In today’s world, all industrial environments are much safer than before. Despite many health and safety measures implemented in organizations, many accidents could still occur at any time. According to some surveys, Standardized rates of fatal injury across the 15 European Union Nations and the United Kingdom show a downward trend over the last decade. The same statistics also reveal that the UK consistently has one of the lowest rates of fatal injury across the EU and that the majority of UK workers are confident that their job does not put their health or safety at risk.
But research from the North American region points out that, 6,000 American employees is killed on the job each year. Another 50,000 die from illnesses caused by exposure to hazardous or unsafe working conditions. It is said to be that nearly 6 million sustain non-fatal workplace injuries. Industry experts are in the view that these incidents have a massive impact on all industries, costing businesses billions of dollars every year.
If an employee is injured on the job, the effect can be widespread and it will lead worker’s family to cope with the sudden loss of household income. As a result, employer may have to financially compensate the employee, in addition to the loss of manpower. European Union has specifically introduced a Framework Directive, and further directives focusing on safety and health at work considering they are the fundamentals of European safety and health legislation. Therefore EU Member States are free to adopt stricter rules for the protection of workers. Punishments for both employers and employees in European countries for violating health and safety rules are severe.
It is important to identify and evaluate who is mostly responsible for accidents in the workplace. Some argue that it may be ‘careless and ignorant employees’ or ‘greedy employers’ or perhaps the ‘clumsy governments’. However trying to find out who is responsible for an organisational accident is somewhat similar to identifying who is to be blamed. It is not conducive to understand how and why such events occur and how repetitions can be prevented. Thus organisations could eradicate and reduce the chances of workers making errors that lead to accidents. Employers can also ensure that they have effective health and safety environment by putting proper selection processes, training, supervision, resources, procedures, equipment into place.
Taking place from 28th-29th September, 2017 at the Crowne Plaza Berlin the European HSE Management Forum will bring senior decision-makers and business leaders from Europe, to share experiences, discover new ideas, and discuss the hottest topics in health and safety management.