROSECUTION
In July, at Manchester Magistrates’ Court, the firm pleaded guilty to breaching section 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The firm was fined £220,000 and ordered to pay £5634 in costs.
OSH LESSONS
The HSE continues to highlight transport risks, noting that being struck by moving vehicles remains one of the top three causes of workplace deaths. It urges businesses to avoid reversing where possible and to provide appropriate safety systems, including training and technology such as CCTV.
Read more at ioshmagazine.com/ British-Millerain-Ames
Taylor Wimpey prosecuted after stairwell accident
UK housebuilding firm Taylor Wimpey has been fined £800,000 after a 17-year-old apprentice was injured in a fall caused by a temporary stairwell collapse on a construction site in Weston-super-Mare.
THE INCIDENT
Charlie Marsh, a trainee bricklayer, had been working on the Meadfields development – a site set to deliver around 450 new homes – when the accident occurred in August 2023.
Less than a year into his apprenticeship, Charlie had been moving concrete blocks on to the first floor of one of the newly built
CONSTRUCTION
homes when the floor beneath him gave way. A section of temporary flooring, laid over a stairwell and supported by timber joists, collapsed under the weight of the materials. Charlie, along with up to 20kg of concrete blocks, fell more than two metres to the ground below, injuring his fingers, hand, wrist and shoulders.
THE PROSECUTION
Taylor Wimpey UK pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was sentenced at North Somerset Magistrates’ Court in June. The company was fined £800,000 and
ordered to pay £6240 in costs, as well as a £2000 victim surcharge.
OSH LESSONS
‘Everyone working in construction has a responsibility to ensure people are safe,’ said GB Health and Safety Executive inspector Derek Mclauchlan after the hearing. ‘Any work involving structural stability is potentially high risk and should be properly planned and implemented.
‘This incident could have been avoided had the right steps been taken. The failures of Taylor Wimpey resulted in a young man at the very beginning of his career being injured. Charlie was lucky those injuries were not far more serious.’
Read the full story at: ioshmagazine. com/Taylor-Wimpey-Marsh
Teen’s thumb severed at luxury hotel build
A teenage apprentice joiner had his thumb surgically reattached after it was severed by a rotating blade while working on a construction project in the Scottish Highlands.
THE INCIDENT
Employed by 3B Construction, he had been working on the conversion of a hunting lodge into a luxury hotel at Hope Lodge, Tongue, when the incident occurred in June 2021. WORK AT HEIGHT
The then 18-year-old apprentice had been with the company for six months when he was instructed to cut plasterboard using a portable table saw. He tried to flick away material near the blade, inadvertently severing his thumb.
THE INVESTIGATION
A GB Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that 3B Construction failed to:
• Conduct a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for use of the table saw
• Ensure the work system in place for operating the saw was safe and properly supervised
• Provide adequate information, instruction and training for apprentice joiners using the equipment.
The firm, based in Minishant, Ayr, pleaded guilty to breaching sections 2(1) and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
THE PROSECUTION
Tain Sheriff Court fined the firm £40,000 after an investigation identified multiple failings.
‘Companies and individuals should be aware that the HSE and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those that fall below the required standards,’ said HSE inspector Norman Schouten.
Under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, employers are required to take effective measures to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery.
ioshmagazine.com/3Bconstruction
WAREHOUSING
CCTV CAPTURES WORKER HIT BY TELEHANDLER
A serious workplace transport accident at a West Midlands textile processing factory has underlined the importance of managing vehicle movements on-site – and the devastating consequences if it’s neglected.
THE INCIDENT
In March 2023, a worker at JMP Wilcox & Company was struck by a telescopic handler while operating a ride-on electric pallet truck inside the company’s Bilston facility. The 42-year-old man sustained severe leg injuries, resulting in life-changing consequences.
The injured worker had been assisting with stock movement in the ‘goods-in’ area. While returning an empty cage using his pallet truck, he was hit by a telescopic handler driven by a colleague. CCTV captured the moments leading up to the collision and revealed unsafe working practices.
The firm was fined £300,000 and ordered to pay £7732 in costs after pleading guilty to
breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
THE INVESTIGATION
The GB Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the company had failed to properly organise and control vehicle movements within the workplace. This included:
• No effective separation between pedestrians and vehicles
• Inadequate risk assessments related to workplace transport
• Failure to implement simple, industry-standard safety measures to prevent collisions.
‘This incident highlights the dangers to safety from inadequate management of workplace transport,’ said HSE inspector Gail Bell.
‘A man suffered very serious injuries due to the failure to put suitable control measures in place.’ Read the full story at: ioshmagazine.com/ JMP-Wilcox
AROUND THE GLOBE
FOOD FIRM FINED AFTER EMPLOYEE TRAPPED IN GAS-FIRED SMOKEHOUSE
Canada’s Sofina Foods has been ordered to pay $330,000 to fund workplace safety training after employee Samir Subedi died in a 92°C smokehouse at its Edmonton facility. Subedi, who was not properly trained on a makeshift door stopper, became trapped when the smokehouse’s emergency handle failed. The door stopper, installed without engineering approval, had to be activated from outside before entry. Subedi was unaware of its use, and when found unresponsive by a colleague, the internal temperature had soared.
RAIL GIANT ORDERED TO REINSTATE INJURED WHISTLEBLOWER
The US Department of Labour has ordered Union Pacific Railroad to reinstate an employee and pay more than $300,000 in back wages, damages, and attorney’s fees after finding the company violated federal whistleblower protections.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) determined that the railroad engineer was unlawfully sacked after reporting and seeking medical care for a work-related injury.
OSHA’s order requires Union Pacific to restore the employee to their former position with full benefits, in addition to compensatory and punitive damages.
‘This case underscores a worker’s right to report injuries without fear of retaliation,’ OSHA said.
The wider view Webinars
IOSH magazine hosts regular webinars that are free for members and eligible for CPD. If you missed any of our recent sessions, you can watch them on demand.
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Powering your hazard observation with AI
Podcast
breaches
How to use AI to aid hazard reporting and compliance
IOSH’s head of advice and practice, Duncan Spencer CFIOSH, recently joined our panel to discuss how AI-powered safety systems unlock a path to zero harm, zero downtime, and full compliance – without the usual manual workload. Watch it here: ioshmagazine.com/ viso-zero-harm
Safety as a performance driver
Renowned safety writer Louis Wustemann joined Ideagen’s Paul Blundell to discuss how companies positioning safety as a strategic asset, rather than a cost centre, are gaining significant competitive advantages.
Learn more: ioshmagazine.com/ ideagen-performance
Organisations are facing rising expectations to improve safety outcomes, reduce incident rates and demonstrate a more proactive safety culture. But with limited personnel and time, many safety professionals struggle to keep up. Cority’s Kim Moull and Protex AI’s Bex Kilkelly explored how AI is reshaping workplace safety by enabling smarter, faster and more scalable hazard detection. Watch now: ioshmagazine.com/ cority-hazard-observation
AI in safety: practical insights
A Q&A in which Andy Dumbell, cofounder and CTO at Notify, answers key questions raised by IOSH members during our recent CPD webinar: will AI replace the safety professional or turn them into superheroes? This practical guide outlines what to expect, how to get started and what to be mindful of –especially in relation to regulatory, cultural and operational realities. Get the answers you need: ioshmagazine.com/Notify-QA
MORE THAN
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Ask Me Anything with IOSH president Kelly Nicoll Full series now live!
In our ‘Ask Me Anything’ podcast series, IOSH president Kelly Nicoll CFIOSH responds directly to questions from members around the world – no scripts, no fluff, just honest conversations about issues that matter to OSH practitioners.
From professional development and qualifications to governance, social media challenges and the future of safety training – nothing’s off the table.
Episodes now available:
Ep.1: Membership and qualifications
Ep.2: Learning and CPD
Ep.3: IOSH operations and governance
Ep.4: OSH issues and trends
Ep.5: What it takes to be an IOSH president
Tune in now at ioshmagazine.com/podcast, on the IOSH magazine YouTube channel, or wherever you get your podcasts. hazard h AI
Opinion Careers advice
Older workers – the hidden key to future prosperity
In a world shaped by megatrends like climate change, digitalisation and demographic shifts, the OECD Employment Outlook 2025 highlights ageing workforces as a critical yet overlooked priority.
Richard Jones CFIOSH highlights the OSH profession’s key role in creating agefriendly workplaces through flexibility, support and training. Organisations are encouraged to commit to inclusive practices – starting with the Age-friendly Employer Pledge this October. ioshmagazine.com/OECD-older-workers
Pregnancy risk assessments: how common is compliance?
Laura Wilding highlights a troubling OSH gap: pregnancy-related risk assessments are often overlooked or reduced to tick-box exercises, despite clear global guidance. With nearly half of returning parents planning to leave their jobs due to poor support, she urges OSH professionals to act now – prioritising people-focused risk assessments and meaningful conversations. ioshmagazine.com/pregnancy-compliance
Spotlight your technical know-how in IOSH magazine
Have you encountered a technical issue in your work – a near miss, an engineering oversight or a challenge overcome with smart safety thinking? Maybe you’ve developed a new process, discovered a better method, or just have a practical insight worth sharing. Whether it’s niche or industry-wide, we want to hear from you.
Email the editor, Joanne Perry: joanne.perry@ioshmagazine.com
Are your OSH skills ready for the future?
As technology reshapes the workplace and new risks emerge, OSH professionals are facing a stark reality: traditional safety knowledge is no longer enough.
Breaking the experience barrier in OSH: how we can attract new talent
Breaking into a career in OSH can be challenging because of the lack of entry-level roles and practical work experience opportunities. We explore the persistent dilemma many earlycareer professionals face: needing
Issue archive
experience to get a job, but needing a job to gain experience.
Health and safety: a career worth inspecting
OSH has long been championed as a rewarding and impactful profession by IOSH. While progress is being made –notably, a younger global Student member base with an 8% drop in average age since 2021/22 – the UK still faces distinct challenges in attracting early-career professionals. We explore why, and what employers and recruiters can do to help. Read all our careers advice and guidance at ioshjobs.com/careers
Did you know that you can download the last five years of IOSH magazine issues for free? Simply visit ioshmagazine.com/ issues then click on the cover and hit download.
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Leading loudly
OSH issues and trends were the subject when IOSH president Kelly Nicoll CFIOSH joined us for more members’ questions in our Ask Me Anything podcast series.
Why do companies often claim that health and safety is their top priority, yet in practice they tend to prioritise production over safety?
I love this question because we see it all the time, don’t we? ‘Safety is our number one priority’ – and yet people are still having accidents. It’s more nuanced than that. It’s good when organisations do say it, because it’s a recognition that we want everyone to go home safely. But there is also an element of reality, which is that if safety was a business’s number one priority, they probably wouldn’t be in operation because they would be managing their risks to the point where they’re avoiding everything.
It’s important to be curious and ask: ‘What do you mean by safety as your priority and how do you demonstrate that?’ If we dismiss the statement as something cynical it becomes dangerous. I think the way that organisations intend it is safe operations – ‘We want our operations to be as safe as possible.’ When we start to recognise health and safety as an enabler rather than a blocker, we recognise it’s an integral part of how we do the work. When we are really integrated in a business it’s just part of the way that they do business.
The way the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) is responding to building safety cases submitted
Editor Joanne Perry (left) asks Kelly Nicoll (right) members’ questions
in accordance with the Building Safety Act seems to depend on the views of the individuals reviewing each submission. We are not seeing suffi cient guidance being issued to support duty holders either. Is this something that IOSH is monitoring and, if so, are there any plans to support the property sector with this? There have absolutely been clear inconsistencies around how the BSR is responding to cases. And that’s frustrating because it undermines confidence in the whole process and creates so much uncertainty for everybody. A lot of the guidance has turned up late or has lacked detail, which makes it difficult for those of us who are trying to provide support for our business.
The IOSH Construction Community is really focused on this and working closely with the Property Institute as well. One of our vice-presidents, Dr Shaun Lundy, is trying to help shore up the guidance and support that we’re getting. If members are concerned or want additional support – or want to get involved with providing that guidance for others – join our Construction Community.
Off shore environments are known for their unique challenges. What additional or tailored measures do you believe should be implemented to support the mental health and wellbeing of workers, beyond the
standard OSH protocols?
How can leadership play a more proactive role in creating a resilient, supportive culture?
While the usual OSH protocols are a good baseline, offshore is such a distinct environment – physical isolation, a lot of high-risk work, separation from your support network for a long time, that you may take a while to ‘decompress’ before your next rotation.
Have proactive mental health support, whether that’s peer support, mental health first aiders, confidential access to employee assistance programmes or helplines. Make sure that you’re doing mental health and wellbeing check-ins as part of the rotations, and part of the debriefings when you’ve finished a rotation, so that wellbeing and mental health become much easier to talk about.
Let’s reassess the rotation so we make sure people aren’t fatigued, and they are getting adequate rest, especially in safety-critical roles. Make sure the areas where people rest are comfortable and relaxing, away from loud processes.
Develop that culture where psychological safety is as important as physical safety like measuring HAVS [hand-arm vibration syndrome] and noise-induced hearing loss. Let’s challenge our leadership to include mental health and wellbeing KPIs in how we measure success.
Visible commitment is really important, so it’s not just words on a page or a poster, it’s how your leadership lives and breathes – it’s
‘leading loudly’. It’s little things like saying ‘I’m missing my family today’ – allowing other people to know that that’s okay, they’re probably feeling the same thing. I don’t think anybody just wants to see their leadership when they’re going around doing a safety audit.
Do you think diff erent personality styles see and manage risk diff erently?
One of the things we hear all the time is that ‘health and safety is just common sense’ – but if it was, we wouldn’t have jobs because we’d all understand risk in exactly the same way.
We all think differently, and if you look at the way people perceive risk, it doesn’t just come from their personality, it comes from their experiences, whether they’ve got any underlying mental health issues, whether they are neurodivergent, what they were taught as kids. As health and safety professionals we need to have conversations around hazard and risk perception and understanding the way that other people perceive them.
What are your thoughts on the use of AI in health and safety?
Within risk management, as health and safety people are, it’s really important to understand whether it is needed and not just a hot topic –‘We’ve got to have it, otherwise we’ll miss out.’ AI is a tool to be used and it can’t be the case that we allow the tail to wag the dog – that scenario could become quite dangerous.
Don’t feed the trolls
Kelly responds to several questions about handling online negativity and abuse, including from non-members.
What is IOSH doing to protect members and volunteers from the appalling trolling they experience when posting positive and insightful messages on social media? Surely, these individuals are in breach of the code of conduct?
I have experienced trolling and it’s very difficult to be on the receiving end of it. One of the things that people forget when firing off messages is that there are human beings at the other end of it.
We do have a code of conduct that we all sign up to as members of IOSH and if there is a member who is consistently trolling or saying really negative things, you are within your rights as another member to take screenshots and escalate it through our complaints process.
The difficulty is that with the algorithms, the more you engage with it the more it highlights and shows that content. I constantly go back to the principle: don’t feed the trolls. It can be really difficult not to respond because you want to demonstrate that their information is wrong, or they are misquoting somebody, or they’re misunderstanding something (and tone is really difficult to understand in text). Sometimes at IOSH we ignore it rather than engage because we don’t want to raise that profile.
What can we do when we see people running IOSH down and what is the presidential team doing to address this toxic behaviour which distracts from all the good that we do?
It’s important to understand that the engagement IOSH has is generally really positive. But as the presidential team, we can probably challenge
ourselves to promote more of the good that we do. If somebody is going to try to tear us down, let them. They are a handful of people; there are 50,000 of us who all know what we’re here to do. We can disagree about the direction IOSH is taking. Some of the detractors are concerned that IOSH isn’t focusing on the things that are important, but actually, the causes of significant injuries and fatalities are being focused on. One of my themes this year is falls from height and that it is still one of the main reasons why people don’t come home from work. We are very much focused on those things and how we can nudge the dial.
But also, the world of work has changed. We are in the midst of a climate crisis that is happening here and now; that is having a direct impact on our members and the people they work with. We need to have the tools to assist them. We have an increase in people struggling with their mental health – suicide kills more men under 50 than anything else. That is something that we are here to talk about and work for – making workplaces psychologically safer so that people can reach out when they are struggling.
