Causes and Effect of Safety and Health in Workplace Safety and health at work involves emergent of policies and procedures that facilitate employees by averting them from being injured or ill owing to exposure in the workplace
Causes and Effect of Safety and Health in Workplace
Safety and health at work involves emergent of policies and procedures that facilitate employees by averting them from being injured or ill owing to exposure in the workplace. Further clarifying, health refers to general state of well being including physical, emotional and mental well being. When considering safety, is where shielding the physical welfare of the worker from risks such as accidents which may occur from machinery, fire, diseases and other injuries while they are working. (Bruke,2011) Accidents can be happened everywhere and anywhere, including workplace. There are around 2.3 millions death and 137 millions injuries are reported per year due to workplace accidents according to the findings. Why does safety and health have been enforced but there are still have accidents? What are the causes for such adversities? What are the effecf to
80 of every 100 accidents that happen in the workplace are ultimately the fault of the person involved in the incident. One of the cause of accidents happend in workplace is shortcuts. “Most of the time, the shortcut is because somebody has the perception that they’re in a hurry for something,” said Timothy C. Healey, director of safety at the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Co. in Hartford, CT. Humans are notoriously lazy, so taking shortcuts is a rather common practice in all walks of life, not necessarily work alone. The phrase “shortcuts can cut life short”, when workers take shortcuts at work, especially when they are working around dangerous machinery or lethal chemicals, they are only exposing themselves to a potential catastrophe. Simply put, shortcuts that are taken on the job are not actually shortcuts. They are simply increasing your risk of injury, or worse, death. ‘
Besides, overconfidence is one of the cause of accidents happended. Confidence is always a great thing to have, but there is also such a thing as too much confidence. When workers walk into work everyday with the attitude that, “It will never happen to me”, they are setting an attitude that leads to incorrect procedures, methods, and tools while working. Be confident, but remember that you are not invincible.
Futhermore, poor or lack of housekeeping. Whenever someone walks through your workplace, they can get a pretty good idea of your attitude towards workplace safety by just looking at how well you’ve kept up your area. Housekeeping is one of the most accurate indicators of the company’s attitude towards production, quality, and worker safety. A poorly kept up area leads to hazards and threats everywhere. Not only does good housekeeping lead to heightened safety, but it also sets a good standard for everyone else in the workplace to follow.
Workers also always neglecting safety procedures. This is probably the worst thing that any employee at any level in the organization can do. Deliberately neglecting set safety procedures in the workplace doesn’t just endanger yourself, but it endangers the workers around you as well as the company as a whole. Casually following safety procedures doesn’t work either. You are paid to follow workplace safety procedures, not your own.
Mental distractions also is the cause of accidents happended in workplace.Everyone has a life outside of the workplace, and sometimes life can take dips and turns that affect your emotions and your mood negatively. However, as harsh as it sounds, workers cannot let mental distractions from their personal lives affect their performance at work. Not only will they become less aware of their surroundings and less safe, but they will also become less productive, costing the company time and money.
Lazy workers are not as effective and they are not as safe as their aware and focused counterparts. On top of this, lazy workers immediately become a direct threat to everyone around them. There needs to be a conscious effort each and every day in the workplace to make sure that these causes don’t happen. Your life, your coworkers’ lives, and your company’s overall well-being depends on it.
Costs of the workplace accidents to the employers
The case study findings demonstrate that a wide range of negative costs and effects resulted from the accidents. In terms of financial costs to employers, the amounts varied greatly from €0 to over €3.8 million. Excluding the highest and lowest costs to arrive at twelve more “illustrative” case studies, the average cost per accident came to approximately €52,000. One employer found that his financial viability was threatened as a result of the accident.
At the very least, the accidents resulted in production losses. Further losses included salary costs for replacement staff or overtime payments, retraining costs, personal injury claim compensation, repair bills medical & travel expenses and increased supervision.The largest cost employers encountered as a result of workplace accidents was salary costs which came to nearly half (45%) of total losses. For some of these employers, the costs are set to increase further due to personal injury claims. Eight personal injury claims have been lodged from the twenty case studies and four have been settled. Nearly half of the more serious accidents in these case studies resulted in claims. Of the settled claims, three compensation awards came to approximately €30,000 and the remaining award was for €152,000. One of the four unsettled claims has been estimated to be in the region of €200,000. One other effect of workplace accidents found in the case studies is the possibility of resentment towards the employer from the injured employee. Over one-third (7 of 19) of the injured employees reported a ‘significant’ or ‘large’ amount of resentment towards the employer after the accident. This was, in large part, reported to result from the way they were subsequently treated by their employer rather than from the accident itself.
Costs to employees
The amount of money lost by employees varied greatly. Seven employees did not lose any money. Twelve employees lost money and the amounts varied from less than €1,000 to €112,000. The average loss of these twelve employees was approximately €21,000. These figures take account of any compensation received. Where employees lost money, the largest proportion, approximately 85%, was due to lost salary and overtime payments. Five employees are incurring ongoing financial losses due to a change in employment status as a result of the accident. If their circumstances do not change, these employees are set to lose between €38,000 and €268,000 over the remainder of their careers.
Physical effects on employees
For all the employees, each accident had personal consequences and they all endured pain and suffering to various degrees. Although the amount of pain suffered cannot be measured objectively, sixteen of the twenty employees suffered what can be described as very painful injuries. For ten employees the negative physical consequences of the accident are permanent. The amount of time off work provides an idea of the range of severity of the injuries. Two employees had no time off, ten employees had between one month and one year off work. Two employees had more than a year off work.
Psychological effects on employees
Over half the employees reported suffering anxiety and over half reported their close family and friends were affected; a quarter reported suffering depression. A multiplicity of psychological effects were reported with over half of these employees reporting two or more negative psychological consequences; five employees have received counselling. The overall impact of the accidents on the employees was high. Seventeen employees rated the overall impact of the accident as significant or large. Furthermore the impact ofthe accident was “felt” much more by the employee that by the employer. It was found that the employee had to bear the negative financial, physical and psychological consequences of the accident far more and for far longer, than his or her employer. In this sense, the moral imperative on the employer as well as his legal and financial obligations to prevent workplace accidents is clear.
Thus, safety and healty plays an important part in work environment. In order to carry out operations efficiently, organizations needs to make sure the safety and health of their employees. Hence the workplace ought to increase the welfare of employees and should be risk free.
