RUBIAC

In support of the RUBIAC 3 year Action Plan manual handling, risk assessment and accident investigation were the subjects of three groups of seminars for the rubber industry held by RUBIAC during the second half of 1999 and the first half of 2000.  The seminars introduced RUBIAC’s ‘recommended practice’ approaches based on what some companies in the rubber industry were already doing.  These approaches were subjected to peer group review by the seminar delegates and the final versions, which are contained in this publication, incorporate their suggestions and comments.  Each seminar has resulted in a simple and straightforward 5 steps procedure to follow for each of the subjects.

I believe that the strength, volume and validity of these recommendations lie in their origin.  They are based on systems which have been tried and tested by real companies in dealing with real health and safety issues.  Each is just one recommended way of tackling a health and safety issue which is important to the rubber industry.  It is not the only way, but if you follow it you are likely, at the very least, to achieve compliance with health and safety law and you stand to gain the economic benefits which are widely acknowledged to go along with preventing occupational accidents and ill health.

Manual handling is important because sprain and strain injuries account for more than 40% of reported accidents in the industry.  Many of these injuries lead to long term disability and loss of earning capacity.  If we are to meet targets for reductions in numbers of accidents and the time lost due to accidents and ill health then manual handling accidents are one category we must tackle with drive and determination.  The RUBIAC ‘recommended practice’ approach makes full use of the recently published RUBIAC manual handling guidance produced to support the Action Plan.

Risk assessment is one of the basic requirements of health and safety law, yet it is rarely well understood or well executed.  The RUBIAC ‘recommended practice’ approach for this subject reduces risk assessment to a series of simple steps which will aid rubber companies to complete good quality assessments for many of the basic operations and processes which they undertake, and to gain experience and confidence in risk assessment techniques.

Accident investigation is something which few companies in any industry do well, but which is a key part of monitoring health and safety performance and learning from experience.  It is also an issue on which legislation is likely in the future.  The RUBIAC ‘recommended practice’ approach allows you to identify both immediate and underlying causes of incidents and to plan remedial action.

Together these 3 sets of guidance form a working agenda for improving health and safety performance in individual companies and the rubber industry as a whole.

None of this means that those companies with effective systems for tackling manual handling, risk assessment and accident investigation need to change their present systems.  If what you currently do is already at least as good as the ‘recommended practice’ approach then continue with it.  However, if you are presently doing little or nothing then the ‘recommended practice’ approaches are a way of getting you quickly started.  If you identify deficiencies in your present approaches when you compare them to the ‘recommended practices’ then you should modify them.

The goal of the RUBIAC Action Plan is a 30% reduction in accidents in the industry over 3 years.  More than a year has now passed since senior managers from leading companies in the rubber industry gave their commitment to that target.  The ‘recommended practice’ approaches provide companies with a practical way of tackling both specific and significant health and safety issues, and to address the more difficult cultural issues which go to the heart of achieving sustainable improvement.  The challenges on the agenda are there.  What are you doing to deliver the industry commitment?

ANDREW PORTER

RUBIAC CHAIRMAN