Any life lost from a preventable injury or incident – physical or mental – is one too many. Just because our profession has diversified, it doesn’t mean we’re not focused on the things that do significant harm.
Do you think it’s fair that a small minority of members and ex-members take up valuable IOSH resources with attacks, accusations and requests for data that serve little purpose aside from disruption, and stop those resources being effectively used for the benefit of the membership? And what can be done about this?
Safety online
LinkedIn community guidelines: b.link/LinkedIncommunity-guidelines
How to report abusive or other inappropriate content and comments: b.link/LinkedInabusive-content
If you have posted, click on the three dots on a comment to report it to LinkedIn. You can block an individual as part of that process, or go directly to their profile to do so.
Do I think it’s fair? No. We try to be as open and transparent as we possibly can. Minutes from Council meetings are made available. We’re also moving onto the Communities platform and the Council and the presidential teams are much more visible within that platform – I think that’s really positive. It goes back to, if people aren’t following the code of conduct, we have a duty as members to call it out. One of the other things that we can do is flood places like LinkedIn with the positive rather than the negative.
If people do disagree, roll your sleeves up and get involved. There are better ways of disagreeing than firing off what you think is a clever barb at somebody who is so passionate about what they do that they have sacrificed time with their family, time at work, annual leave and even pay, if they are consultants.
As health and safety professionals we can use AI to generate our reports, gather and do an initial analysis of our data, which means that we are not chained to our desks, that we get to go out a lot more and engage with people. Let’s continue to use it to reduce our admin load, making sure that we’re still reviewing it, questioning it and challenging it. I don’t think it will take our jobs. What AI does is enable us to do the human-centric side of things – going out and engaging with people to talk to them about the hazards they face.
Questions and answers have been edited for reasons of space. Kelly has now responded to all members’ questions submitted for our Ask Me Anything series. To listen to all episodes in full, visit ioshmagazine. com/podcast/AMA
GET PUBLISHED IN IOSH MAGAZINE
One member asked how to get their work published in IOSH magazine and editor Joanne Perry was happy to contribute to the answer:
• Send a summary of your proposed article to joanne.perry@ioshmagazine.com, ideally with bullet points so that it’s easy to digest.
• Article ideas will be discussed by the content team and a decision made about whether to take the idea forward.
• There’s no guarantee of publication but we always appreciate receiving suggestions. We are particularly keen to hear
from anyone with a case
study that could be useful for other members.
• ‘It’s brilliant for your CPD,’ Kelly Nicoll adds. ‘If you’re looking at your fellowship, being published is one of the things looked for as part of the criteria.’
The energy transition has been brought into renewed focus following the UK government’s plans to accelerate investment in renewable energy. However, the practical reality is that to meet the new deadline, safety must be prioritised. Without comprehensive safety procedures in place, there is a very real risk of setbacks that may affect the 2030 goal.
There are five key points to address in the area of health and safety as the energy transition starts to accelerate.
1
Challenge perceptions
Unlike the oil and gas sector, many view the clean energy sector as ‘clean, green and safe’. This is perhaps hardly surprising when – to the general population at least – the messaging and visual images used to portray the industry are often associated with a green, natural world.
The reality is quite different, and in many respects the safety risks involved in the energy transition are not vastly dissimilar to those faced in the oil and gas sector.
Research carried out by the University of Strathclyde found that injuries in the offshore wind sector were up to four times higher than in the offshore oil and gas – a trend that the research anticipates will actually increase due to growth and the implementation of new technologies (Rowell et al, 2024).
There are steps to be taken between the perception of risk, the acceptance of actual risk, and the development of trust in the safety of the industry. The latter end goal can only be built upon good experiences
SPEEDING UP THE ENERGY TRANSITION
and a lack of dramatic incidents.
Understanding and accepting safety realities is a vital priority for those operating in the clean energy sector, and every chance should be taken to encourage the transfer of safety knowledge from legacy industries.
Five key safety areas need addressing to support the shift to renewables, says Megan Hine, safe energy transition business development manager, Draeger Safety UK.
2
Put safety first
The safety profession has a key role to play in communicating the need for rigorous safety standards across renewable energy industries, in line with the mature and welladvanced safety standards in the
oil and gas industry. The success of renewable energy will depend on confidence and trust in this industry. Therefore, having comprehensive safety and health measures in place is a vital part of building and maintaining public confidence in the new
energy industry. Any significant safety incident that erodes this trust could have consequences for future investment.
Finance will be key to meeting the government’s decarbonisation plans, and experts believe that this investment will need to be boosted by a further £48bn. Cornwall Insight, one of the leading energy forecasters, has warned that hitting the proposed target would require a major ‘step-change’ to close the current renewable investment gap (Davies, 2024).
We argue that having comprehensive safety standards in place can help secure trust and confidence in the long-term viability of investments, and will act as an enabler to acquire finance, insurance and planning for the future.
It will be critical to prevent corners being cut to meet these safety standards, regardless of potential pressure created by the promised reductions to energy bills for members of the public.
3
Encourage more research and development (R&D) collaboration
With a growing emphasis on the need for innovation to help reduce the global reliance on fossil fuels, many of the advances seen in the energy transition are new to market and, in some cases, not yet widely tested.
While this type of innovation is an important element of the energy transition, it also presents significant challenges from a safety perspective.
The nature of research and development is to encourage blue-sky thinking, often through highly interdisciplinary and disruptive solutions – something that is not necessarily as easy to do in an industry setting.
The key to success with industry and academia/R&D alignment is to make sure that the focus is not purely on what is possible, but what is feasible; if technology costs too much –particularly in an early-stage or low margin industry – it will not be adopted.
Collaboration of this kind is essential to enable the development of industryleading uniform safety protocols and recognised safety standards, which will play a critical part in the evolution of safety in the sector.
4
Embrace the potential of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) Technology and AI is an area with significant potential for safety in the energy transition.
As part of the Dräger Safety and health at work report
MANY OF THE ADVANCES SEEN ARE NOT YET WIDELY TESTED
(2025), almost half (44%) of those in the study said that AI could enhance workplace safety by reducing human error through automating repetitive safety checks.
This is particularly relevant in complex environments or processes that involve chemical transformations (such as electrolysis), physical processes (such as hydrogen transport) or when connecting several stages and energy vectors.
Furthermore, over a third (37%) of respondents were of the view that such technologies could improve employee training, which could offer particular advantages in new energy industries with less of a track record when it comes to certain safety situations.
Advances in remote satellite observation and remote monitoring of (potentially very sophisticated) safety systems – already present in a range of safety technology including gas and flame detection devices –also offer huge potential.
Fundamentally, better and more connected technology, as well as better user interfaces, should make safety easier for managers to monitor colleagues and better identify potential issues – and alert workers to hazards in the vicinity.
However, caution and balance around AI in workplace safety are crucial, and indeed 92% of respondents said they see risks with AI
implementation in the next five years. The most commonly mentioned concerns are an over-reliance on AI leading to complacency in safety practices (47%); the possibility that it will lead to job losses (43%); privacy concerns related to employee monitoring (39%); technical failures or malfunctions in critical safety systems (38%); misinterpretation of AIgenerated safety data (36%); and resistance to change from employees (36%).
5Respond to new intelligence
With new technology and techniques being developed, there is an element of the unknown when it comes to safety.
The rapid growth requires the safety sector to keep pace, to address constantly evolving safety requirements and to put in place comprehensive safety training for employees.
Until recently, the industry talked about the ‘energy trilemma’, maintaining a balance of sustainability, affordability and security. This has now evolved to the ‘energy quadrilemma’, with the addition of protecting people and assets.
The bottom line is that if the energy transition does not get safety right first time, incidents will lead to difficulty getting planning, insurance, investment and public backing. Safety does not need to hinder progress. Instead, getting safety right will be key to speeding things up.
For references, see ioshmagazine.com/ energy-transition-Megan-Hine
BEHAVIOUR True leadership
Attitudes and actions from the very top of an organisation trickle down and can encourage good practice from everybody.
WORDS ANGELA GRAY CMIOSH
In previous issues we have described the first and second modules of the business assurance model – in the March/April edition of IOSH magazine we covered governance and leadership, and in July/ August systems and processes.
In this issue, we are going to take a closer look at the third and final module – people and culture.
The epitome of OSH maturity within an organisation is the presence of a strong, visible leadership team. It should have positive OSH attitudes and behaviours that are evident through all layers of the organisation and are credible and impactful. There is a prevalent belief within the organisation that ill health and accidents at work are completely preventable, with high hazard awareness across the workforce, supported by an innate understanding of risk potential.
In an organisation with a positive OSH culture, everyone takes pride in, and personal accountability for, ensuring a safe and healthy workplace. They create a culture of care and look out for each other.
Where the second module, systems and processes, considers the enablers of good governance and leadership, the seven elements contained within this third module are considered the outcomes of good governance and leadership.
People and culture (Outcomes of good governance)
Leaders should be a visible inspiration to the organisation, acting with integrity and consistently demonstrating the true value unlocked by a great OSH culture.
Competent OSH support
Governance and leadership (Setting the tone) Business assurance
Systems and processes (Enabling good governance)
Authentic leadership
This element explores the prevailing attitudes of the leadership teams. Is the importance of OSH cultural fit recognised at all levels? Are the board/ executive leadership forthright about their commitment to OSH? Are they surrounded by a like-minded team that shares the values and vision of the organisation?
The role and the vision of the OSH professional is core to developing a mature OSH culture. This element is looking for indicators that the OSH professionals (team) employed by the organisation are viewed as an enabling function driving broader business value. They are a valued and trusted resource. Continuing professional development is assumed, supported and aligned to business context and strategic direction.
Optimising potential
The prevalent beliefs and behaviours within an organisation are organic, but can be shaped by the board and executive leadership through their own example, as well as through principles, policies and rewarded practices. A mature OSH culture and high performance can only be achieved when leadership teams and the workforce truly believe that ill health and accidents at work are completely preventable. The skills required for businesscritical tasks and high-risk activities are identified and effectively managed. Critical
The three modules of the IOSH Business Assurance Certification
roles and leadership stability is assured through effective succession planning and talent management.
Voice from the floor
In a mature OSH culture, workers are fully engaged in OSH programmes and are consulted on improvement strategies and change proposals. Culture change takes time. The pace of change is carefully monitored to ensure each milestone has been achieved, desired outcomes are embedded and everyone is ready to move forward to the next phase.
Positively framed interventions, conversations and incentives will create a climate in which an OSH culture will develop and mature. It is important that workers feel they have a voice and can report incidents and raise concerns openly and honestly.
Leaders should listen, understand and respond in a manner that does not suppress participation or stifle workers’ enthusiasm to improve the OSH performance.
Affected parties
Strategic development, growth and operational changes will be considerate of the potential for environmental and social impacts.
The organisation recognises their responsibility to their local communities and neighbours. Building strong, positive relationships unlocks incredible benefits to longer-term stability and the value of
IT IS IMPORTANT WORKERS FEEL THEY HAVE A VOICE AND CAN REPORT INCIDENTS
an organisation. Investment in building positive and productive operational working relationships with contractors creates a wider OSH community invested in helping to promote and secure safe working practices for everyone.
Competent OSH support
Authentic leadership
Managing the OSH climate
People and culture
(Outcomes of good governance)
Responsible business conduct
Module 3: people and culture
Mutually beneficial relationships support strong OSH performance and proliferate OSH maturity.
Responsible business conduct
Organisations should consider societal, environmental, legal, cultural, political and organisational diversity – as well as differences in economic conditions – while being consistent with international norms of behaviour.
Failures to safeguard working people’s human rights, safety and health and wellbeing have harmful repercussions for a business’s reputation and profitability. By understanding their impact on society and the environment, they should prevent, manage and mitigate any negative impact that they may cause, including within their global supply chain.
Legal compliance is a ‘minimum’. Organisations should strive to go ‘beyond compliance’ by addressing these issues and integrating them into their business strategy and operational purpose.
Affected parties
Optimising potential
Managing the OSH climate
Countries and regions have their unique social culture and business environment. The operation modes and business culture may also be different among organisations in different countries and regions. Boards/ executives are aware of the potential impacts of changes in commercial or operating conditions and take pre-emptive steps to negate the effects on the OSH culture.
Organisations striving to improve their OSH cultural maturity and performance must be mindful of factors, events or changes that may halt or revert the progress they have made and undermine their efforts to embed the positive beliefs, values and attitudes across their workforce.
Request your free ebook, Towards a Stronger OSH Culture, for a broader view of cultural development: b.link/IOSH-ebooks
For further information regarding the IOSH Business Assurance Certification process, visit iosh.com/business
Voice from the floor
A defining era
Ten foundational
principles of
OSH offer
‘lenses’
from three perspectives to understand what underpins decent work. Here is the journey of how IOSH defined them – and what comes next.
WORDS SIMON
BUTT-BETHLENDY
In March 2025, the IOSH principles of good occupational safety and health were released, setting out 10 guiding principles designed to define and inspire what ‘good’ looks like in workplace health, safety and wellbeing.
Although the International Labour Organization (ILO) had developed international and occupational safety standards through conventions and formal processes with its members in each ILO country, global actors only began questioning ‘what good looks like’ when, in 2022, ‘a safe and healthy working environment’ was declared a fundamental principle and right at work.
As the global chartered body for safety and health professionals worldwide, IOSH, together with key stakeholders, created this resource to codify universal characteristics of good OSH principles and practice.
But what gaps do these principles fill, what was learnt during their development, is there more to come, and how should OSH professionals now put them into practice?
Filling the gap
For decades, OSH professionals have referred to ‘fundamentals’ or ‘principles’ in everyday language. But, as Duncan Spencer CFIOSH, head of advice and practice at IOSH, says: ‘No one had actually tried to sit down and write them down.’
Ruth Wilkinson CMIOSH, head of policy and public affairs at IOSH, explains that ‘while international OSH frameworks exist through ILO conventions, Sustainable Development Goals and standards such
as ISO 45001, there was no single, concise reference capturing core OSH principles for today’s global workplace.
‘IOSH created an initial set based on our vision of a safe and healthy world of work, drawing on professional experience and designed as adaptable principles rather than prescriptive rules. ’
Dr Chris Davis, IOSH thought leadership manager, notes that the principles are not just minimum standards or aspirations.
‘Principles are the underpinning elements from which standards, rules and processes follow. These principles will be picked up and utilised differently across different contexts.’
The new IOSH principles of good OSH aim to answer needs by:
• Defining what good OSH looks like in a way that is accessible across organisations regardless of size, across all industries and sectors, countries, cultures and contexts –meaning they must be truly universal
• Providing a benchmark for measurement and performance and a tool for advocacy, policy and education
• Aligning with the ILO’s 2022 declaration that a safe and healthy working
environment is a fundamental principle and right at work, as well as other fundamental human and labour rights for workers
• Supporting sustainable development by influencing and embedding good OSH in the wider context of social sustainability and decent work to support social and economic wellbeing.
Why they’re needed
The world of work is changing rapidly, with new technologies, new ways of working, flexible working patterns and evolving risks. In this context, IOSH will articulate what ‘good OSH’ is and how to measure it, ensuring that safety and health remain at the heart of sustainable development and human rights. The principles are designed to be relevant, practical and future-proof, supporting everyone with a stake in workplace health and safety – from governments, policy-makers and regulators to organisations, duty holders and line managers, not forgetting OSH professionals and workers themselves.
THE JOURNEY
Origins and development
The process began with a simple question: what are the building blocks of an OSH management system and how do they relate to different stakeholder groups?
A third set was later added for workers. Duncan explains that ‘when we finished, it reflected many of the elements of standards ... but we realised there was an overall list and the government, business and worker perspectives were expressions of this foundational list’.
Three perspectives – and the power of the worker lens
A key insight emerged during a series of roundtables and consultative discussions. While government and business responsibilities were well-trodden ground, the worker perspective needed greater emphasis. Chris reflects: ‘We became aware of the need for a worker perspective while getting stakeholders’ views.
