1.1 Scope and Purpose

The Church desires to protect the safety and health of employees, volunteers, missionaries, and others who visit and use Church facilities and services. Protecting them is always one of its highest priorities.

To ensure the success of safety and health programs, it is essential that senior management, managers, and supervisors implement the policies in this manual. As part of this stewardship, managers should implement safety and loss-prevention programs. These programs are designed to accomplish the following objectives:

• Prevent injuries and illnesses to employees and volunteers.

• Promote sound safety, health, and environmental practices.

• Prepare for and minimize interruptions to Church operations.

• Encourage reviews of related safety and health activities.

• Encourage management to make corrections when necessary.

• Emphasize continuous improvement.

Managing directors and directors of temporal affairs (DTAs) are responsible for ensuring that the Church achieves these objectives in its worldwide operations. As they do, it will minimize hazards and reduce the costs associated with injuries, illnesses, and fatalities.

Organizations should determine how the terms used in this manual, such as manager, supervisor, employee, management, and supervision, apply to their own organizations. Whenever the term employee is used, it may also refer to anyone entering, serving in, or using a Church facility, including volunteers and missionaries.

This manual outlines safety, health, and environmental requirements and guidelines that all Church employees should follow. It is the responsibility of managers and supervisors of Church employees to be familiar with this manual and train employees and missionaries in the safety, health, and environmental requirements that apply to them. In addition, Church operations should use applicable instructions, guidelines, and forms. All programs, guidelines, and information may not apply to all operations or areas within the Church.

The contents of this manual are intended to provide best-practice guidelines from safety- and health-management systems. Apart from helping prevent occupational injuries and illnesses, these guidelines will also help your department meet local and national government regulations. However, this manual may not contain all requirements for the actual location where you are employed. The policies and procedures in this manual do not create a binding contract or any other liability on the Church.

If you have questions about additional requirements, contact your local safety and health representative or the Risk Management Division for assistance.

1.1.1 Using This Manual

This manual is designed so topics can be easily found. There is a general contents page at the beginning of the manual, and each section has a detailed contents page. See the glossary at the end of this manual for explanations of key terms. Check boxes are used in the text to indicate steps or items that should be done. Bullets are used to indicate a list of items.

The following are suggestions for using this manual:

• Use the material in the manual to train employees in safety, health, and environmental issues.

• Provide access to the manual for employees to review as needed.

• Provide access to the portions of the manual that apply directly to employees, and discuss them with the employees.

• Make copies of the checklists in this manual, and use them to (a) help carry out procedures and (b) follow up on items that still need to be done.

1.1.2 Additional Resources

This manual contains guidelines that apply to most Church operations; however, all guidelines may not apply to all operations. In addition, fact sheets are also available that provide guidelines on issues applicable to specific risks or operations. Both the manual and the fact sheets are available on the Risk Management section of the Church intranet site (see “Safety, Health, & Environment Responsibilities”).