For information and reference only – not to be submitted as your own work. This is a model-answer extract written around a hypothetical workplace to show structure and depth for the UCD OSH10100 Assignment 2 brief. Your assignment must describe your own workplace, in your own words, and follow UCD’s academic integrity rules.
For a section-by-section explanation of the brief, read how to write OSH10100 Assignment 2.
Preface: Workplace Description
The workplace is a hypothetical chilled and ambient food distribution warehouse on an industrial estate in north County Dublin. The site covers a single 9,000 m² building with a goods-in dock, high-bay racking, a chilled zone held at 2–5°C, a picking floor, a dispatch area with eight loading bays, a battery-charging room for forklifts and a two-storey office block.
There are 115 direct employees and about 20 agency workers at peak. Operations run on two shifts, 06:00–14:00 and 14:00–22:00, six days a week. Around a third of the warehouse team are under 25, and a significant share speak English as a second language. External hauliers enter the yard and docks every day. All of these details are invented for the example.
| Level | Role | OSH relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Senior management | Site General Manager | Signs the safety statement; allocates resources |
| Middle management | Warehouse, Transport and Maintenance Managers | Own risk assessments in their areas |
| Supervisors | Shift team leaders (6) | Daily checks, toolbox talks, incident reporting |
| Specialist | Health and Safety Officer (part-time, shared with a second site) | Advises, audits, keeps records |
| Employees | Pickers, forklift and reach-truck operators, cleaners, office staff | Co-operate, report hazards, follow training |
| Worker representation | Elected safety representative; safety committee meets quarterly | Consultation under the 2005 Act |
1. Introduction
This assignment examines the safety management system (SMS) at the warehouse, the legal duties of the people within it, five principal hazards and the most challenging risk on site: pedestrians being struck by forklift trucks. It draws on Irish legislation and Health and Safety Authority (HSA) guidance, together with international frameworks from the HSE in Great Britain, the ILO and ISO.
2. The Safety Management System
2.1 What is a safety management system?
A safety management system is the organised set of policies, responsibilities, procedures and checks an organisation uses to control its risks and keep improving. The ILO (2001) frames it as a cycle of policy, organising, planning and implementation, evaluation and action for improvement. HSG65 makes the same point through Plan, Do, Check, Act, stressing that health and safety should be managed like any other part of the business (HSE, 2013). ISO 45001 sets out formal requirements for such a system (ISO, 2018). In Ireland, the safety statement, required by section 20 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, is the written core of the system.
2.2 Key components of the warehouse SMS (Plan, Do, Check, Act)
| PLAN | DO | CHECK | ACT |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safety policy and safety statement; risk assessments by area; annual objectives | Training and competence (forklift licences, induction); safe systems of work and traffic plan; consultation with safety rep and committee; contractor and haulier control | Weekly supervisor inspections; incident and near-miss reporting; annual internal audit | Management review; corrective action log; safety statement revision |
In your own submission, turn this table into a simple circular diagram of your site’s own components and explain each box underneath it.
2.3 How each component is managed
Plan. The General Manager signs the safety statement each January. Risk assessments follow the HSA’s three steps of identifying hazards, assessing risks and putting controls in place (HSA, 2016). In practice, the chilled-zone and dispatch assessments were last reviewed two years ago, so they should be brought onto an annual cycle.
Do. All forklift operators hold a recognised licence and are re-assessed every three years. New starters receive a half-day induction, but agency workers often begin on a shortened version. This gap needs closing.
Check. Team leaders complete a weekly inspection checklist. Near-miss reports are low, which more likely reflects under-reporting than safe operation.
Act. The safety committee reviews incidents quarterly and actions go onto a log owned by the Health and Safety Officer.
Need a structure like this built around your own workplace? Send us your brief for a guided plan and model answer.