‘Interestingly, the conversations that followed led to some significant refinements to this third list – for workers. On the one hand, we realised that principles for workers related less to what things they had to do themselves ... and more to do with their entitlements and what their employers should do for them to work safely and healthily. This led us to conclude that a set of principles known and understood by workers could be really empowering.’
Broad consultation and refinement
A SET OF
Drawing on experience and evidence, the IOSH team mapped out elements familiar from various established frameworks and standards, which included international approaches such as the ILO’s framework of standards, national regulatory approaches such as the GB Health and Safety Executive’s Managing for health and safety HSG65, and international standards such as ISO 45001:2018, alongside the IOSH competency framework. This led to a first draft of the IOSH principles, which were taken out for consultation with a range of stakeholders including IOSH member representatives, employer representatives, OSH stakeholders, OSH standards setters, allied professions, worker representatives, academics and international partners.
PRINCIPLES KNOWN AND UNDERSTOOD BY WORKERS COULD BE REALLY EMPOWERING
The IOSH principles were further shaped and developed by extensive engagement and feedback from different stakeholder focus groups.
Duncan recalls: ‘No one challenged the list, but they often had comments about the wording used to describe the list. The original list was verbose, which provided opportunity for debate and disagreement about the fine-tuning of phrasing.
In early-stage consultation, IOSH proposed two sets of principles: one for governments and one for organisations.
‘What then emerged from the now three lenses of government, business and workers became a fine-tuning exercise to identify and name those key actors [that]
Did you spot the QR code on our July-August cover? It took readers to IOSH.com to discover the principles
can influence OSH decision-making and drive OSH standards globally,’ said Ruth. ‘So “governments” became “governments and regulators”, and “businesses” became “organisations and duty holders”.’
Challenge and feedback from stakeholders during the development of the principles quite rightly queried whether they were truly principles if they defined elements of OSH for different stakeholders. This led to a set of overarching ‘guiding principles’. The team distilled the content into 10 clear, concise principles, ensuring consistency and clarity across stakeholder groups.
Debates and discussion
While developing the IOSH principles, several debates animated the process and provided IOSH with real insights and opportunities to explore and consider: Universalism vs context: Should the principles be universal, or tailored to different cultures and legal systems? The IOSH principles had to be universal, so they are principles that apply to all and draw on what is already in place so we can amplify it. Tailoring, however, is necessary when articulating the principles at a government (national), business (workplace) and worker level.
Principles vs standards: Chris notes: ‘There was a valid line of inquiry about how the principles can encourage the development of good OSH systems and whether they refer to minimum standards, aspirations or something else.’ The answer: principles underpin standards but are not prescriptive. This feedback helped identify the need for the 10 overarching guiding principles of good OSH.
Cross-cutting themes: Some principles, such as collaboration and ethical values, cut across all stakeholder groups, reinforcing the idea that good OSH is everyone’s responsibility.
What does ‘good OSH’ cover? The principles talk about occupational safety, health and wellbeing. All of these elements are important parts of good OSH.
THESE PRINCIPLES OF GOOD
OSH MARK A NEW CHAPTER FOR IOSH, FOR OSH AND FOR
THE PROFESSION
A base to build on IOSH’s principles of good OSH mark a new chapter for IOSH, for OSH and for the profession. It is a shared language and vision for everyone with a stake in workplace health and safety. Developed through broad consultation and reflecting diverse perspectives, the principles are both a compass and a call to action. The challenge now is to ensure they are not just words on a page, but living values that shape policy, practice and culture in every working environment.
‘Our next step,’ says Ruth, ‘is to begin publishing guidance and toolkits that help key audiences put these IOSH principles into practice. Then we will develop impact measures that enable stakeholders to determine how well strategies, policies and interventions informed by the IOSH principles are working and identify where further improvements and action are needed to aid continuous improvement.’
As the world of work continues to evolve, the principles offer a steady guide – not just for IOSH and OSH professionals, but for governments, organisations and workers everywhere – to create safer, healthier and fairer workplaces for all.
The 10 guiding principles: a brief overview
IOSH’s principles of good OSH are:
1. PREVENTION Injury and ill health at work is preventable.
2. WORKER RIGHTS Workers’ safety and health are embedded in rights frameworks and are vital components of sustainable development.
3. ACCOUNTABILITY Accountability and enforcement create a deterrent against poor safety, health and wellbeing practices at work and help to build sustainable practices.
4. COMMITMENT Good occupational safety, health and wellbeing is built upon a combination of leadership, commitment and policy.
5. COLLABORATION Collaborative approaches involving all appropriate stakeholders, including workers and representatives, create more resilient and comprehensive safety, health and wellbeing systems.
6. EVIDENCE-DRIVEN RISK MITIGATION Risk-led and evidencedriven approaches facilitate proactive, proportionate responses to existing and future OSH issues.
7. KNOWLEDGE PROVISION Free and open information exchange of trustworthy information creates shared knowledge and understanding of occupational safety, health and wellbeing.
8. LEARNING AND IMPROVEMENT Timely, accurate and relevant data can be used to inform action, support learning and make improvements to safety, health and wellbeing.
9. REHABILITATION Compensatory, protective and rehabilitative systems protect workers after injury or ill health and support their sustainable return.
1O. ETHICAL VALUES Recognising the diversity of OSH needs and respecting difference ensures more equitable systems that protect all workers.
CRISIS IN THE CLASSROOM
Severe challenges, including aggressive behaviour by students, are leading to ill health and burnout among the UK’s secondary school teachers. In this special investigation, we expose what’s really happening on the frontline of education and ask the question: why are chronic stress, abuse and even attacks accepted as routine in UK schools?
WORDS CLAIRE MOULDS
Last year, no fewer than 41,200 teachers left their state-funded school in England – one in 11 of all qualified teachers. It’s a worrying trend, with only 57% of teachers who qualified 10 years ago still teaching today (Department for Education, 2025).
An overwhelming workload, worsening pupil behaviour, stagnant pay, the need to continually be ‘Ofsted ready’ and a lack of flexible working options have all been cited as factors contributing to the exodus (Adams, 2025; Henshaw, 2024; UK Parliament, 2024).
The impact of these working conditions on a teacher’s health also plays a significant role. An estimated 170,000 education workers are currently suffering from work-related ill health –around 4.8% of workers in the sector, compared with 4.1% for workers across all industries. Of those, 53% report stress, depression or anxiety and 19% musculoskeletal disorders (GB Health and Safety Executive, 2024).
Burnout is a growing issue. Seventy-eight per cent of school teachers are stressed, 73% say their job doesn’t leave them time for a personal life, and 50% of staff believe that their organisation’s
culture has a negative impact on mental health and wellbeing. Of those who experience physical, psychological or behavioural symptoms due to their work, 35% believe these could be an indication of burnout (Education Support, 2024).
Daniel Madigan, professor of sport and health psychology at York St John University, explains: ‘As well as having a detrimental effect on a teacher’s physical and mental health, [burnout] also makes them less effective in the classroom and, unsurprisingly, one of the main consequences of burnout is dropout.’
‘Workload and pressure have become significantly more intense in recent years,’ confirms Adele Partridge CMIOSH, health and safety consultant at HSinCare and a member of the IOSH Education Community Committee. ‘Working evenings and weekends leads to a pervasive feeling of being “always on”. It’s a situation made worse by the fact that everybody is now doing three jobs due to diminishing budgets, which has resulted in staff redundancies and reduced resources.
‘Teachers are having to skip their lunch break, as they are needed to cover playground duties or to be on hand as first aiders. PPA [planning, preparation and assessment time] might be spent sorting out an urgent safeguarding issue, so planning and preparation will then have to be done at home in the teacher’s own time. Meanwhile, headteachers often tell me they feel like social workers.
cultures in schools, together with the risk of violence, aggression and harassment ‘can create toxic, unsustainable environments that risk harming both teachers’ and students’ wellbeing’.
Bad behaviour as the norm
Over 80% of teachers report pupil indiscipline as one of their top job concerns. So-called ‘lowlevel disruption’ includes constant challenges to authority, a persistent refusal to obey rules and the frequent verbal abuse of staff and leads to schools losing almost a quarter of lesson time to poor behaviour (NASUWT, 2025a; Department for Education, 2024).
According to Melissa, ‘Being told to “f*** off ” by pupils turned out to be a daily occurrence. It never got any easier and was always a shock. It would come out of nowhere, often in response to something really trivial, such as asking them to write in pen, not pencil.’
In its recently published Behaviour in schools report, which draws on the experiences of 5,800 teachers and leaders, NASUWT, the teachers union, also found growing concern over violent and abusive pupil behaviour (see Bad behaviour in schools, page 39): for example, 40% of respondents had experienced physical abuse or violence from pupils in the past 12 months (NASUWT, 2025b). And the problem is not just among secondary school pupils: teachers are reporting rising levels of aggression even among primary school children.
Schools simply have too little resource spread far too thinly.’
‘People outside the profession don’t realise just how bad things are for teachers right now,’ says Melissa, who left secondary school teaching to become a tutor (read her story on page 38). ‘They look at our six-week summer holiday and think we have an easy life, when the reality is you’ll spend those weeks reeling from everything that happened the previous term, emotionally recovering and lesson planning ready for the new school year.’
Ruth Wilkinson CMIOSH, head of policy and public affairs at IOSH, says that poor workplace
PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE PROFESSION DON’T REALISE JUST HOW BAD THINGS ARE FOR TEACHERS RIGHT NOW
‘I work in the primary sector and there has been a substantial increase in physical and verbal abuse directed at teachers by pupils and their parents,’ says Adele. ‘It’s a worrying trend that’s on the rise and we’re seeing teaching staff require first aid treatment and/or time off to recover from the actions of pupils.’
At a time when teachers have never been more vulnerable in the classroom, more than a third have been made to feel that they are to blame if they have an issue with poor pupil behaviour, while 39% do not feel supported by their organisation’s approach to dealing with it. Incredibly, 43% also said that their organisation’s culture treats poor pupil behaviour as ‘part of the job’ and that they are told they should expect to receive abuse and violence from pupils (NASUWT, 2025b).
Students over staff
‘There does seem to be a trend to favour the wellbeing and safety of pupils over that of teachers,’ says Adele. ‘For instance, I’ve noticed that staff injuries are not always prioritised to the same extent as pupil incidents and that, when staff injury accident reports are completed, the remedial actions often focus solely on updating pupil risk assessments, rather than addressing how to prevent recurrence of the staff injury itself.
‘This “ranking” of pupil over teacher then carries through into how bad behaviour is dealt with, as many behaviour management policies offer little evidence of support for teachers after they’ve handled a deescalation. We should be explicitly assessing the risk to staff from challenging behaviour, and remedial action should include changes to the environment, new areas to be used as a safe place and a review of time spent with one pupil, rather than just updating the pupil’s behaviour plan.’
Recently, teachers at Westbourne Academy in Ipswich went on strike in response to a large group of pupils refusing to attend lessons and roaming the school, disrupting other lessons and engaging in threatening behaviour towards staff (who had chairs and scissors thrown at them) and other pupils.
Despite the severity of the situation, teachers felt abandoned by school leaders, left without effective support and that they had no choice but to take strike action (Burchell, 2025).
‘When a school’s wellbeing action plan boils down to a quiz night or yoga session at the end of the year,
it strongly suggests that some senior leadership teams are not adequately equipped to plan meaningful support for staff who face challenging behaviour on a daily basis,’ says Adele.
‘There should be a data-driven plan where staff surveys are used to identify specific stressors which then enables the creation of targeted initiatives. A school should also promote all the mental health resources available to staff including Education Support’s freephone helpline, where teachers can speak to a qualified counsellor.’
Daniel adds that schools need to be aware of signs of burnout, but preventive action is far more effective. He says two main approaches are available: ‘The first is to alter teacher workload, for example by reducing the total number of hours worked or by reducing the length of a shift. The second is to deploy interventions that enhance communication and teamwork, so that teachers feel heard, supported and empowered.’
Toxic influences from social media
When asked to identify the key driving factors behind deteriorating pupil behaviour, use of social media was the most commonly cited issue (59%) by teachers, followed by poor socialisation skills after COVID-19 restrictions (58%) and ineffective restorative behaviour programmes (54%), while half of respondents identified poor pupil mental health (50%).
IOSH Special Investigation / Crisis in the classroom
ISTOCK
Disturbingly, 47% cited social media as a cause of poor behaviour in the primary sector, despite children at primary school being under the age of consent for social media sites (NASUWT, 2025b).
‘One of the many problems with social media is that it creates movements, which the kids jump on,’ adds Melissa. ‘There was a campaign, fuelled by TikTok, where students across the country were protesting about toilet policies in school. As a result, a perfectly reasonable request for a student to wait five minutes while you finish briefing the class on a task before they go to the toilet would be met with an explosive response and accusations that you’re taking away their human rights.’
Social media is also fuelling a rise in misogyny thanks to the ‘manosphere’, which promotes toxic masculinity, misogyny and opposition to feminism and which is populated by personalities such as Andrew Tate and groups such as ‘incels’. Since teaching is a female-dominated profession, with the proportion of male secondary school teachers at a record low of 35% (Fullard, 2022), this means that large numbers of female staff are vulnerable to abuse by male students influenced by this ‘manosphere’.
Male pupils have been witnessed following misogynistic influencers, making misogynistic comments and engaging in discriminatory behaviour towards female students and teachers. This includes not respecting female members of staff (19% of secondary school teachers reference being disrespected by their pupils), reacting adversely to instructions from them and making derogatory statements about their looks. It was found that 76% of secondary teachers and, shockingly, 60% of primary teachers feel that the influence of online misogyny over their pupils is extremely concerning while 40% of teachers feel illequipped to handle misogynistic behaviour (Over et al, 2025; McCough and Dunkley, 2025).
TEACHERS ARE TOLD TO EXPECT ABUSE AS ‘PART OF THE JOB’
Source: Education Support, 2024
Tate is so strong that all children are susceptible to it,’ says Melissa. ‘I had a lovely, really well-behaved boy in one class and even he was drawn into it. When a male teacher sat him down to have a “man to man” chat he came away saying it was like talking to a brick wall, as Tate’s messaging was so ingrained.’
Adele says an additional factor in this very challenging behavioural environment is the increasing prevalence of more complex needs among students ‘particularly in areas like autism, social, emotional and mental health and speech, language and communication’.
‘Team Teach training – which focuses on positive behaviour management strategies and de-escalation techniques – isn’t consistently provided across all schools and Advanced Team Teach isn’t considered a requirement for all staff working with pupils with
special educational needs. This means teachers often lack the appropriate skills to manage challenging behaviour effectively.’
Weapons in the workplace
It gets worse, with the growing presence of weapons in schools a serious cause for concern. Recent statistics show that the police recorded 150 stabbings or other knife crimes causing injuries at schools across England and Wales last year (Channel 4 News, 2025). As only around half of police forces were able to provide data, the true extent of knife crime in schools is likely to be far greater.
Worryingly, 6% of teachers have personally seen a child with a knife or bladed article in school this academic year but only 15% of teachers have received any formal training or guidance on how to deal with pupils and knives (Vittozzi, 2025).
Meanwhile, NASUWT reports that more than one in 20 respondents to its Behaviour in
Ofsted and the pressure to perform
The National Education Union (NEU) has repeatedly highlighted the link between the pressure to secure a good Ofsted rating and the severe levels of harm that this causes, to the extent that Ofsted inspections have been found to be a contributing factor in a number of teacher suicides in the UK.
Tragically, suicides among teachers are on the rise in England, with 27 male secondary school teachers taking their own life (compared with one female teacher) and 26 female primary school teachers (compared with one male teacher) in 2024 (Office for National Statistics, 2025).
The NEU is calling for Ofsted to be seen as a health and safety risk, which should be assessed and controlled just like any other workplace hazard, and has launched a risk assessment guide to help employers: b.link/NEU-Ofsted-riskassessement-guide.
It’s also calling for a change in the law so that employers are required to report work-related suicides to the GB Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and that the HSE is required to investigate such deaths.
