Occupational Health & Safety

Effective occupational health and safety (OHS) management not only reduces the risk of accidents and injury, but can bring significant business benefits to an organization. Despite this, many organizations still fail to manage this discipline well. Each year thousands of people die from work-related diseases mainly due to past working conditions. In 2009-10:

• 1.3 million people who worked during the last year were suffering from an illness (long standing as well as new cases) they believed was caused or made worse by their current or past work. 555,000 of these were new conditions
• 152 workers were killed at work, a rate of 0.5 per 100,000 workers
• 121,430 other injuries to employees were reported under RIDDOR, a rate of 473 per 100,000 employees
• 2,249 people died from mesothelioma in 2008 and thousands more from other occupational cancers and diseases such as COPD
• 233,000 reportable injuries occurred, according to the Labour Force Survey, a rate of 840 per 100,000 workers
• 28.5 million days were lost overall (1.2 days per worker), 23.4 million due to work-related ill health.*

* Health and Safety Executive Statistics 2009/10

See Health and Safety Executive Statistics 2009/10 pdf

As a result of major accidents at work in recent years, greater emphasis has been placed on the management of occupational health and safety (OH&S) in legislation, which all employers MUST embrace.

Health and safety law applies to all workplace environments. Employers are primarily responsible for health and safety in the workplace and preventing workplace injuries and illness. Health and safety legislation requires workers and employers to co-operate to ensure employees are not exposed to risk.

Any organization with five or more employees must carry out health and safety risk assessments and document their findings. Acting on those findings is essential if you are to minimize the risk of accidents and exposure to penalties.