Health and Safety, and Work Ethics
This domain combines workplace health and safety with ethical conduct in retail. The exam tests hazard control, reporting and integrity.
Core rules and concepts
- Risk assessment identifies hazards, who may be harmed, controls and review.
- Common retail hazards include slips, trips, manual handling, electrical faults, fire, sharp edges and poor ergonomics.
- Controls follow the hierarchy: eliminate, substitute, engineer, administrate and use PPE as the last line.
- Work ethics include honesty, integrity, punctuality, accountability, confidentiality, respect and avoiding conflict of interest.
- Incidents and near misses must be reported; hiding them increases future risk.
Worked example
A carton blocks an aisle. The associate should move it to a designated storage area using safe lifting, clean any spill, check whether other exits are blocked, and report the obstruction if it is a repeated issue. Reasoning: the hazard is a trip and emergency-exit risk; removing one carton treats the immediate cause, while reporting addresses the system. Blaming another shift does not control the risk.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating ethics as only legal compliance.
- Using PPE instead of removing the hazard where possible.
- Failing to report a near miss.
- Ignoring manual-handling limits.
Key points
- Risk assessment leads to controls and review.
- Remove hazards before relying on PPE.
- Report incidents and near misses.
- Ethics requires honesty and accountability.
- Safety is everyone’s responsibility.