In response to ongoing criticism of Ofsted, the government announced the removal of ‘one word’ judgements in 2024 and revisions to the inspection process.
However, the NEU and a coalition of organisations and individuals wrote to secretary of state for education Bridget Phillipson in April as they felt the proposed new system would continue to drive excessive pressures, ill health and stress for the teaching profession, with the real risk of further preventable deaths.
ISTOCK
Key causes of non-fatal injuries in education
Slips, trips or falls on same level 43%
Acts of violence 17% (the second-highest sector, after health and social work at 53%)
Struck by moving, including flying/ falling, object 9%
Injured while handling, lifting or carrying 7%
MELISSA’S STORY
‘Being in the classroom
I was called a c*** on the second day of my new job. There’d been no indication of a problem with pupil behaviour during the interview process. Here I was, though, with a Year 9 pupil going through my desk drawers hunting for the laser pen I’d confiscated earlier after he’d been shining it in other pupils’ eyes. Any attempt to talk to him was met with an escalation of swearing until we hit the C-word. Being told to ‘f*** off’ by pupils turned out to be a daily occurrence. It never got any easier and was always a shock. It would come out of nowhere, often in response to something really trivial, such as asking them to write in pen, not pencil. As a small female teacher, I found that boys would get physical, squaring up to me in front of the whole class and saying: ‘What you going to do?’
Falls from height
g 7%
left me with PTSD’
to be in isolation the next day, but frequently they would still arrive in your class as ‘isolation was full’. Worse still, you’d feel pressured by the SLT to downgrade incidents or be challenged on whether you’d made the right judgement, leaving you second guessing yourself. Rather than backing you, they’d constantly make excuses for the kids.
Out of school, I couldn’t stop crying. I lost a significant amount of weight and my body just
BOYS WOULD GET PHYSICAL, SQUARING UP TO ME IN CLASS
that I would eventually become hardened to the environment, which speaks volumes about what teachers are told they should put up with.
I hoped resigning and moving to a new school would be the answer but the symptoms continued. In fact, they got so bad that my mum sat me down to check I wasn’t feeling suicidal. That’s when I knew I needed professional help.
The ‘on call’ system, which was supposed to be my last line of defence, was useless. You’d ring, in front of a class of 30 pupils, and nobody would answer, so they then knew help wasn’t coming.
The school’s response to bad behaviour was woeful. The senior leadership team seemed to be afraid of the parents and would tiptoe around it, as they didn’t want to be seen to be discriminating or not meeting a need. If a child’s behaviour was extremely bad they were meant
wouldn’t function properly as I was so stressed out. I’d become a person that I didn’t recognise. Disturbingly, many of the other teachers viewed all of this as perfectly normal as they’d become inured to it, despite the school haemorrhaging staff and loads more off work with stress. One of the senior members of staff in my department even told me she cried every night for the first six months after she joined, as she sought to reassure me
My first session was a revelation, as the therapist confirmed I was suffering from PTSD, a condition you’d normally associate with the battlefield, not a classroom. Apparently, I was so traumatised by constantly being in survival mode at my previous school that every time I stepped into a classroom it was triggering an anxiety response. As well as giving me coping mechanisms she advised me that, in her professional opinion, I should take a break from teaching.
I now work as a tutor in alternative learning provision for children who can’t go into school – for example those with severe autism. The lessons are one-to-one and mostly in the child’s home environment, where they feel safe. Finally, I can be the nurturing, inspiring teacher I always wanted to be within an organisation that also prioritises my health and wellbeing.
schools report have been threatened with assault with a weapon by a pupil, and 3% have experienced an actual assault (NASUWT, 2025b).
‘Recently, in one of the schools I work with, a primary-age pupil used a craft knife as a weapon and threatened to harm himself and a teacher,’ says Adele. ‘Thankfully, the situation was concluded quickly and the school has since moved the craft knives to a secure location and the art room is now locked at all times.’
Meet the parents
It’s not just pupils who are displaying bad behaviour towards teachers.
Thirty-three per cent of staff feel parents and guardians are more verbally abusive than they were during the last academic year while 6% feel they have become more physically abusive (Education Support, 2024).
Forty-three per cent of teachers also say that vexatious complaints – designed to cause annoyance, embarrassment or harassment – from parents and guardians has increased (Education Support, 2024).
When a parent is contacted about a pupil’s behaviour, only 10% of parents are entirely supportive of the school while 30% aren’t supportive at all. Unsurprisingly, 74% of teachers state that more support and engagement from parents/carers is needed to enable them to meet the behavioural needs of all the pupils they teach (NASUWT, 2025b).
‘It’s nearly always the case that the students you have the most trouble with are the ones whose parents won’t support you,’ adds Melissa. ‘Worse
still, after being on the receiving end of abuse from their child in the classroom, you then will often get abusive emails from the parents when you get home at night accusing you of not liking their child or picking on them.
‘Educating children should be a partnership between parents and schools, as teachers can’t instil a value system alone. Acceptable behaviour, boundaries and consequences all need to be taught at home too. Too often, though, parents blame teachers for any bad behaviour and will say that it’s because we aren’t doing a good enough job.’
‘A functioning education system requires healthy, safe and fully equipped teachers,’ says Ruth Wilkinson CMIOSH, head of policy and public affairs at IOSH, noting that there are actions to take for both schools and the UK government.
‘Schools must fulfil their duty of care to staff, students and others. This starts with prevention-first strategies. Leaders need to demonstrate commitment to creating positive cultures,’ she comments.
Schools must ensure they have effective health and safety management systems as well as clear policies, roles and responsibilities, Ruth explains. There must be proper risk assessments and control strategies covering behaviour management, as well as training in skills like de-escalation. It’s also important to have mental health programmes, with planning for postincident support.
BREAKING POINT
Bad behaviour in schools
• 40% of NASUWT survey respondents had experienced physical abuse or violence from pupils in the last 12 months
• 20% of teachers had been hit or punched, 16% kicked, 38% shoved or barged, 9% spat at and 4% had been headbutted
• 85% reported verbal abuse or violence from pupils
• 39% had been verbally threatened
• 81% feel the number of pupils exhibiting violent and abusive behaviours has increased
• 87% say the number of pupils verbally abusing staff members has increased
Source: NASUWT, 2025b
‘Teachers play a crucial role in young people’s development. It’s essential they are provided with safe and healthy working environments and conditions where they can carry out their roles safely and perform to the best of their ability. This clearly isn’t happening, which is deeply concerning,’ Ruth comments. Schools alone cannot get a grip on the crisis afflicting secondary education in the UK. Ruth says: ‘We call on the government to invest in education settings that give schools and teachers an environment where they can effectively do their jobs.’
For references, visit ioshmagazine. com/special-investigation-schools
PRACTICE
EXPLORE SKILLS, IDEAS AND THEORIES
MENTAL HEALTH: RIGHT OR BENEFIT?
We explore the provocation posed by IOSH’s future of work report: what if psychological injuries and mental health were regulated in the same way as physical injuries?
WORDS EMMA BENNETT
Workplaces across the globe are facing an ongoing mental health crisis. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 12 billion working days are lost every year due to mental ill health, costing $1tn annually in lost productivity (WHO, 2024). According to the GB Health and Safety Executive (HSE), around half of those reporting ill health connect it to work-related stress, depression or anxiety – 776,000 cases in 2023/24 (HSE, 2024) – with mental health conditions being one of the leading causes of disability in working-age people.
A 2024 survey, commissioned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), found that 9% of adults had to take time
off work due to mental ill health, with people citing poor work/life balance and excessive workloads as the most common causes (RCPsych, 2024).
According to data analysis by The Health Foundation, this is a growing problem. Since 2010, the percentage of people with poor mental health in England has doubled, with younger people being disproportionately affected (Vriend et al, 2025). The UK government’s Keep Britain working review said young people with mental health conditions were nearly five times more likely to be economically inactive compared with others in their age group (Department for Work and Pensions, 2025).
While forward-thinking organisations are responding to this rising tide of mental ill health with a greater focus on organisational wellbeing and design, some OSH professionals argue that mental health remains the poorer cousin of physical health and safety.
Sustainability expert Arup and IOSH’s Towards a safe and healthy future of work: evolution or revolution? (2024) report calls on businesses to recognise the connection between physical and psychological safety. Workplace stress often leads to physical or mental health problems, which can impact people’s ability to carry out work effectively. So is it time for psychological injuries and mental health to be regulated in the same way as physical injuries?
Regulation and enforcement
Australia has already answered that question for itself. Following a review of the Workplace Health and Safety Act in 2018, model legislation and codes of practice focusing specifically on managing psychosocial
risk have been adopted by all states except Victoria, which is due to introduce its own psychosocial safety regulations later this year. This means employers have a legal duty to identify psychological risks and implement control measures, with those failing to comply facing improvement notices or prosecution.
This change is already having an impact, says Jason van Schie , psychologist, podcaster and founder of FlourishDx, a psychosocial risk management software platform and consultancy.
‘Companies in Australia have nowhere to run because we have specific legislation that really calls out their need to prevent psychological harm occurring.
‘The regulator has become very active here. In Victoria, for instance, there are 30 dedicated psychosocial inspectors. In comparison, the UK has zero people dedicated to mental health. Because the legislation is being enforced, companies are moving faster than anywhere else in the world to change their practices.’
Jason says the legislation is also prompting business leaders to accept that work can cause people to develop mental illness – and it is their responsibility to prevent that.
‘If companies are saying they’re a great place to work, and they’re trying to attract
the best and brightest, yet people working there keep developing mental illness, that will have an impact on their reputation,’ he says. ‘For multinational businesses, the fines of around A$400,000 are nothing compared to the cost of complying. But the reputational risk for not managing this properly is huge.’
While psychosocial safety is not regulated in the same way in the UK and elsewhere, there are international standards in place to help organisations proactively manage and protect workers’ mental health. ISO 45003 provides practical guidance for managing psychosocial risks within an occupational health and safety management system, while the proposed BSI suicide prevention standard would provide guidelines for prevention, intervention and support for people affected by suicide.
In the UK, the HSE also developed the Management Standards approach for work-related stress. These standards help employers to identify and mitigate stressors at work by addressing six core areas: demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. The Health and Safety at Work Act does not include unique specifications for mental health but requires employers to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees. It could thus be interpreted as covering mental issues within overall health and wellbeing.
the workplace, and regulation potentially can play an effective role in ensuring this happens consistently across sectors,’ says Ruth Wilkinson CMIOSH, head of policy and public affairs at IOSH. She continues: ‘These risks often stem from poor work design, ineffective management and a negative social environment at work. If left unaddressed, they can not only affect mental wellbeing but also contribute to or worsen physical health issues.’
Ruth also emphasises the importance of prevention. ‘Addressing psychosocial risks isn’t just about reacting to issues – it’s about embedding prevention into strategy, culture and operations. This includes raising awareness, building competence across the workforce, supporting interventions and cultivating an environment where mental wellbeing is a shared responsibility.’
MENTAL HEALTH RISKS CAN OFTEN STEM FROM POOR WORK DESIGN
Despite the rapid growth of the wellness industry and its promotion of various interventions – from meditation apps and counselling to mental health first aid training – increasing research in this area says this is not enough. A report by the Society of Occupational Medicine concluded that a more systematic approach to mental health and wellbeing was needed to identify and address psychosocial risks (Teoh, 2023).
Equal weight for mental health
While these standards and laws mean employers already have a duty of care to protect workers from harm – including burnout, stress and anxiety – IOSH says organisations must prioritise these issues with the same seriousness as physical problems.
Similarly, William Fleming from Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre found after analysing 46,000 responses from the Britain’s healthiest workplace survey that those who participated in individual-level interventions had the same levels of mental wellbeing as those who did not (Fleming, 2024).
MENTAL HEALTH AGENDA
CANADA: THE CASE FOR REGULATION
Martin Shain – a social scientist, lawyer and founder of workplace mental health consultants
Neighbour at Work Centre in Toronto – has long campaigned for regulation. In his 2023 paper Regulating the assessment and abatement of workplace psychosocial hazards in Canada, he argues that voluntary standards are no longer sufficient.
He says that while the 2013 national standard for psychological health and safety in the workplace was valuable, it was not enforceable and easily reversed by leadership changes.
‘Good intentions only go so far and get sidelined when other priorities – usually economic – assert themselves,’ he says.
‘Perhaps most worrying is the fact that leaving the protection of mental health to the whims of voluntary policies and practices relegates mental health to a benefit, not a right. Benefits can be withdrawn, rights less so.’
‘Mental health should be given the same level of attention and strategic importance as physical health and safety in
Focus on prevention
Dr Judith Grant , a chartered psychologist and workplace wellbeing specialist, says focusing on prevention is key.
He argues that regulation would help to create accountability at board level within organisations and shift the perception of psychological safety from an aspiration to a legal requirement.
Following Australia’s model, his paper recommends creating clear definitions, control measures and guidance for employers, focusing on addressing the way work is organised and people are managed.
‘Adding the protection of mental health to the OSH agenda is clearly going to have major implications for training and practice,’ says Martin.
‘A lot of organisations are putting in support for people with mental health conditions, from employee assistance programmes and counselling to specific benefits,’ she says. ‘But they really need to look at preventing workplace issues from forming in the first place.
‘By carrying out organisational-level psychosocial risk assessments and having line managers who are trained to support their staff and carry out individual-level risk assessments, organisations can start to gather real trends and insights into what the prevalent issues are within their workplace.’
This could be anything from better resourcing teams and managing time more effectively to improving supervisor support and building a positive working culture.
Judith is all too aware of the need for robust mental health support after she suffered a serious case of long COVID-19 during the pandemic. ‘I was living on my own and was very ill – the mental toll of that was significant,’ she explains. ‘I had to rebuild myself over time, physically and mentally – and thankfully I was well supported at work – but the experience gave me far more awareness of the nonnegotiable things I need to do to look after my mental health.’
The OSH Stakeholder Alliance, a coalition of nine prominent UK health and safety bodies including IOSH, recognises that more needs to be done to tackle mental health risks. In its white paper Prioritising mental health in the workplace, it calls for a national workplace mental health strategy to target and support businesses, with the aim of significantly reducing the burden of workrelated mental ill health by 2030 (OSH Stakeholder Alliance, 2024).
An evolving role
Although most OSH professionals agree that mental health and wellbeing should be part of their role – nearly three-quarters of those who responded to IOSH’s 2023 member survey (Warburton, 2024) –some are concerned about the impact this might have.
THE STATISTICS
46%
of work-related self-reported ill health in 2023/24 was due to stress, depression or anxiety
(HSE, 2024b)
The UK industries with higherthan-average rates are public admin/defence, human health/ social work and education
(HSE, 2024b)
47%
of NHS employees surveyed say their job is negatively affecting their mental health
(NHS Employers, 2025)
In the US, suicide rates are highest in male-dominated industries: mining; construction; other industries such as automotive repair; arts, entertainment and recreation; and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (Sussell et al, 2023).
Jason says: ‘It’s quite polarising here in Australia because there is a vocal minority of health and safety professionals who say: “I’m not a psychologist – mental health is outside my remit.”
‘And in some ways they’re right – they’re not there to identify mental illness. It’s their job to determine what systems might be causing people to become unwell and to identify the risk, and then to review whether the control measures implemented by other support functions like HR are effective.’
The FlourishDx tool is designed to help OSH professionals do this by quantifying the psychosocial risks within their organisation. ‘They need to understand a whole new set of hazards and – unlike with physical safety – how they combine and interact to cause harm,’ Jason explains. ‘For example, you might have someone working regular long hours, but with a supportive boss, great autonomy, rewards and recognition. They will take longer to get harmed than someone who is working the same hours with an unsupportive boss and doesn’t feel appreciated because of the cumulative impact of psychosocial hazards.’
Judith says it is up to organisations to ensure their health and safety professionals have the training and capability required to understand the psychosocial risks in the workplace. However, there should be a shared responsibility for wellbeing across different departments – not just health and safety.
She explains: ‘Often the drivers of poor wellbeing at work – such as poor management of change, negative relationships or not having the right training to do your job – sit within HR departments that are less familiar with risk assessment. This makes collaboration between support departments critical because psychosocial risks border so many different specialisms.
