Slips, Trips, Falls & Working at Height

You are stacking shelves in a supermarket and notice a bottle of cooking oil has broken and spread across the aisle. What does HSE say you should do?

• AStand next to it and warn shoppers until your break is due
• BMove the broken bottle aside, and leave the oil to be mopped at closing time
• CClean it up, or arrange for it to be cleaned up straight away✓
• DCarry on stacking, as spills are the cleaning team's job

Answer: HSE tells employees that if they see a spillage they should clean it up or make arrangements for it to be cleaned. A spillage left on a floor is a slip hazard for everyone using the aisle, and slips and trips are the most common cause of injury at work. Leaving it for the cleaners, guarding it until your break or waiting until closing time all leave the oil on the floor where someone can slip.

Which of these would HSE's slips and trips guidance flag as a trip hazard in an open-plan office?

• AA footrest tucked under a desk beside a user's chair
• BA laptop charger cable trailing across the walkway between desks✓
• CA row of coat hooks fixed to the wall by the door
• DA document holder standing next to a monitor

Answer: Trailing cables are one of the organisational factors HSE names as a cause of trips, alongside rushing and overcrowding. A cable across a walkway is exactly the kind of obstruction that catches feet, so it should be removed, made safe or reported. A footrest under a desk, a document holder and wall-mounted coat hooks are off the walking routes and are not trip hazards.

It is raining and customers are walking water into the shop entrance, making the tiles slippery. Which measure does HSE's leaflet give for stopping floors becoming contaminated like this?

• ASigns asking customers to walk slowly on wet days
• BEntrance matting to stop rainwater being tracked inside✓
• CTurning the heating up so wet patches dry faster
• DA high-gloss floor finish so any water shows up

Answer: HSE lists using entrance matting as a practical step to stop floors becoming contaminated, giving rainwater tracked in on wet days as the example. Matting removes the water at the door before it reaches the smooth floor. A glossy finish, warning signs and extra heating do nothing to stop the contamination arriving, and a wet smooth floor stays slippery whether or not the water is visible.

The kitchen floor in the restaurant where you work is often wet and cannot be kept dry, so your employer issues slip-resistant shoes as personal protective equipment. What does HSE say about the cost?

• AThey must be supplied to you free of charge✓
• BThe cost is split equally between you and your employer
• CYou pay a deposit that is refunded when you leave
• DYou pay for them and claim the cost back through your tax

Answer: Footwear supplied as personal protective equipment must be provided to employees free of charge. HSE says slip-resistant footwear can help prevent slips where floors cannot be kept clean and dry, and it recommends trialling the footwear first so it suits the environment and fits comfortably. Tax claims, cost-sharing and deposits all shift part of the cost onto the worker, which the leaflet rules out.

The light above the steps down to the pub cellar has failed, so the steps are hard to see. What does HSE's guidance say you should do?

• AUse the torch on your phone and say nothing about it
• BTell your employer so the lighting can be put right✓
• CAsk whoever goes down last each night to warn the next person
• DProp the cellar door open so light from the bar reaches the steps

Answer: HSE's practical steps to prevent slips and trips include making sure lighting is sufficient and that slopes or steps are clearly visible. Employees should tell their employer about any work situation they think is dangerous or where the health and safety arrangements have gone wrong, and a dark flight of steps is exactly that. A phone torch, a propped door or a word-of-mouth warning are makeshift workarounds that leave the hazard in place for everyone else.

You are asked to work beside an open inspection pit in a vehicle workshop. A colleague says this is not 'work at height' because you are standing on the ground. Which statement matches HSE's definition?

• AIt is work at height, because you could fall from ground level into the pit✓
• BIt is not work at height, because falls only count when they start above floor level
• CIt is not work at height, because the definition needs a minimum height of 2 metres
• DIt is work at height, but only if the pit is deeper than you are tall

Answer: Work at height means work in any place where, without precautions, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury, and HSE says this includes falling from ground level into an opening in a floor or a hole in the ground. The definition sets no fixed height; what matters is whether a fall could cause injury. A 2-metre threshold, a rule that falls must start above floor level and a comparison with the worker's own height are not part of HSE's definition.