3. Legal Duties of Duty-Holders
| Duty-holder | Main legal requirement | What it means at this warehouse |
|---|---|---|
| Employer | General duties under s.8 of the 2005 Act; risk assessment (s.19) and safety statement (s.20) | Safe premises, safe forklifts, a traffic management plan, training and supervision |
| Managers and directors | Personal liability for offences committed with their consent, connivance or neglect (s.80) | The General Manager cannot simply delegate safety to the part-time officer |
| Employees (including agency) | Duties under s.13: take reasonable care, co-operate, report defects, not be under the influence of intoxicants | Use walkways, wear hi-vis, report near misses |
| Safety representative and committee | Consultation and representation (ss.25–26) | Consulted on the traffic plan and new racking |
| Hauliers and visiting drivers | General Application Regulations 2007 and s.12 duties to non-employees | Yard rules, driver waiting area, wheel-chocking |
These duties put into Irish law the employer’s responsibilities set out in the EU Framework Directive 89/391/EEC (Council of the European Communities, 1989).
4. Principal Hazards
| Hazard | Category | Who is exposed |
|---|---|---|
| Wet or icy floor at chilled-zone doors | Physical (slips and falls) | Pickers, cleaners |
| Forklift battery acid and hydrogen during charging | Chemical | Operators, maintenance staff |
| Seasonal respiratory infection in a shared workforce | Biological | All staff |
| Repetitive picking at low and high racking levels | Ergonomic | Pickers |
| Forklift and reach-truck movement among pedestrians | Process (workplace transport) | Everyone on the warehouse floor and yard |
5. Key Risk: Pedestrians Struck by Forklift Trucks
The forklift is the hazard. The risk is the chance that a pedestrian is struck, crushed or trapped by a moving truck, and how serious the outcome would be (HSA, 2016). At this site the likelihood is raised by three things: narrow aisles where picking and put-away overlap, reversing trucks at the dispatch bays, and new agency staff who may not know the walkway layout. The severity is potentially fatal.
Current controls include painted walkways, hi-vis, audible reversing alarms and licensed operators. HSA guidance on pedestrian safety stresses physically separating people from vehicles wherever possible (HSA, n.d.).
Improvements ranked by the hierarchy of controls
| Level | Improvement at the warehouse |
|---|---|
| Eliminate / separate | Barriers and pedestrian gates at dispatch; one-way truck routes |
| Engineer | Blue-spot warning lights on trucks |
| Administer | Separate pick and put-away time windows; agency induction before first shift; near-miss reporting campaign |
| PPE | Hi-vis retained as the last line of defence |
Each action needs a named owner and a review date, and the residual risk should be re-rated after the controls are in place. The conclusion of your own assignment should then state what should change first, and an appendix should list the most useful OSH websites with a short description of each, as the brief requires.
Want a full model answer for your own workplace? Submit your assignment brief. You receive guidance and a model answer to study, not a paper to hand in.
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About the expert
This sample was prepared and reviewed by the Ireland Assignment Help academic team.
References
Council of the European Communities (1989) Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work. Official Journal of the European Communities, L 183, pp. 1–8.
Health and Safety Authority (2016) Guide to Risk Assessments and Safety Statements. Dublin: HSA. Available at: https://hsa.ie/eng/Publications_and_Forms/Publications/Safety_and_Health_Management/Guide_to_Risk_Assessments_and_Safety_Statements.pdf (Accessed: 20 October 2026).
Health and Safety Authority (n.d.) Pedestrian Safety in the Workplace [Information sheet]. Dublin: HSA. Available at: https://hsa.ie/eng/publications_and_forms/publications/information_sheets/pedestrian_safety_in_the_workplace.pdf (Accessed: 20 October 2026).
Health and Safety Executive (2013) Managing for Health and Safety (HSG65). 3rd edn. Sudbury: HSE Books.
International Labour Office (2001) Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems, ILO-OSH 2001. Geneva: ILO.
International Organization for Standardization (2018) ISO 45001:2018 Occupational health and safety management systems – Requirements with guidance for use. Geneva: ISO.
Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (No. 10 of 2005). Dublin: Stationery Office. Available at: https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2005/act/10/enacted/en/html (Accessed: 20 October 2026).
Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 299 of 2007). Available at: https://revisedacts.lawreform.ie/eli/2007/si/299/revised/en/html (Accessed: 20 October 2026).