‘We all have to manage our mental health at work, but it’s up to organisations to work collectively to support individuals so they can thrive in the workplace.’
For references, visit ioshmagazine.com/ mental-health-regulation
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We explore the impact of drugs on workers and workplaces globally, and what the implications are for OSH practitioners.
WORDS KATIE SMITH
SUBSTANCE A matter of W
hether it’s cocaine, opioids, prescription medications or performance-enhancing substances, drug use among workers is a challenge for workplaces globally.
In the UK, a recent survey found that one in three employees admitted to either using or witnessing substance use or addictive behaviours during work hours (Bupa, 2025). In Australia, one in nine employees has worked under the influence of illicit drugs in the last year (Alcohol and Drug Foundation, 2025). In the US, 22% of workers admitted using drugs or alcohol during working hours (American Addiction Centers, 2024).
The implications of drug use by workers include reduced performance, absenteeism and conflict, as well as injuries and accidents. The risk of the latter is, of course, heightened if those under the influence drive for work, operate machinery and tools, or work at height. While it varies globally, construction, financial services, hospitality, healthcare and transport are some of the sectors where drug taking is more common (see Sectors most impacted by drugs, opposite).
So, why do workers take drugs in the first place?
For some it may be recreational, while for others it could be to combat fatigue or even reduce pain from work-related injuries.
Deep impact
The impact of the opioid crisis is profound. In Canada, an average of 21 people die each day of opioid poisoning. Individuals of working age, particularly males,
are most likely to experience opioid harm (Government of Canada, 2025).
Some research suggests that one pathway to opioid use and harm among workers begins with workplace injuries, says Dr Nancy Carnide, scientist at the Institute for Work and Health (IWH) in Canada. In a study published last year, she and her colleagues found that injured workers had higher rates of opioid-related harm compared with individuals of working age in the general population (Carnide et al, 2024).
‘The emerging evidence suggests workplaces have a role to play in supporting efforts to mitigate the impacts of the
opioid crisis on workers,’ she explains.
‘In addition to injury prevention efforts, workplaces can make support available to assist workers who have experienced an injury and are in pain. This may include appropriate and meaningful accommodations, sufficient sick leave and time to recover, and health insurance options that include non-pharmaceutical pain management alternatives.’
Workplaces should support employees by creating an environment that enables them to disclose their substance use without fear of reprisal or stigma, she adds.
Dr Marica Ferri, head of sector, health and social responses for the substance use, harms and responses unit at the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA), agrees. ‘We need to take care of the mental health of the workforce,’ she says. ‘This can be
WORKERS MUST FEEL ABLE
TO DISCLOSE THEIR DRUG USE
done through several measures, including managerial approaches.
‘Management that is ready to listen and not punish can dramatically reduce the stress linked to work and reduce the need to rely on substances for performance. If the objective is to keep people safe and the work environment safe, we need to be clear that punitive approaches can be more harmful than helpful.’
Leading by example
Keith Morey CFIOSH, health and safety manager and construction, design and management lead for Wales and Western region at Network Rail, believes the UK transport sector is leading the way in supporting workers with drug issues.
He recalls a derailment at Maidstone East in 1993, in which the station was so damaged it had to be closed for several months. The driver, who was intoxicated at the time, was immediately suspended. The investigation found the driver had had previous alcohol-related talks with management, but no action was taken.
From that point on, the rail industry realigned its policies on alcohol and drug use at work. Keith explains that, under the Rail Safety and Standards Board, ‘if you believe you’re starting to develop a problem or something has happened that’s affecting you –like getting a bad back and you’re on stronger medication – you have to declare it.
There’s then an online chemist check, which assesses whether you are safe to work, should be taking time off, should be doing something slightly different, need more help, or should be taken off that job altogether until the problem is resolved.’
ects of legalisation
The jury is still out on the impact of the legalisation or decriminalisation of nonmedical or recreational cannabis in Canada and Portugal.
‘In Canada, employers were concerned more workers would be using cannabis and showing up to work impaired, leading
Keith, who is also a mental health first aider, adds: ‘It’s important to educate people on why it’s a big issue and why they should not avoid it. We’re not there to persecute, but to try and ensure people get the right help if there’s a problem.’
Read more advice from Keith in Top tips for OSH professionals on page 49.
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to safety and productivity issues,’ Nancy explains. ‘While little data is yet available on the impact on workers and workplaces, our research found that overall more workers reported using cannabis, including daily, in the first few years following legalisation.’
On the other hand, Nancy says during the same period the reported use of cannabis before or at work remained stable – roughly one in 10 workers (Carnide, 2024).
Changes in legislation are never clearcut because there are always nuances, Marica says. For example, Portugal has decriminalised all drug use, so the use of substances is not a criminal so much as an administrative offence.
‘People are still discouraged, but rather than ending up with a criminal record, a panel of professionals assess the level of severity,’ she says. ‘After assessment, they can be sent to treatment, be sent home or sign for a fine.
‘I don’t think we have yet seen a direct effect on the use, but we need to better monitor before we are able to say legalising
Top tips for OSH professionals
Keith Morey CFIOSH at Network Rail says OSH professionals can help manage the impact of drugs on workers and workplaces by:
Being open and honest. If you don’t understand the problem, then don’t try telling somebody you do. Admit you don’t understand, because there’s nothing wrong with learning yourself while you’re getting them help.
Getting help for someone who tells you they’ve got a problem. Don’t persecute them for telling you because all you’re going to do is drive that problem further underground.
Learning through other people and their experiences. This helps to be able to point the next person in a better direction.
increases the use. The type of substances circulating are many and different.’
Safe for work?
So is there any safe level of drugs at work? Research has found that workers in Canada who reported consuming cannabis within two hours of work or at work were two times more likely to experience a work-related injury in the subsequent year than workers who had not used cannabis. However, workers who reported consuming cannabis outside work were at no greater risk of injury (Carnide et al, 2023).
‘This suggests that use of cannabis in close proximity to a work schedule is risky,’ Nancy says. ‘It’s important to note that the study could not address whether the risk differed by the type of cannabis product consumed or the method of consumption.
‘It’s also likely that the definition of use before work as per our research is insufficient to capture longer-lasting effects, and the findings do not mean that two hours is the safe cut-off for when cannabis can be used before work.’
In the absence of definitive evidence, she says, the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Association of Canada recommends waiting at least 24 hours or more after consuming cannabis before engaging in safetysensitive work (Els et al, 2025).
Overall, substance use among workers is quite common – if not actually in the workplace then in close proximity to working hours – and OSH practitioners need to be aware that it can lead to adverse consequences for health and safety as well as professional relationships. As looser laws and deciminalisation are introduced around the world, this is an issue that isn’t going away any time soon. However, there is much an organisation can do to handle the situation – especially fostering a culture of transparency, non-judgement and support.
In cases where testing may be necessary, this should be handled with sensitivity. For more information, see ‘How to implement drug testing’ on page 50.
For references, visit ioshmagazine.com/ drugs-impact
Sectors most impacted by drug addiction
In the US, the 10 jobs with the highest drug and alcohol addiction rates are:
Mining, quarrying and oil workers
Arts,
Information
Managers who oversee employees
Emergency responders.
(Pottle, 2025)
Restaurant and food service workers
Doctors and healthcare professionals
Sales professionals
Lawyers and attorneys
Construction workers
entertainment and recreation workers
and communications workers
IMPLEMENT DRUG TESTING How to...
Drug and alcohol use in the workplace comes with impaired judgement and an increased risk of accidents. But what ethical, legal and practical complexities should OSH professionals consider when creating a drug policy and testing protocol?
WORDS ANNA SCOTT
Drugs and alcohol alter people’s perception and feelings and can lead to impaired judgement, concentration, coordination and reaction times. These changes contribute to an increased risk of accidents, injuries and fatalities, especially when using machinery or working at height.
‘Managing the health and safety risks posed by employees who may be under the influence of alcohol or drugs forms part of an employer’s responsibility to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees, visitors to premises and anyone else who may be affected by the work undertaken by employees,’ explains Ruth Wilkinson CMIOSH, head of policy and public affairs at IOSH
Workplace drug testing should be implemented as part of a broader risk management framework, rather than operating in isolation or as a reactive measure, according to Glenn Dobson, CEO of the Drug Detection Agency, which works with businesses in New Zealand and Australia to eliminate drug and alcohol risks at work. ‘The ideal time to implement testing is during the development or review of a workplace health and safety framework, especially where safety-sensitive tasks are involved,’ he says.
intrudes upon workers’ privacy and human rights,’ says Rachel Suff, senior employee relations adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. ‘In the UK, employees cannot be forced to take drug or alcohol tests unless it is set out in their contract of employment and the employee has given their consent.’
Matt Taylor, director of Innovative Testing Solutions and president of the International Forum for Drug and Alcohol Testing, says: ‘Although often considered for “safety-critical” staff only, you should always consider all employees, including those who are office-based. Do they drive a company car, or ever put on a high-vis?’
Ethical considerations
Employers must consider the impacts on employees of testing. ‘There is some concern that it could create a sense of mistrust between employees and management,’ Ruth says, and this could have implications for morale and employee retention.
A ROBUST DRUG AND ALCOHOL POLICY SHOULD OUTLINE WHY TESTING OCCURS
‘A robust drug and alcohol policy should clearly outline when and why testing occurs – such as pre-employment, post-incident, reasonable cause or random testing –and be backed by a well-communicated process that aligns with legal, ethical and operational considerations.’
As part of such a policy, any testing for the presence of drugs or alcohol must be justified – for example, if work is safetycritical. ‘If there isn’t a clear business reason, it’s unlikely to be appropriate as it would be disproportionately intrusive, as testing
Confidentiality is paramount.
‘Employers must ensure the secure storage and handling of all sensitive or private information, particularly drug test results, medical disclosures and personal histories,’ Glenn says. ‘Access to this information should be strictly limited to authorised personnel on a need-to-know basis, and organisations should ensure compliance with relevant privacy laws and data protection regulations. Breaches of confidentiality –real or perceived – can significantly erode staff confidence and engagement.’
Employees at UK construction firm Robertson Group, which has had a policy in place for 11 years, say they value knowing the company’s sites take substance misuse seriously, according to Joe Guilfoyle CFIOSH, group SHE director.
‘Open and honest communication is key. Without it, it can be difficult to provide
REGULATION Know the law
Employers in the UK need to consider the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Equality Act 2010, the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulation for any policy.
‘Drug test results are considered sensitive personal data,’ says Ruth Wilkinson at IOSH. ‘In addition to obtaining written and informed consent, employers must store and process data lawfully, transparently and securely, including limiting access to authorised personnel.’
Employers must also ensure policies do not unfairly target or disadvantage individuals: ‘This could include the application of racially motivated stereotypes when selecting candidates for testing or applying performance management protocols to an employee taking prescription medication.’
The Human Rights Act 1998, Employment Rights Act 1996 and Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 may also be relevant. While there are no known upcoming legislation changes specifically relating to workplace drug use in the UK, the Employment Rights Bill, currently in the House of Lords, does include proposals about unfair dismissal and contractual clarity.
meaningful support. People with substance misuse issues often go to great lengths to hide the problem, which is why early recognition and support are so important.’
Types of testing
Testing kits must be reliable, particularly if the results are used alongside other evidence.
A bus driver won an unfair dismissal claim after a random saliva drugs test by his employer showed he tested positive for cocaine. The driver then took two hair follicle tests, which were negative, but his employer refused to take them into account or accept the possibility of cross-contamination in its own test (Unite, 2018).
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‘One of the problems with drugs and alcohol policy and testing [is that it is] very unregulated,’ Matt says. ‘You could start your own drug and alcohol testing company tomorrow. There’s no certification, there’s no governing body, there’s no quality control.’
Alcohol is tested with a breathalyser. ‘But it needs to be Home Office approved. If you use anything less, then it’s challengeable,’ Matt says. ‘Blood tests tend not to be used because they are invasive. Fingerprint testing is out there but it’s relatively new tech. Oral fluid testing, urine testing and hair testing have all been around for longer. All have different windows of detection, and every method has pros and cons, so it’s very important that you consider which is most applicable to the reason(s) for testing.’
The key to drug testing, Matt says, is that there should be two parts to any drug test: screening and confirmation. ‘If a screening result is non-negative, it requires further investigation. The test should go to a laboratory that is UKAS-accredited for the type of testing you are undertaking. The lab will issue the “confirmation” results, which form the basis of a legally defensible result. At this point, a medical review may be required.’
The OSH contribution
‘OSH practitioners play a central role in integrating drug testing within a workplace’s safety systems,’ Glenn says. ‘Their focus is on hazard identification and control –impairment being a key example. They can assess job roles to determine where testing is most appropriate, advise on risk controls and ensure alignment with legislative and industry standards.’
The role of the OSH professional is also essential in implementing policies, working closely with HR and management teams to make sure all arrangements, including any testing, are carried out to the right standards. Compliance is monitored through governance checks and audits.
OSH professionals should also support education and training, help develop deterrents and engage with the supply chain. ‘To be effective, they need a clear
Key takeaways for OSH professionals
• Create the drug/alcohol policy in collaboration with key stakeholders and incorporate it into overall OSH policy and management system
• Review the drug and alcohol/substance misuse policy on a regular basis
• Collaborate with HR, procurement (about selecting suitable test kits) and operational teams to provide training and support around the testing process – when and where it takes place, how hygiene, privacy and dignity are assured, and which circumstances should mean the worker is prevented from working due to safety risks
understanding of the policy and how it applies in practice,’ Joe says.
Blurred lines
There is growing concern that prescription medicines may have adverse effects on work function (Tefera et al, 2023). Painrelieving opioids such as pethidine and tramadol are commonly used in the UK, for example. ‘All these medications can cause side effects such as drowsiness, but so can some antihistamines and decongestants,’ Ruth says. ‘Any training
• Engage employees with the development of the policy
• Stay in close contact with testing providers when non-negative results occur
• Promote internal and external support services available and ensure they are clearly signposted as part of any behavioural safety programme
• Give regular training to employees, their line managers and HR on the policy content and procedures
• OSH professionals must act as process champions and ensure due process is followed
must highlight the importance of not making assumptions about the root causes of any observed behaviour.’
This means recognising that some of the signs of drug or alcohol misuse – unexplained or frequent absences, a change in behaviour, unexplained dips in productivity, more accidents or near misses, presenteeism, conduct issues, or physical signs such as changed gait, drowsiness, balance issues or reduced ability to communicate – could be the result of illness or stress.
Such situations must be carefully approached. ‘Understanding that the effects of drug misuse are likely to present differently to the effects of alcohol, and some effects may be associated with the legitimate use of over-the-counter or prescription medication, is critical,’ Ruth says. When it comes to drug testing, organisations must have a clear policy in place. ‘Preventing drug use and harmful drinking forms part of an organisation’s overall wellbeing offering,’ concludes Rachel. ‘This ensures that any need for disciplinary action is coupled with a preventive and supportive approach to help employees get the support they need.’
For references, visit ioshmagazine.com/ drug-testing
When it comes to drug testing in the workplace, ensuring due process is critical
USING MOBILE TOWERS
In the second of a new series of technical advice articles, we look at the risks and controls around the use of aluminium mobile towers.
WORDS JO FRAPE CMIOSH
What’s the issue?
Aluminium mobile towers, also known as tower scaffold or mobile access towers, are used among many trades for working at height. When used correctly, they provide a safe means of access and egress. However, issues can arise when they are not erected according to the manufacturer’s instructions, or when essential parts of the equipment such as stabilisers, guard rails, toe boards or brick guards are not used. Failing to properly install all parts of the equipment can increase the likelihood of an incident occurring, such as falls or falling objects, potentially striking or landing on workers or other people below.
Using this equipment outdoors introduces additional hazards. Uneven ground and adverse weather can destabilise the tower, increasing the risk of collapse or falls. Wet weather conditions can make surfaces slippery, leading to slips and falls. The manual handling of heavy components and materials also poses risks, as does poor housekeeping when working on the platform, where tools, materials and debris can cause trips. Injuries ranging from minor strains to fatalities could affect site operatives, building occupants and members of the public.
