IIPP Departmental Safety Domain
Replace a former DSR or provide information about a newly created DSR position
Frequently Asked Questions
No. DSRs certainly have a key role in coordinating and encouraging safety and regulatory compliance, but the real responsibility lies with individual supervisors/faculty and department administrators (e.g., Chairs, MSOs). See campus policy #5400:
Yes, within the Introduction section of the green binder (UCSB Health and Safety Binder) are three pages on DSR general responsibilities and specific action items.
Probably the most important action item is to ensure that all department employees have viewed their respective online responsibilities/resources orientations.
This information can be found on the General Safety Responsibilities & Resources page.
No. All employees should be informed that your DEOP exists and that they can see it upon request, but they don’t need to read it. The document is really aimed at department administrators (including DSRs) to help them plan for and manage an emergency effectively. Administrators/DSRs should be familiar with the document and use it as directed.
However, there are key pieces of information from the DEOP that everyone should know, for example, locations of the following: building exits, Emergency Assembly Point, fire alarm pull stations, 1st aid kit, emergency phone numbers, etc. Beginning in 2008, this information should be wall-posted – and ideally shared by supervisors – on the UCSB Emergency Information Flipchart. The last page of the flipchart should be customized by the DSR to include the items noted above. The flipchart should be posted in all campus workareas. Contact EH&S for additional copies.
No. As with the DEOP above, if supervisors and non-supervisors view their respective online modules, they will receive an adequate orientation to the UCSB IIPP program including the elements of the program; their responsibilities under the program and everyone’s right to see the written program.
No, unless you want to centralize this function, but for a department of any size we believe this is too cumbersome, keeps the supervisor out of the loop too much (e.g. for form updates) and asks too much of the DSR. We believe this is essentially a supervisor function. In the past, EH&S has indicated that the green binder should be used to centralize this filing task. However, given that the online orientations now provide the documentation forms directly to the supervisor, we believe they should file these and review/update periodically. However, in the end, each department should decide what works best for them.
Supervisors are defined via a link in the online supervisor’s modules, but include staff and faculty who direct the actions of UCSB-paid employees. Non-paid workers (e.g. volunteers, visitors) fall into a gray area, but in short they should be given the same level of training and safety consideration as paid employees if doing similar work. Given the transient nature of some elements of the campus population it is difficult task for departments to track these people for the purposes of IIPP and DEOP orientation. However, this task is now simpler given the ease of access of our web-based training tools.
EH&S offers some safety classes on selected topics, but we don’t train the campus to be safe in a comprehensive way. Although our training goes a long way toward meeting certain specific training requirements (e.g., Safety Data Sheets [MSDS], waste disposal, bloodborne pathogens, ergonomics) it is not worksite-specific and does not relieve supervisors of all their training responsibilities.
This typically only occurs with general classes (e.g. Lab Safety Class), and the documentation should come with specific instructions. In general, the documentation should be forwarded to the supervisor – they have the primary responsibility for ensuring that their employees have documented training.
Most other safety regulations are fairly specialized and EH&S generally deals directly with the affected supervisor, rather than the DSR. However, another program with a departmental element is the Hazard Communication Program. This relates to the use and availability of Material Safety Data Sheets for chemical-users outside of the lab environment, e.g. shops, maintenance personnel, etc. A departmental written Hazard Communication plan is required by OSHA if this applies to your department. Contact the EH&S Industrial Hygiene manager at (805) 893-8787 if you need help with establishing this program.