Ahealth and safety action plan produced by the British Woodworking Federation (BWF) aims to reduce injuries, work-related ill-health and ‘lost days’ in the industry.
The BWF says 113,000 days a year are lost through injury and identifies previous unclear training requirements, the lack of employee-based certification of competence and lack of consultation with employees as problem areas.
It wants to reduce major injuries and fatalities by 20%, work-related ill-health by 40% and ‘lost days’ by 50% within the next eight years.
A key element in the plan is the creation of a list of existing relevant qualifications acceptable to BWF members.
The BWF is working with other organisations to create an interactive machine-training competence package which could be ready by July. Members are expected to reach appropriate competency levels for all their employees by December 2005.
Other developments planned include a basic manual handling course, an attendance monitoring tool, a BWF-dedicated accident form, a consultation tool kit and machine specific safety cards.