What’s the challenge?
Workers may not receive proper training or may assume all towers are assembled the same way. Instructions are sometimes
ignored; this can be due to time pressures resulting in shortcuts such as not including parts or handling materials unsafely. Members of the public could potentially enter the vicinity of the tower, so barriers and signage must be put in place to keep them out, and towers should never be left unsecured when not in use.
Because towers are mobile and frequently moved, components can be lost or damaged.
It is essential that all parts are present and in good condition before assembly begins. Substituting missing parts or improvising with incorrect components must be avoided. There should be no alternatives or quick fixes to carry out the assembly of the tower.
The lack of awareness and understanding around inspection of towers can also be a problem. It is essential that towers are inspected after initial assembly, after any
incident that could affect the stability of the equipment such as being struck or exposed to high winds, and at least every seven days. The Prefabricated Access Suppliers' and Manufacturers' Association (PASMA) recommends that when it is possible to fall two metres or more inspections should be carried out after assembly or significant alterations (PASMA, 2025).
Each time the tower is inspected, a new report should be completed. Inspection reports should be issued in accordance with legal requirements, and it is essential that local legislation is checked to understand the specific requirements. In the UK, the Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply to anyone who is working at height, including the use of mobile scaffolding equipment.
The inspections should also be completed by a competent person who has been trained in how to conduct them. It is important that the person completing the inspection can identify both obvious and subtle defects, which can then be reported and rectified immediately.
What are the common controls and how might they fail?
Mobile towers should be erected in compliance with manufacturers’ instructions and any specific legislation. However, workers may not check for or read instructions. Training and information for workers should be provided but also needs to be accessible, considering language barriers and literacy levels. Workers should also be made aware of the specific site environment and understand any relevant procedures or rules they need to follow.
Another oversight is failing to lock the castor wheels before use, which can cause the tower to move unexpectedly. The equipment should never be moved while occupied.
What else should be considered?
Before erecting or moving a tower, it is essential to assess the surrounding environment for hazards such as low ceilings, overhead cables or uneven ground. All operatives involved in the erection, dismantling or use of the tower must be trained in the specific system being used. This training should be refreshed
periodically in line with manufacturer recommendations, training provider guidance and any applicable legal requirements. Manual handling training should also be included to ensure that safe lifting techniques are followed.
Competency is important for erecting and dismantling as mentioned, but also when it comes to identifying structural issues such as metal fatigue, hairline cracks or corrosion. These types of defects might not be visible to the untrained eye and can significantly compromise the tower’s structural integrity. Engineers, inspectors and those erecting the tower should have specific training in recognising signs of wear and fatigue.
The risk assessment should be communicated clearly to all workers, with particular attention to working at height and manual handling procedures. Supervisors must verify that all safety measures are in place before work begins, as well as during the work being carried out.
Personal protective equipment must be worn as identified in the risk assessment. This typically includes hard hats, gloves, high-visibility clothing, safety footwear and, where necessary, harnesses.
It is also beneficial for OSH professionals and supervisors to attend training on tower erection and dismantling. This ensures they understand the process thoroughly, which is essential for preparing risk assessments and method statements and conducting audits.
Other reflections
There are several key considerations. First, ensure an understanding of the legal requirements related to working at height, as well as the specific criteria for using mobile tower scaffolding equipment.
Calling all members
Do you have a technical matter you’d like to talk about? Email joanne.perry@ioshmagazine.com
REVIEW
Test your system
To evaluate new or current arrangements, consider the following:
• Are you confident in your understanding of the legal requirements for working at height?
• Do you understand specific criteria for mobile tower scaffolding equipment?
• Is your training for both workers and inspectors effective and regularly updated?
• Can supervisors confidently address unsafe practices?
• Do workers have enough time to complete tasks safely?
• Is the outcome of the risk assessment clearly communicated to all workers?
• Do you know what specific factors should be included in the inspection of a tower scaffold?
Next, undertake assessments to determine if the training being provided to workers –who are erecting, using and inspecting the towers – is effective. This means it should be updated and refreshed when required. Supervisors should be able to confidently address any unsafe practices they observe. Additionally, consider if workers are given sufficient time to complete tasks safely. It is also crucial that the outcomes of risk assessments are clearly communicated to all workers.
Finally, ensure that the right people are aware of the specific factors that should be included in the inspection of a tower scaffold to maintain safety and compliance.
For references, visit ioshmagazine.com/ mobile-towers
Working in ports and on board ships is arduous, with workers loading and unloading in all weather conditions, dealing with dusty cargo or being confined to small spaces. The most common lost-time injuries are slips, trips and falls on the same level; being hit by moving, flying or falling objects; and being caught between objects, such as fingers and hands being injured (Port Skills and Safety, 2023).
With that in mind, researchers from Southampton Solent University have been working on a new IOSH-funded research project exploring the practice of recording and analysing work-related adverse health outcomes for workers in UK ports and on board UK-registered ships.
The project attempts to better understand the reasons that the incidence of workrelated ill health far exceeds that of injuries sustained at work. In trying to improve the collection and analysis of occupational health data, which can often be incomplete and inconsistent, the research team has been speaking directly with personnel on ships and at ports.
The aim of the project is to provide both industries with a ‘toolbox’ for recording –and then analysing – work-related adverse health outcomes data. A Delphi consensus approach has been used and 26 workers have so far participated in the project.
The participants in the first stage of data collection include both those who hold workers’ health data (for example, marine superintendents) and those who do not (for example, junior officers on board ferries).
Ports vs ships
An early finding was the difference in how health issues are treated in the two OSH cultures. Respondents in the port industry could give numerous examples of health interventions, from mental health education campaigns to handing out free sun cream. In the seafaring industry, however, while workers could name safety-based interventions, such as slip, trips and falls education, they could not recall any healthbased examples.
SAILING Far from plain
IOSH is funding a new ‘toolbox’ for recording and analysing adverse health outcomes among UK seafarers and port workers. Dr Helen Devereux, senior lecturer in maritime management at Southampton Solent University, discusses the research behind it.
During the analysis of the first set of data, which was collected from semi-structured interviews, there appeared to be a more proactive approach to health in the port industry. One senior manager at a port said: ‘I think in the UK there’s been a real drive to get everybody’s house in order to make sure that we’re looking after occupational health as well as safety.’
Conversely, a senior officer on a UKregistered vessel said: ‘I don’t think we have enough actual practice to have best practices.’
The proactive approach from the port industry appeared to be the consequence of fear regarding financial liabilities. When asked about worker health surveillance and their views on the importance of routine health checks, one participant said: ‘You
want to make sure that you’re managing things properly and the guys aren’t being affected or impacted by this type of work.’
In comparison, workers in the seafaring industry felt that health was not high on the list of potential charterers’ concerns. One seafarer said: ‘I think it’s because clients look for the S [safety] when they’re trying to charter a boat … nobody ever wants to see the H [health]. When you’re audited by clients and when you do OVMSA and TMSA [industry sector-specific audits], there’s a lot of focus on the S and very little on the H.’
It follows that port industry workers said health risk assessments were commonplace, whereas in the seafaring industry they were almost unheard of.
A seafarer who had used health risk assessments in a previous role said: ‘It did take me a long time to try to get people aware of the idea that we could do a health risk assessment, what it might look like –even just how the risk table could look for a health thing rather than a safety thing.’
Not sharing knowledge
From the data it was also apparent that sharing initiatives within both of the industries was problematic. A participant from the port industry said: ‘I think the sector and the industry is pretty good at sharing those kinds of very, very serious incidents [fatalities] that take place. But it’s not always as easy to get access to other data.’
Similarly, some participants reported hearing of ‘trail-blazing’ schemes but could not find out sufficient details to implement them in their own workplace. Others reported that they had developed their own schemes related to occupational health, but these had not gone any further than their own immediate workplace.
The next stage of the project will be the dissemination of a survey, which has been designed using the findings from the interviews.
To keep up to date with the project as it develops and to access the outputs, visit b.link/Solent-toolbox
To read about the risks of ammonia as a maritime fuel, turn to page 58
IN BRIEF
Seafaring facts
There are an estimated 1054 UK-flagged vessels
They have a combined gross tonnage of 9.9 million
At the end of 2024, there were 69,000 vessels in the world trading fleet
It’s estimated there are nearly 1.9 million seafarers on merchant ships globally
Seafaring has long been one of the most hazardous occupations, associated with high risks of mortality from occupational accidents, healthrelated issues, suicide, unexplained disappearances at sea and undetermined causes
The UK ports sector is estimated to directly employ 101,000 people
In the US, workers in marine terminals and port operations have higher fatality, injury and illness rates than other workers
Fatal injuries occurred at an annual rate of 15.9 per 100,000 workers, a rate five times that of the US workforce overall
AMMONIA AMBITIONS
The shipping industry is gearing up for new health and safety challenges that come with switching to ammonia as a greener fuel.
We look at some of the preparations and progress.
WORDS CATHERINE EARLY
In early 2025, a ship with a difference embarked from Singapore. Australian mining giant Fortescue had converted two of Green Pioneer’s four engines to run on ammonia, one of several alternative fuels with the potential to lower the sector’s stubborn greenhouse gas emissions.
With Green Pioneer, Fortescue wanted to demonstrate the fuel’s viability as a safe and mainstream option for shipping. Last year, the 75-metre vessel became the first to complete refuelling with ammonia at the port of Singapore.
‘We wanted to go and load ammonia not far away from six million people – that’s never been done before,’ says Andrew Hoare, head of Fortescue marine systems and green shipping.
While ammonia is better for the environment, the same cannot necessarily be said for the workforce on board. ‘Its adoption introduces serious occupational health and safety challenges. Ammonia is a highly toxic and corrosive substance, and workers are at risk of exposure throughout its entire lifecycle,’ explains Dr Iván Williams Jiménez, senior policy and public affairs manager at IOSH.
Direct contact with skin can cause burns and blisters, while breathing it in can cause respiratory problems and even risk of death.
So far, the number of ships operating on ammonia is minuscule. But 29 new-build ammonia-fuelled vessels were on order as of December 2024, and a further 58 were ‘ammonia ready’ (DNV, 2025), with demand driven by new rules such as the EU’s FuelEU Maritime regulation, and from the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Trond Berntzen, head of department, gas technology, piping and safety at classification body DNV, says: ‘Ammonia leaks in two phases, with both gas and liquids, and it is challenging to understand the flow of the emissions after a leak.’
However, the sector is not learning completely from scratch. ‘We’ve had ammonia on tankers for many years. The new part is taking it from the tank to an engine room and using it as energy,’ he says.
Regulatory changes
In December 2024, the IMO approved interim guidelines, publishing them in February 2025. These specify how ammoniafuelled ships should be designed, constructed and operated safely (IMO, 2025).
Ammonia leaks and toxic gas accumulations should be minimised; components should be protected from external damage; detection and alarm systems must be robust, and storage, supply and refuelling operations must be safe. No single system failure should result in an unsafe or unreliable condition.
The guidelines explicitly require that the ‘safety, reliability and dependability of the [ammonia-fuelled] systems should be equivalent to that achieved with new and comparable conventional oil-fuelled main and auxiliary machinery’.
‘As the hazard profile associated with ammonia differs to that for conventional fuels, the technical approach to qualifying its safety will differ,’ according to Thomas Chitseko, head of risk and safety at Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub.
But the goal remains to design, construct, maintain and operate ships so that
Why is ammonia an occupational hazard?
A compound of hydrogen and nitrogen, ammonia is a colourless, caustic and highly toxic gas. Around 70% of ammonia worldwide is used in agricultural fertilisers, with the rest in industrial applications, including plastics, explosives and synthetic fibres. The production of ammonia is currently heavily reliant on fossil fuels. To maximise decarbonisation, ships would ideally run on ‘green’ ammonia, produced using renewable energy. However, global manufacture of green ammonia is currently very small, though growing. The combustion of ammonia is carbon free but releases nitrogen oxides.
Ammonia can start being an occupational hazard from low concentrations of 20 parts per million (ppm), with irritation to the eyes and respiratory tract, rising to an immediate threat to life, usually caused by pulmonary oedema, at 300ppm.
and throat irritation
140 Severe eye, nasal, throat and chest irritation.
300 No escape-impairing symptoms, no irreversible effects
500 Upper respiratory tract irritation, tearing of the eyes
700–1700
Coughing, bronchospasm and chest pain with severe eye irritation and tearing
5000–10,000Rapidly
SOURCE: EUROPEAN MARITIME SAFETY AGENCY
the total risk profile is equivalent to that associated with conventional fuels, he says. Other components of risk containment need to be developed in addition to the technical considerations that are the main focus of the IMO’s guidelines, Thomas says. The hub’s human safety and risk team has developed competency criteria for people working with ammonia in the maritime industry, and is assessing how process safety management can be used to ensure safety in ship operations when using ammonia.
The team is also working with the Maersk McKinney Møller Centre for Zero Carbon Shipping (MMMCZCS) to develop guidance for maritime system designers.
‘The “hierarchy of controls” applies here, and interventions that “design out” hazards are preferred to PPE or other barriers containing the effects of hazardous occurrences,’ Thomas says.
‘Practitioners will have to consider the whole profile of ammonia as a fuel, as well as the full range of credible hazard scenarios if we’re to develop confidence in the safety of ammonia and realise the fuel’s potential as a route to decarbonise shipping,’ he adds.
The IMO’s guidelines are ‘a crucial step’ toward making ammonia as a fuel viable in global shipping, according to Ansuman Ghosh, director of engineering at insurers UK P&I. In a blog, he wrote: ‘They offer a balance between safety and innovation –setting out clear goals and requirements while allowing room for different technical solutions’ (Ghosh, 2025).
The guidelines are designed to be flexible and open to revision as data and experience with ammonia grows, he commented.
Bunkering risk
Safety management systems (SMS) for ships are derived from the IMO’s international safety management code. In March, the Maritime Technologies Forum (MTF) published a report acknowledging the current knowledge gaps and recommending that an industry database is set up to share lessons learnt from pilot projects and incident reports (MTF, 2025).
For Trond at DNV, the biggest risk of ammonia leaks is during refuelling – known in the shipping sector as bunkering.
Although the IMO’s guidelines cover bunkering, they relate only to work on the vessel side. Bunkering facilities ashore will also need international guidelines, he says. Standardisation will be needed so that ships can bunker safely when they trade globally, he explains.
Ammonia can be bunkered ship-toship, truck-to-ship or terminal-to-ship, typically as refrigerated, liquefied ammonia. Various ports around the world are developing or planning ammonia bunkering infrastructure.
One of the more advanced is Singapore. Green Pioneer has received flag approval from the Singapore Registry of Ships and a ‘gas-fuelled ammonia’ notation by DNV to use ammonia, as a marine fuel, in combination with diesel.
The achievement was the culmination of work that began at Fortescue’s land-based
testing facility in Perth, Australia, in 2022, when it first converted the engine. The company then worked with Singapore’s Maritime Port Authority (MPA) and tank storage company Vopak to identify potential risks during the fuel transfer and engine trials, and to develop prevention, control and mitigation measures.
Crew were trained in gas-specific hazardous materials emergency responses and safety drills in case of an incident. A model of how any plume of ammonia from a leak would disperse was developed, taking into account the tropical climate, sea conditions and surrounding vessels and infrastructure.
‘The complexity is to load ammonia into an engine system, which is very different from loading ammonia into just another tank,’ says Andrew.
Preparing for the Singapore trial involved consulting with about 25 different agencies, from Singapore’s environment and civil defence agencies to fish farmers, Andrew says. ‘But the Singapore MPA consolidated
this process, so that they did not all need to be dealt with separately. Singapore is demanding, but it’s also enabling.’
Other ports are not far behind, though. In September, a 35,000m3 ship owned by Mitsui OSK Lines – also called Green Pioneer – conducted a ship-to-ship ammonia transfer with a 22,500m3 ammonia carrier owned by Navigator Gas at the port of Dampier in Australia. The port of Rotterdam followed in April 2025, with a ship-to-ship transfer of 800m3 of liquid ammonia between Oceanic Moon and Gas Utopia
Crew competencies
How safe ammonia will be as a shipping fuel ultimately hinges on crew training.
