The first concern of most managers when they start work at a new organization is to understand the implications of their new role and to form good relationships with other members of the team. Concerns about health and safety are often not a first or even second consideration. So why bother about health and safety?
There are three basic drivers for good health and safety management; these are moral, legal and financial reasons. The moral reasons are centred on the need to protect people from injury and disease while they are at work. The legal reasons are embodied in the criminal and civil law, and the financial reasons come as a consequence of infringements of health and safety law with the consequent fines, compensation payments, associated financial costs and even, in extreme cases, imprisonment. Each of these reasons will now be discussed in turn.Visit here PooCoin
Accident rates
Accidents at work can lead to serious injury and even death. Although accident rates are discussed in greater detail in later chapters, some trends are shown in Tables. A major accident is a serious accident typically involving a fracture of a limb or a 24-hour stay in a hospital. An ‘over 3-day accident’ is an accident which leads to more than 3 days off work. Statistics are collected on all people who are injured at places of work not just employees.
It is important to note that since 1995 suicides and trespassers on the railways have been included in the HSE figures this has led to a significant increase in the figures. Table 1. gives details of accidents involving all people at a place of work over a 4-year period. In 2009/10, there were 393 fatal injuries to members of the public, and over 70% of these were due to acts of suicide or trespass on the railways. During the year, 152 workers were killed at work (0.5 per 100,000 workers). Of the main industrial sectors, construction and agriculture had the highest number of fatalities, accounting for 42 and 38 respectively
Table 1.2 shows, for the year 2009/10, the accident breakdown between employees, self-employed and members of the public. Table 1.3 shows the figures for employees only and shows that there has been a decline in fatalities and major accidents since 2006/07. Table 1.4 gives an indication of accidents in different employment sectors for 2009/10.More info about Door Locks
There were 26,061 reported major injuries to employees, the most common causes being slipping or tripping (41%), and falls from a height (16%). A further 95,369 injuries to employees caused an absence from work of over three days. Of these injuries, the most common causes were handling, lifting or carrying (36%), and slipping or tripping (24%). These figures indicate that there is a need for health and safety awareness even in occupations which many would consider very low hazard, such as the health services and hotels. In fact over 70% of all deaths occur.Watch Bollywood and Hollywood Full Movies lookmovie
Disease rates
Work-related ill-health and occupational disease can lead to absence from work and, in some cases, to death. Such occurrences may also lead to costs to the State (the Industrial Injuries Scheme) and to individual employers (sick pay and, possibly, compensation payments). Each year thousands of people die from work-related diseases mainly due to past working conditions. The industry sectors having ill-health rates higher than the rate for all industries in 2009/10, were health and social work, and public administration.
Costs of accidents
Any accident or incidence of ill-health will cause both direct and indirect costs and incur an insured and an uninsured cost. It is important that all of these costs are taken into account when the full cost of an accident is calculated. In a study undertaken by the HSE, it was shown that indirect costs or hidden costs could be 36 times greater than direct costs of an accident. In other words, the direct costs of an accident or disease represent the tip of the iceberg when compared to the overall costs (Figure 1.2). In 2009/10, 28.5 million days were lost overall (1.2 days per worker) of which 23.4 million were due to work-related ill-health and 5.1 million were due to workplace injury.