Your supervisor is planning a job to install new cabling near the ceiling of a warehouse. According to HSE's step-by-step approach, what should be considered first?

• AWhether the job can be done without working at height at all✓
• BWhether safety nets can be rigged just below the work
• CWhich harness and lanyard the fitters should be issued with
• DHow far a fitter could fall if a guard rail gave way

Answer: The first step in HSE's work at height guidance is to avoid work at height where it is reasonably practicable, for example by installing cables at ground level. Only where it cannot be avoided do you move on to preventing falls, and then to minimising the distance and consequences of a fall. Harnesses, safety nets and fall distances all belong to those later steps, not to the first question.

You need to use a leaning ladder to clear a blocked gutter. As a guide, HSE suggests considering alternative equipment if the task would need you to stay up the ladder for longer than how long at a time?

• ASixty minutes
• BFifteen minutes
• CThirty minutes✓
• DTwo hours

Answer: HSE's guide is that if a task would require staying up a leaning ladder or stepladder for more than 30 minutes at a time, you should consider alternative equipment. Short duration is not the only deciding factor, because the risk must be considered first, but the 30-minute figure is the rule of thumb the guidance gives. Fifteen minutes, sixty minutes and two hours are not the figures HSE uses.

You are told to use the stockroom stepladder to reach a high shelf, but you notice one of its treads is cracked. What does HSE say an employee in this position should do?

• ATape over the crack, carry on and mention it at the end of the shift
• BUse it but keep your feet off the cracked tread
• CAsk a colleague to hold the stepladder steady while you climb
• DReport it, and do not use it until you are told it is safe✓

Answer: Employees must report any safety hazard they identify to their employer, and must use equipment as instructed unless they think that would be unsafe, in which case they should seek further instructions before continuing. A cracked tread makes the stepladder unsafe, so the right move is to stop and report it. Avoiding the tread, taping it or having someone steady the stepladder all mean working from defective equipment.

You go up to the mezzanine floor to pick stock and find that a section of the edge guard rail has been taken away. What should you do first?

• AKeep clear of the open edge and report it straight away✓
• BClip a lanyard to the racking and carry on as normal
• CCarry on picking, but stay about a metre back from the edge
• DPut a cone beside the gap and continue with the job

Answer: A guard rail is collective fall protection, and an edge left without one is a safety hazard that employees must report to their employer. HSE says each place where people will work at height needs to be checked every time before use, so the mezzanine should not be used until the edge is made safe. Staying back from the edge or coning off the gap leaves you and others working beside an open drop, and clipping a lanyard to whatever is nearby is not a planned fall-protection system with a suitable anchor point.

Bricks are being moved on a scaffold above a pavement that shoppers use. HSE says that where falling objects cannot reasonably be prevented, what should be done?

• AHave a colleague shout a warning each time a brick is moved
• BStation a first-aider at the foot of the scaffold during the work
• CUse an exclusion zone or mesh so no one below can be hit✓
• DPut up a sign asking pedestrians to look up as they pass beneath

Answer: Where it is not reasonably practicable to stop objects falling, HSE requires suitable and sufficient measures so that no one can be injured, giving exclusion zones and mesh on scaffolds as examples. Both keep people and falling material apart. A sign, a shouted warning or a first-aider on standby do nothing to stop a brick reaching someone on the pavement.

A colleague asks you to help sweep leaves off a factory roof and says the roof lights are fine to stand on because they look solid. What does HSE's guidance say?

• ARoof lights are likely to be fragile, whatever they look like✓
• BRoof lights can be crossed if two people spread the load between them
• CRoof lights are safe to stand on if they are less than a metre across
• DRoof lights are only fragile when they are wet, so choose a dry day

Answer: HSE lists roof lights among the surfaces likely to be fragile, along with liner panels, non-reinforced fibre cement sheets, corroded metal sheets, glass, rotted chipboard and slates and tiles. Falls through fragile roofs and roof lights are one of the most common causes of workplace death and serious injury, including during cleaning of factory and warehouse roofs. Size, dry weather and sharing the load do not make a fragile surface safe to stand on.