SCENARIO

Essential Living $($EL$)$ is a large store selling gardening, decorating, home and cleaning products, as

well as electrical equipment and childrens toys. EL is located within a large, outdoor shopping

centre, in a building three storeys high. The ground and first floors consist of the shop floor; the

goods inward section is located on the ground floor, and the stockroom is on the second floor.

Workers access the stockroom by using either the stairs or the goods lift, and there is a separate

passenger lift for customer use. All workers are advised to always enter and exit the store using the

entrance at the back of the store, where goods are delivered.

The store is open to customers $7$ days a week from $09$:$0017$:$00.$ There are two $8-$hour shift

patterns in place $07$:$0015$:$00$ and $11$:$0019$:$00$ for workers. The store has $65$ workers, including a

store manager $($SM$),$ a newly appointed assistant store manager $($ASM$)$ and some full$-$time workers.

The majority of the workers are part$-$time $($including recent school leavers$)$ and seasonal workers.

The seasonal workers are given a handbook and an induction before starting work. During the

induction they are given an overview of their job roles. The inductions are normally brief, but

sometimes these are missed during the stores busy periods when customers are waiting to be

served. Seasonal workers are also told to provide their own personal protective equipment $($PPE$).$

All workers have split roles and work between the shop floor and the stockroom; however, this has

not been clearly communicated to them. The SM and the ASM are responsible for all workers during

a shift, but they spend their whole shift focusing on the shop floor.

With the seasonal period approaching, the SM informs the workers that it is important to ensure all

shelves are fully stocked at all times. They also request that all checkouts be available during this

period. The SM and the ASMs main focus is on the shop floor, so that customers can be served

efficiently. Over the last twelve months, the stockroom workers have generally been left

unsupervised. During the same period there has been an increase in near misses in the stockroom.

As the ASM is newly$-$appointed, they have introduced some new procedures. One of these is a

monthly rota for the workers, that indicates where they will be working. However, the workers do not

always comply with this rota and regularly swap jobs between themselves.

The accident

It is a busy Saturday afternoon, and one of the part$-$time workers is on the rota to work at the

checkout. However, they are bored with this job and decide to swap jobs with another worker in the

stockroom. As a result of this swap, they are now responsible for restocking shelves on the shop

floor. This involves bringing a full roll cage $($a tall, caged trolley on wheels for transporting goods$)$

down from the stockroom via the goods lift.

The part$-$time worker goes to the stockroom and is given a roll cage stacked high with heavy boxes.

As the goods lift arrives, they manoeuvre the roll cage between objects in the cluttered stockroom.

When they reach the lift, they try to push the roll cage onto it$,$ but it does not move because of the

small difference in height between the goods lift floor and the stockroom floor. They then try to tilt the

roll cage, but it falls backwards, trapping the part$-$time worker beneath the roll cage and its contents.

A seasonal worker is first at the scene of the accident, panics, and immediately calls for an

ambulance on their mobile phone. They then shout for help from nearby workers who run over, lift

the roll cage up and move it away from the injured worker. As the roll cage is lifted, one worker

notices that one of the four wheels is slightly smaller than the others. They know that this roll cage is

only used if no others are available. One of the workers calls for the SM from the shop floor, who

tells them that they will be at the scene in two minutes.

The workers start to clear away the boxes and their contents. The part$-$time worker is unable to

move and has broken their spectacles during the fall, which have cut their face. The SM$,$ who is firstaid trained, arrives at the scene, and takes control. The part$-$time worker is complaining about

severe pain in their back. The SM immediately advises them to remain completely still and provides

them with a blanket. The SM tells another worker to fetch the first$-$aid box so that the facial cuts can be treated. The SM reassures the part$-$time worker and waits for the ambulance. Another worker is

instructed to place a danger, keep clear sign and is asked to cordon off the accident area. The SM

then tells all workers to leave the scene of the accident. Twenty minutes later, the ambulance

arrives, and the part$-$time worker is rushed to hospital.

The next day, the SM receives a telephone call from the part$-$time workers relative with an update.

They mention that the part$-$time worker has suffered severe spinal injuries and may not be fit to return

to work for a long period of time.

The ASM updates the accident book and begins researching how to report the accident. They then

advise the SM how to do this.

Local labour inspector visit

Five days after the accident, EL receives a visit from a local labour inspector. The inspector asks to

see all relevant health and safety documentation, along with the accident book, handbook, training

records, and all risk assessments.

As the inspector begins reviewing the documents, they notice that the health and safety policy is

dated $6$ years ago and signed by a previous SM at the store. After viewing the risk assessment, they

see that this is $4$ years out of date and is very general, covering the whole store. The inspector also

looks at the handbook that is given to all new starters, noticing that it has a different organisations

logo$.$

While reviewing the training records, the inspector finds no evidence of any training or guidance

documents on safely carrying out roll cage activities. This makes the inspector think that workers are

unclear about tasks involving the use of roll cages. However, as the inspector is walking around the

stockroom, they overhear a conversation between workers. The workers believe that the roll cage

was incorrectly loaded but, as there was no signage on the roll cage, it was difficult to know.

When reviewing the accident book, the inspector identifies that three, similar near misses have

occurred. The inspector questions the SM about the near misses and asks why no actions were

taken. The SM replies that they have had no time to investigate these with the busy seasonal period.

The inspector issues an order stopping the use of the goods lift. They also explain to the SM that if

the SM was aware of the problem with the use of the roll cages with the goods lift, as a minimum,

warning signs should have been put in place for workers to take extra care.

After the accident

Following the accident, the part$-$time worker spends several weeks at their local hospital. They are

then transferred to a spinal injury unit at a specialist hospital for extensive rehabilitation. After $6$

months, the part$-$time worker is discharged from the hospital and, after a further $2$ years, returns to

study at their local university part$-$time. They do not return to work at EL$.$

In the meantime, EL is found guilty of breaches of health and safety legislation and is given a

substantial fine.

Task $1$: Management failures

$1$ What management failures could have contributed to the accident? $(16)$

Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant

information from the scenario.