‘The transition to ammonia-fuelled vessels demands targeted training and upskilling of crew members,’ says Iván. ‘Specialised education is essential to ensure safe operation, routine maintenance and emergency response in environments where ammonia is used as a marine fuel.’
A survey of more than 2000 maritime crew by MMMCZCS found a positive attitude on the whole to working with ammonia as a fuel, with 59% willing to work on such vessels, 24% unsure and 12% unwilling. However, even those who said they were willing raised some specific concerns, especially regarding training and safety (MMMCZCS, 2024).
The IMO has drawn up draft guidelines on the training of maritime crew in alternative fuels and is planning to publish ammonia-specific guidance next year.
Trond points out that the shipping industry has been through a similar process with liquefied natural gas (LNG). DNV was the first classification society to class an LNG-fuelled ship, the Glutra, in 2001, he says.
‘We learned from that experience –ammonia has different risks but there’s a process you can follow for training. We are ready to assist owners in what they should focus on, and when, when they select and train their crew,’ he says.
OSH takeaways
Dr Iván Williams Jiménez recommends these measures for people working with ammonia:
• Decontamination showers and eyewash stations. Emergency decontamination facilities must be strategically placed in areas with potential ammonia exposure to enable rapid response in case of skin or eye contact.
• Air quality monitoring. Workplace air quality and ammonia concentration levels must be continuously monitored through detection systems. These must be installed in high-risk zones, including storage areas, engine rooms and bunkering stations, to detect leaks promptly and trigger alarms.
• Bunkering safety zones. Clearly defined and controlled safety zones must be established during ammonia bunkering operations. These zones should restrict access, enforce PPE use and include emergency response equipment.
• PPE selection. PPE must be selected based on the specific working area and level of potential ammonia exposure. This includes chemical-resistant suits, gloves, face shields and respiratory protection for high-risk tasks.
According to Thomas, not only will new technical competencies need to be developed and assured, but also nontechnical competencies, such as open reporting and communication.
‘These will also include awareness of toxic and corrosive properties/strategies for managing these, emergency response and safety culture considerations,’ he says.
Keeping up the pace
Andrew says that more than 150 officers and crew have been trained on working with ammonia as a fuel as part of the Green Pioneer project. ‘There’s a huge amount of work to be done,’ he says. ‘We have to make sure a lack of training doesn’t slow up the pace of ammonia development.’
Fortescue has developed virtual 3D immersion training on Green Pioneer to make training more interactive. Understanding what PPE to use and when will also be crucial. For ammonia, this could include chemical protection suits, nitrile chemical gloves, rubber boots, positive pressure masks and hoods, and portable gas detectors for the relevant operations.
Thomas says: ‘PPE is a last line of defence but nonetheless merits attention to ensure that awareness of the PPE requirements associated with ammonia operations and toxic areas becomes instinctive.’
In Singapore, Fortescue realised that using the highest level of PPE such as hazmat suits was not only inappropriate, but could lead to unintended consequences.
‘The important thing is not to make ammonia synonymous with having to wear hazmat suits,’ says Andrew. ‘In Singapore in 35 degrees, you can only stay in that suit for about 15 minutes before it can knock you out. Furthermore, using hazmat suits with associated breathing apparatus makes communication with other crew members so hard.’
In developing ammonia as a shipping fuel it’s necessary to ‘start with a clean sheet’, Andrew says. ‘You can draw on all the knowledge from the hydrocarbon, LNG and LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] and other sectors, but you need to not be swayed that this is “LNG-down” or “LPG-up” in terms of complexity or danger.
‘Ammonia is ammonia, and therefore it has its own specific and unique ways to make it safe – that’s the most important thing to recognise,’ he says.
For references, visit ioshmagazine.com/ shipping-ammonia
AI INSIGHT ON-SITE
AI is playing an increasing role on construction sites. But with concerns over accuracy, data privacy and ethics, to what extent should it influence the work of OSH professionals?
WORDS STEPHEN COUSINS
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already making waves in construction, with contractors leveraging AI-powered tools to monitor worksites in real time, identify potential hazards and enforce safety protocols.
By automating multiple complex processes, it is hoped that AI could help reduce fatalities and serious injuries in the sector, which continues to suffer relatively high incident rates. Of 124 workers killed in work-related accidents in the UK in 2024/25, 35 were in construction (GB Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 2025). But AI can only be effective – and safe – if certain challenges and limitations are addressed.
Large language models (LLMs) are a type of AI trained on vast amounts of data to be able to handle numerous tasks rather than
being developed specifically for certain applications. They are used increasingly in the sector to generate risk assessments, but experts have warned that they can produce plausible yet incorrect answers. AI also has implications for cyber security, privacy and ethics, particularly when it is used to monitor and analyse worker behaviour.
There are major implications for the role of OSH professionals working in the sector, says Gary Latta CFIOSH, head of health and safety at UK property specialist Commercial Estates Group, and vice-president at IOSH: ‘The OSH profession is constantly evolving and AI will expand that remit. There is a clear opportunity for the profession to take a degree of control over how it is included in day-to-day practices.’
He continues: ‘The key message is that people must remain at the centre of everything. AI can highlight construction risks, but it still requires human intervention to resolve or reduce the risk – a balanced approach seems to be the most reasonable.’
Applications in use
Some AI systems are designed to proactively manage safety through hazard detection and predictive risk assessment. For example, AIpowered computer vision cameras analyse live video feeds from job sites to identify unsafe behaviours, such as failure to wear appropriate personal protective equipment. When a hazard is detected, automated alerts notify safety managers, enabling immediate intervention.
According to Fernando Iglesias Gamella, academic director for a master’s degree in AI for architecture and construction at the Zigurat Institute of Technology, this form of image recognition is the ‘immediate use’ for AI likely to be rolled out increasingly.
‘Every traffic camera on the roads already implements these kinds of algorithms and the way it works in construction is the same; the only difference is the images and videos
THE STAKES ARE HIGH WHEN IT COMES TO AI USE IN COMPLIANCE
you use to train them to recognise what you need it to,’ says Fernando.
Wearable technologies, such as smart helmets and vests equipped with biometric sensors, are also being used to monitor worker fatigue, heart rate and environmental exposure. The data they produce can be analysed by AI to detect signs of exhaustion or hazardous conditions, alerting supervisors when risk thresholds are crossed.
Another emerging AI trend with implications for OSH professionals is the use of LLM tools such as ChatGPT to generate risk assessments. Upload a picture of a situation on a job site – for example, a trench or a scaffold and, with the right prompts, the software can generate a fairly comprehensive risk assessment in a few seconds.
In a similar vein, the app FYLD allows workers to record 30-second videos of their site, explaining hazards that are present or absent. The software’s AI engine reviews the data and generates a visual risk assessment, including a bullet-point list of potential risks and proposed control measures.
These tools can also be used to manage compliance, rapidly reviewing safety documentation, including company HSE protocols, or incident reports, to ensure that regulatory standards are being met, in theory reducing the administrative burden on OSH professionals.
Human vs machine
Turning to AI tools for quick answers is understandable, but the stakes rise considerably when it comes to safety and compliance.
The limitations of using LLMs to conduct construction risk assessments were revealed in a recent academic exercise carried out by students of quantity surveying and construction management at the Built Environment and Asset Management (BEAM) Research Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University in the UK.
Students prompted ChatGPT, alongside other free-to-use AI engines on the internet, to create a risk assessment for works required to build a 10-metre-wide by 2.4-metre-high brick wall in a garden with steep embankments, identifying the persons at risk and rating the risk, both
before control measures were applied and afterwards.
The results of the exercise showed that risks identified by the students included 10 the AI had failed to spot, such as scaffolding/ platform collapse, materials collapse and hand injuries from bricks. Conversely, the AI spotted nine hazards the students had missed. There was a similarly even split on the hazards identified after control measures were applied.
Analysis of the AI’s responses showed that they tended to lack context, failed to fully understand what was important and had ignored new developments such as major legal rulings and scientific updates. Furthermore, the systems would confidently generate false information and were unable to distinguish authoritative sources from unreliable ones.
According to Professor Billy Hare, deputy director of the BEAM Research Centre, the results are cause for concern, given anecdotal evidence of the technology’s use in realworld construction projects.
‘When AI comes up in my conversations with OSH practitioners in the construction industry, a common theme is the suspicion that their supply chain, their subcontractors, are blatantly using AI technology to generate risk assessments – they can spot them because the quality is poor,’ he says.
Accreditation organisation Consolidated Fork Truck Services recently warned construction companies against using guidance generated by AI to comply with lifting and work equipment regulations, saying the answers were unreliable.
Improved understanding
One area where conversational AI could have a positive impact is in helping to break down some of the language, literacy and accessibility barriers that exist between traditional health and safety systems and frontline workers, who make up the largest demographic in construction.
Safety management systems often disseminate guidelines and information as emails, PDFs, videos or PowerPoint presentations in one or perhaps two different languages, which runs the risk that key messages will be missed by workers of different nationalities and backgrounds.
Dubai-based technology company
Navatech Group has developed an AI tool, currently used on several construction sites in the Middle East, which integrates with WhatsApp groups or Microsoft Teams chats, allowing workers to ask health and safety questions in multiple different languages and get back responses in their native tongue.
According to Prakash Senghani, CEO and co-founder of Navatech Group, a ‘closed-loop system’ ensures accuracy by only accessing fine-tuned, self-hosted LLMs trained on construction health and safety information, including company guidelines. ‘The AI will find the information, summarise it and provide references, including the page number where it got the answer from, which helps build trust,’ says Prakash.
The tool can also help support regulatory compliance and governance by harvesting pertinent information from conversations in group chats and analysing it, the insights being used by safety managers to identify trends and common issues. This approach has data privacy implications, but Prakash says teams using the apps understand that
AI SHOULD ONLY BE USED TO ENHANCE EXISTING PROCESSES
the information is already being shared across the project, and the company has recorded up to six times more engagement with safety documentation than when using existing processes.
The sudden arrival of highly advanced AI systems is a daunting prospect for many, and some OSH professionals may worry they will soon be out of a job. However, most experts interviewed for this article emphasised that AI, similar to other digital tech, should only be used to enhance existing processes.
According to Saeed Ahmadi CertIOSH, content developer at IOSH, AI should only augment existing capabilities, enabling workers ‘to perform tasks more safely and efficiently’. He adds that the increasing volumes of data can be harnessed ‘to improve health, safety, and wellbeing outcomes through, for example, predictive analytics’.
Saeed stresses that technological tools must enhance human capabilities without compromising wellbeing, also ensuring that human agency, oversight and ethical considerations remain central.
AI is here to stay, but certain factors could limit or delay its uptake. Surveys of UK construction firms and the HSE, carried out in 2023 as part of an Industrial Safetytech Regulatory Sandbox, found that the three main barriers to widespread adoption of proven AI health and safety
products were financial, regulatory and technological. The study uncovered a widespread assumption that AI technologies would either be expensive to procure or implement, compared with existing widely used software-as-a-service products, or that people were unclear on the costing or cost model of proven AI products.
According to Fernando, AI is only deployed in construction in Spain on a few pilot projects led by innovation departments, and wholesale adoption of the tech will require ‘reduced cost associated with AI and more clients requesting this kind of implementation’.
Risk governance
The study also revealed concerns over the impact of regulation on AI platforms, with less than a third (31%) of senior leaders in construction confident that the technology’s use within safety management systems would be compliant with the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
The nascent state of AI means specific legislation governing its implementation is lacking in many jurisdictions worldwide.
‘A lot of the risks are seen to be around cyber security, including the nature of the data and where it is being processed, rather than AI risk perspective itself,’ says Prakash. ‘I can see that evolving into questions like: what AI models are you using, how accurate are they, and do you understand what your models are doing internally, for example are they a black box? [making decisions without revealing how they arrived at those conclusions]. We’re already starting to see some of those questions being asked by our clients.’
The most comprehensive regulatory move around AI governance, likely to position the goalposts for the future, is the European Union’s AI Act, which came into force in August 2024.
The regulation’s risk-based approach categorises AI applications into four risk levels: unacceptable, high, limited and minimal. Unacceptable-risk applications, such as AI systems that manipulate human behaviour or enable social scoring (classifying people based on behaviour, socioeconomic status or personal characteristics) are prohibited.
CASE STUDY
AI platform digitalises compliance
UK researchers have developed an automated process to gather and check standards, allowing users to run queries in a search engine.
The i-ReC project (Intelligent Regulatory Compliance), was a collaboration between Northumbria University, Heriot-Watt University and the University of Strathclyde, set up to address concerns highlighted by an independent review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in London, in which 72 people lost their lives.
Dame Judith Hackitt’s report concluded that the current regulatory system for ensuring fire safety in high-rise and complex buildings was ‘not fit for purpose’, and recommended a fundamentally different approach to how building regulations and associated guidance, including approved documents, are authored, applied and enforced.
Current methods for collating and checking relevant building standards are typically manual and timeconsuming, with no industry-wide programme to process and automate
High-risk applications, including those used in employment decisions, must comply with strict requirements, including transparency, human oversight and risk management protocols.
AI in the real world
Understanding the EU AI Act will be crucial for OSH professionals, notes Saeed, as high-risk AI systems ‘demand proactive risk assessments, oversight of workplace hazards, and potential involvement in incident reporting – all to help ensure safety in an increasingly AI-driven environment’.
Risk levels of workplace technologies can evolve, from design through to deployment
changes to compliance, or standards. In a bid to automate the process, the researchers applied natural language processing and machine learning techniques to sift through and identify relevant requirements from a corpus of several hundred regulatory documents in a database.
A semantic search engine was developed and validated to allow end users, including project stakeholders, to search the contents of building regulations by simply typing in terms or queries. Query matches were improved by exploiting document and query expansion that allow the system to make associations with salient terms identified in the regulatory texts. In addition, a knowledge graph links to external domain knowledge to enhance data retrieval, reasoning and inference.
Beyond this proof of concept, researchers proposed a full platform for digitalising regulatory requirements. This would integrate various tools used in construction for authoring, design and compliance checking, all underpinned by their document processor.
and real-world use, which is a particular concern for AI systems that learn or adapt over time. For example, some risks may not be visible during initial stages, such as in testing environments, but emerge postdeployment due to real-world variables. These are among the many considerations that will come into play as OSH professionals in construction and other sectors grapple with the powerful capabilities and implications of advancing AI. Saeed concludes: ‘There are fundamental shifts occurring that are challenging traditional definitions of what the profession is, does and stands for, so professionals will require new skills as this shift occurs.’
FLIGHT RISK
Air traffic controllers hold the safety of thousands of passengers and crew in their hands every day – with no room for error. That pressure can take its toll, so what measures are in place to help controllers stay healthy and keep others safe?
WORDS JOHN WINDELL
The air traffic control profession has hit some turbulence of late. It encountered an especially rough patch back in April and May when outages in Newark, New Jersey, US, airspace caused controllers to lose contact with all the aircraft in the area – the north-east coast, thick with criss-crossing flightpaths. Terrifyingly, the screens went blank for up to 90 seconds.
Although no incidents occurred –fortunately – hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled, inconveniencing thousands of passengers. The air traffic control officers (ATCOs) also suffered: following the first blackout, several took medical leave, citing a ‘traumatic event’ and triggering a minimum of 45 days off the job (Lapham, 2025).
Frantic reorganisation followed to keep the runways open and safe, highlighting a much wider problem – a global shortage of ATCOs. Across Europe, the shortage is estimated at around 700 to 1000 positions (Allan, 2025). In the US, the problem is deeper. The head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association recently said that 41% of the 10,800 controllers currently on the job were working 10 hours a day, six days a week to make up for the extra 3000 staff needed to meet current demand (Isidore, 2025).
