GROUND MAINTENANCE - 19.06.2006

Green fingers lead to bloody hands

Green and pleasant land!

Having a small patch of garden, with a well-cut lawn and a few plants etc. makes your premises appear well looked after. However, a colleague has told you about a gardener who nearly lost his leg in an accident with a petrol strimmer. This has forced you to look into how you manage the gardener you employ. When you looked for evidence of risk assessments, insurance documentation, safe systems etc., they were somewhat lacking. A bit more investigation identified the gardener has been working for your business for years, and at no point has it occurred to anyone: “We’d better get some paperwork in place”. Why do you need to bother, and surely you don’t need to go over the top?

Important documents

Long formal risk assessments, method statements evidence of formal systems etc.? We’d be amazed if your gardener could suddenly produce these. But you could put yourself in an awkward predicament if you don’t have anything. What do you need to see, and keep a record of?

• Insurance documentation. Even a one-man business needs to have public liability cover. If you allow him to work on your premises without it, you could actually invalidate your own cover.

• Evidence of controlling the risks to himself and others.

Tip. If he has less than five staff you could carry out an interview with him, discussing how he manages safety. Take minutes from the meeting and get him to sign a copy of them - so you have a formal record of agreed controls.

Do the risk assessment for him

Alternatively you could carry out a risk assessment with him, using your forms etc., and again get him to sign it agreeing to the controls identified.

Tip. Be careful how you approach your gardener with this proposal. You might, if you’re not careful, scare him off. Some won’t see the need for paperwork; expect to hear “I’ve been doing this for years. I don’t need a piece of paper to make me safer”. Don’t ignore this, as they’re probably right. Most successful people who work with these types of tools are well aware of the dangers associated with them. So the way to approach him is to make him aware that you’re doing it predominantly for your own benefit. But make sure he knows that just in case he, or one of his staff has an accident, your efforts might help him out too.

What should the paperwork cover?

First and foremost it doesn’t have to be War and Peace. It needs to be clear, concise and easily understandable. The last thing you want is to spend ages producing a document to satisfy the most eager eye, only for the gardener to tell you he hasn’t a clue what it all means.

Tip. The most important thing to cover will be the mechanised equipment he uses. As we’ve already said, strimmers can cause horrendous injuries, so this will be where the main risks are. Find out how he controls things, i.e. where does he stand? What protective clothing does he wear? This will be more than sufficient.

The next step

For a free sample gardener’s risk assessment visit http://healthandsafety.indicator.co.uk (HS 04.19.06)