Do you know your Health and Safety Responsibilities as an Employer?
If you are an employer then you are responsible for the environment that you provide for your staff to work in. Whilst this won’t be news to you, what you might not be aware of is changes that take place in legislation and the importance of staying up to date with any updates. Did you know for example, that OSHA recently updated a rule regarding Walking-Working Surfaces and Personal Fall Protection Systems? Unless you are signed up to receive updates, then this very important update may have passed you by.
One of the problems with Health and Safety is that people don’t tend to pay it enough attention until it is too late. Regarding the update mentioned above, OSHA estimates that the changes will prevent 29 fatalities every year, which shows how critical these changes are.
Preventing hazards in the workplace is a serious matter whatever industry you are in but for construction and other high-risk environments, not having the correct equipment results in deaths. There really is no excuse for not paying enough attention to health and safety in the workplace.
If you need to get some advice and guidance on how to improve health and safety in your workplace, then visit the United States Department of Labor site for more information.
If you are not sure whether you need to seek any advice then perhaps the statistics will help you to make that decision. Wouldn’t you rather be sure than regret not taking the correct precautions?
Did you know that more than 4,500 workers die on the job each year?
In 2015 there were around 2.8 million reported non-fatal workplace injuries by private industry employers.
If these statistics alone aren’t enough to encourage you to start thinking more seriously about safety in your workplace then perhaps it will take an injury or even death in your workplace to take action?
Employers sometimes try to avoid what they perceive to be high costs in embedding proper health and safety policies and buying protection equipment. You may think that you are saving yourself an outlay but the cost of these actions are peanuts compared to the lawsuit you could end up facing. If the moral responsibility for looking after your staff isn’t enough to convince you then perhaps the thought of bankruptcy does?
Protective equipment does not have to cost a fortune, you can buy good quality safety equipment like fall protection equipment from companies like Fall Protection Pros for reasonable prices.
If you know that you have provided the right equipment but your workers choose not to use it then you might think that is their choice. You couldn’t be more wrong, it is your responsibility to ensure that the correct policies are in place to ensure that no worker is put at risk through not using protective equipment, even if it is their decision. You must educate your workers and have supervision rules that ensure that safety equipment is always in use.
Don’t be one of the many companies that live to regret taking shortcuts.