More empty seats
A number of factors have contributed to the shortages, but foremost among them was COVID. Levels of air traffic plummeted during the pandemic, and many experienced ATCOs took the opportunity to retire. At the same time, training programmes were suspended, so new staff did not come up. Air travel has since surged again, but many ATCO seats remain empty as it takes at least three years before a successful trainee is ready to be supervised on the job. In the US, regular shutdowns of the federal government have compounded the problem, and stuttering finance has further disrupted the training of new ATCOs.
‘It is a high-pressure profession,’ says Patricia Gilbert, executive vice-president professional at the International Federation
of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations (IFATCA). ‘ATCOs need particular cognitive abilities to do the job, and they need to protect those abilities. They need to think quickly, to multi-task and have decisions in their back pocket all the time.’
She says that FAA executives often wonder why ATCOs use so much of their sick leave compared with other workers. ‘I explain it’s because you can go to the office and answer some emails with a cold, but you wouldn’t want an ATCO working an evening shift if they have a cold coming on or haven’t slept. Sick leave is there for them to take, and they need to be supported in that.’
Nuno Cebola, director of human factors and wellbeing at NATS, which provides services to several UK airports, adds that musculoskeletal disorders, as with many sedentary jobs, can be a problem. ‘On the physical side there are repetitive stress injuries, and back problems because people can spend a lot of time sitting down.’
Other physical hazards in air traffic control towers include slips and trips, and fire safety and evacuation challenges, says Shane Berry, head of health, safety and fire safety at East Midlands Airport, and member of the IOSH Aviation and
Aerospace Community Committee. But the key issues for ATCOs are stress, tiredness and fatigue. ‘Tiredness and fatigue are different things,’ Shane explains. ‘After two or three shifts, you may be tired. Fatigue is a more long-term condition that can be serious and needs to be managed.’
Shift work, by its nature, can be fatiguing, and is made worse when understaffing is an issue, says Patricia. ‘Short staffing is a global issue in the profession, which requires more of an individual than it did, say, during my first five years when I didn’t work a single shift of overtime. It’s not just the shift work itself, but the length of time people are required to do it. If the work environment is not conducive to the ability to do the job, that can add to the pressure.’ Many months and years spent doing shift work can take a heavy toll.
Nuno says that fatigue-related absence is only an occasional issue for NATS. It might not be caused by work, but still needs to be mitigated. ‘It could be anything, including normal life events such as a new baby keeping somebody up all night. I think there are moments when the job is quite stressful, but it’s not always the case.’
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
On the horizon
With AI and automation becoming more visible in every industry, what impact might it have on the work of ATCOs?
Patricia Gilbert: ‘I don’t think it’s much of a consideration in the near term. There are too many aspects of the job that need to have the flexibility that the human brings. But I do think a partnership will be quite important between the human and the machine.’
Shane Berry: ‘A few years ago we would do runway inspections on foot, getting out there, stomping those hard surfaces.
Now we put a drone up, and it picks up all the imperfections, and scans and logs them automatically. I think AI will play a part, but I don’t think it will replace the human interface.’
Nuno Cebola: ‘In the long run, I think air traffic control will remain a peoplecentric operation. We will see systems that provide better support to the human, but it will be down to the controller to make the decision. We will remain very safety conscious and we won’t deploy anything that we can’t back in terms of maintaining public safety.’
Physical and psychological checks
A wide assortment of factors can exert an influence on the physical and mental wellbeing of ATCOs and their ability to do the job effectively and safely –and these factors must be checked for and controlled. Workplace stress and associated psychological factors are routinely and carefully monitored.
Critical incident stress management systems are also widespread, as are ‘just culture’ approaches.
Any event that might have an impact on the ability of an ATCO to carry out their work will trigger a response. ‘We look out for people after an incident, which is important,’ says Shane. ‘But that’s also something we do day-to-day, especially looking at human factors around performance, and by checking for any issues via regular medical assessments.’
Like many operations, NATS has occupational health services on site.
‘We employ general practitioners,’ says Nuno, ‘partly because there is a requirement for controllers to go through a full medical every year to maintain their licence, but also because that service is always there for them to access. If they have any concerns, they can reach out. We also have a very strong peersupport capability.’
The regular medical checks are extensive.
‘They go into stress and fatigue, check for skeletal, ear, nose and throat issues, the heart, the whole body,’ says Shane. Ongoing training around fatigue management and human factors also gives ATCOs the power they need to spot the signs for themselves.
been a really strong effort to address the stigma associated with mental wellbeing and help support professionals in that area.’ But this comes with a risk for the individual. ‘If I see a physician, depending on how I convey the stress of my occupation or life in general, they could diagnose me with something that could disqualify me from my profession.’
EMPLOYERS MUST OFFER STRESS MANAGEMENT AND PEER SUPPORT
Technology is increasingly playing a part in managing stress and fatigue. ‘We’ve bought a tool that checks the potential impact of fatigue,’ says Nuno. ‘It models where the most fatiguing parts of the rostering will take place, allowing us to know which patterns, days and times there’s a higher risk of fatigue so we can mitigate that risk.’ Other innovations undergoing tests include eye-tracking, which can provide early warning of tiredness and psychological issues.
influences,’ says Shane. ‘You’ve also got what’s going on between people and within teams. So it’s managing that and making sure that things are in place. From an OSH perspective, there is a lot of legislation and regulatory expectations that we support.’
Fighting fatigue
For Patricia, the question is how to mitigate that risk of fatigue. ‘How do you educate not just the employer, but also the individuals. How can they mitigate fatigue themselves?’
She says a key step is for employers to offer critical incident stress management programmes and other peer support initiatives. ‘Part of my role is to help educate and align more employers to support these kinds of programmes, and, if one is in place, that it’s known to the workforce and embraced by the trade union or member association.’
Mental health training for managers has become another well-established measure, says Nuno. ‘We also do suicide awareness because our demographics align with the incidence of suicide, and we run a monthly men’s health conversation.’
This raised awareness has been an important step, adds Patricia. ‘There has
Given how long it takes to train an ATCO, and how much investment that requires, maintaining resilience is key. It’s in everybody’s interest to ensure that these workers remain fit and capable of doing a demanding job.
‘We’re aware that it’s not just the role and its demands, and lots of external
Health and safety is fundamental to air traffic control operations, not an add-on. Thankfully, regulatory requirements around medical assessments, reporting and training are extensive and strictly enforced, and multiple systems and processes are all in place to support the wellbeing of ATCOs.
For references, visit ioshmagazine. com/spotlight-ATCOs
ATCOS spend long hours at their screens, so fatigue management is critical
EVIDENCE
EXPLORE THE LATEST RESEARCH
TOPIC: Shaping safety behaviour
TITLE: Enhancing workplace
wellbeing: unveiling the dynamics of leader-member exchange and worker safety behaviour through psychological safety and job satisfaction
PUBLISHED BY: Safety and Health at Work
SUMMARY: A study in Algeria has found that leader-member exchange (LMX) plays a crucial role in shaping safety behaviour among healthcare workers.
LMX is a theory that explains the quality of relationships between leaders and their followers. It involves the reciprocal sharing of resources – including information, support and recognition – which is grounded in mutual trust, respect and obligation.
Safety behaviours (SBs) include an individual’s actions or conduct to uphold the wellbeing and safety of workers, clients, the public and the environment. There are two primary categories of SB: safety compliance (SCB) and safety participation (SPB). SCB involves the fundamental activities necessary for maintaining workplace safety, while SPB focuses on actions that do not directly contribute to an individual’s personal safety but foster a safe environment.
The study involved collecting data from 325 Algerian healthcare workers across three public hospitals in three
Research matters
Recent papers examine the association between leader-member exchange and safety behaviours, and sleep behaviours among healthcare and non-healthcare shift workers.
waves. Researchers found a significant association between higher LMX and increased job satisfaction and enhanced SCBs. They concluded that satisfied employees are more likely to proactively report safety concerns, identify hazards and adhere to safety procedures. The findings are important because they could help healthcare managers and top management teams develop interventions that promote workplace safety and enhance healthcare workers’ wellbeing.
TITLE: Shift workers’ experiences and views of sleep disturbance, fatigue
and healthy behaviours: a systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis
PUBLISHED BY: Scandinavian Journal of Work Environment and Health
SUMMARY: Researchers have found that sleep education alone is unlikely to be effective for alleviating shift workers’ experiences of sleep disturbance and its impacts without also receiving complementary behavioural and psychological support.
The researchers collected data from four databases and concluded that behavioural sleep interventions would support shift workers to manage their behaviour, thoughts and emotions in tiring and stressful work environments.
It is thought that around 20% of workers are involved in some form of shift work, which disrupts a person’s internal body clock, leading to developing sleep difficulties and health issues.
There are two main ways currently identified to help alleviate these issues: a pharmaceutical approach using melatonin, for example, and nonpharmacological interventions such as light therapy, strategic napping and cognitivebehavioural techniques. This research reviewed studies involving 1519 participants in total, and included healthcare shift workers, non-healthcare shift workers such as bus drivers, and a mixed sample of healthcare and non-healthcare shift workers.
Researchers found fatigue was often perceived as an inevitable experience of shift work. Also, such workers struggle to balance their needs for daytime sleep with family and work responsibilities. While shift workers know what actions would benefit their health and reduce fatigue, they often find it difficult to translate this into behaviour change on their own.
READ REPORT AT: b.link/ SJWEH-sleep-disturbance
TOPIC: Workplace discrimination
TITLE: National review into work conditions and discrimination for pregnant and parent workers in Australia
PUBLISHED BY: Safety Science
SUMMARY: The first national study into working conditions for pregnant and parent workers in Australia found that parents returning to work reported the highest levels of self-perceived discrimination, disadvantage and bias. This finding was closely followed by pregnant workers and finally those on parental leave, who also perceived they had been discriminated against, disadvantaged or experienced bias. It is the first time in 10 years that a study into this topic
has been conducted across the continent.
A wide range of selfperceived discrimination, disadvantage and bias was found in the survey, including issues around job loss, offensive remarks and employment changes.
Almost a third (32.3%) of pregnant women said they did not receive any information about their upcoming leave entitlements. A quarter said they felt they had to hide their changing body at work (25.0%), and a fifth (21.3%) stated that their job was altered against their wishes.
Other examples included missing out on training, being threatened with redundancy
or termination of employment, being made redundant or restructured out of a job, or not having their contract renewed. Others said they were exposed to unmanageable workloads (66.1%), had their opinions ignored (53.3%), and were ordered to do work below their level of competence (45.4%).
For those survey participants on parental leave, central issues included a lack of information about important changes in the workplace (50.8%) or celebrations (46.9%), among other issues.
Negative remarks for those returning to work included needing part-time or flexible work hours, while 12% said they always received negative or
offensive remarks about needing to take time off to care for a sick child.
The researchers described the situation as a ‘paradox’, because anti-discrimination laws do exist to protect pregnant and parent workers in Australia. They concluded that further research was needed to understand the impact between policy and organisational practice. They recommended that this include conducting more frequent national reviews to track changes over time, particularly if they coincided with relevant legislative changes, such as updated paid parental leave or educational campaigns.
We take a look at a recent paper to see how its findings can inform OSH.
Workload factors influencing mental health and the intent to leave job during the COVID-19 pandemic: a survey analysis of healthcare workers handling mass fatalities in the US
PUBLICATION Safety
BACKGROUND/AIMS
Burnout is common in medicine and a major factor affecting the mental health of healthcare workers (HCWs). HCWs in the US experienced a severe mental health crisis during the pandemic. Increased burnout rates and their associated problems significantly contributed to a higher turnover rate among this population.
While previous studies have documented the mental health challenges faced by HCWs, there remains a notable gap in the literature regarding the specific factors contributing to mental distress among those handling deceased bodies. This study aimed to explore the direct and indirect relationships among HCWs between workload, mental distress and the intent to leave their job during the pandemic.
The authors characterised workload into six factors as categorised in the NASA
TaskLoad Index Scale: physical demand, mental demand, temporal demand, effort, performance and frustration. Each of these was hypothesised to impact mental distress and the intent to leave their job.
METHODS AND FINDINGS
The authors used a cross-sectional validated survey to collect self-reported data from 206 HCWs in the US between April and May 2023. The survey measured various dimensions of workload, including mental, physical and temporal demands, as well as frustration, and their effects on mental distress and the intent to leave their job.
Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyse the relationships among these variables, providing robust insights into the direct and indirect effects of workload demands on mental distress and job retention. The findings revealed significant associations between mental, physical and temporal demands, frustration and increased mental distress, which in turn heightened the intent to leave their job.
CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that interventions aimed at reducing these demands, enhancing support systems and promoting mental wellbeing are essential for improving job satisfaction and retention among HCWs. Importantly, the research identifies a significant relationship between mental distress and the intent to leave their job, highlighting the need for healthcare organisations to implement strategies that mitigate mental health challenges.
RESEARCHER’S TAKEAWAY
‘This study highlights a troubling paradox in today’s healthcare landscape. As nurses face ever-increasing workloads… they experience intense mental and physical strain that pushes many to leave their jobs. This exodus deepens existing staffing shortages, forcing remaining nurses to shoulder even greater burdens, thereby fuelling a vicious cycle of burnout and turnover. The research, which focused on high-stress roles such as mass fatality management, underscores the urgent need for systemic changes and targeted support measures to ease these pressures.
‘Without timely intervention, the healthcare system risks spiralling into a scenario where dwindling numbers of nurses must manage unsustainably heavy workloads, ultimately compromising both caregiver wellbeing and the quality of patient care.’
Avishek Choudhury, co-author
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE – IOSH’S TAKE
While the research concentrates on the specific stressors experienced by HCWs during the pandemic, it highlights how the cycle of understaffing and workload intensification contributes to higher turnover rates. This insight underscores the positive health impact that can be achieved through proactive and cultural change at business level. It also underlines the need for OSH professionals to collaborate with operational managers and other people professionals to ensure that workloads do not create or exacerbate risk.
Read the full study at: b.link/Safety-HCW-burnout
Safe systems of work
Duncan Spencer CFIOSH, head of advice and practice at IOSH, takes a practitioner’s view of landmark civil law cases that can inform our approach.
In the landmark case English v Wilsons & Clyde Co (1938), a miner, Mr English, was working to repair an airway into a mine that was used as part of the haulage system. He was moving in the shaft when the haulage started. Although he tried to get out, he was trapped by machinery and crushed to death.
The company tried to claim that Mr English’s death was his own fault. He could have used a different route or alerted the employee in charge of the machinery. In any case, they had delegated the responsibility for a safe working system to an experienced employee on site.
Originally the company was not held liable, but the claimants appealed on the issue of whether employers had a nondelegable duty of care to provide safe systems of work for their workers. The House of Lords ruled that a safe system of work was the responsibility of the employer alone, and this could not be delegated to another employee.
It ruled that the employer was vicariously liable for any employee negligence in this regard. This duty included providing proper materials, employing competent workers and providing effective supervision.
There are some limits to the application of this ruling. In the case of Ammah v Keuhne+Nagel Logistics Ltd (2009),
IT IS FOR THE COMPANY TO PROVE A SAFE SYSTEM OF WORK WAS IN PLACE
Ferdinand Ammah was employed in the despatch department. He needed to obtain a pamphlet from a high shelf out of his reach. He used an up-turned plastic box to raise his height, but the box moved, and he fell, breaking his ankle. Mr Ammah contended that the company should have told him not to use boxes in this way.
In its defence, the company pointed out that it had complied in its duty of care to
provide a safe system of work to access the upper shelves. Suitable equipment was available, including a man-riser, steps and a forklift truck. While it had not identified the risk from standing on a box, these other provisions adequately guarded against this risk: that, in standing on a box, Mr Ammah took a risk for which he was solely to blame.
The Court of Appeal upheld the ruling of the case, that Mr Ammah had been guilty of causing his own accident since alternative safe methods of accessing items at height had been provided.
The Ammah case is a reminder that an employer’s liability claims relating to safe systems of work can be successfully defended, but it is for the company to prove that an effective safe system of work was in place, that training records show that the employee has been informed of the safe system of work, that appropriate equipment is available, and that adequate supervision is in place.
If the court is satisfied by such things, then an employee liability case may be dismissed.
For more civil law milestones, visit ioshmagazine.com/ civil-law-milestones
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