Ep 5: Accidents in the workplace

Hello, I’m Tom Moon and you are listening to the Praxis42 pint size podcast, where each episode we take a different H&S topic break it down, cut out the jargon and put it into plain English to try and make it easier to understand and easy to implement.

Today we are going to talking accidents in the work place. Lets get stuck into it

What is health and safety management trying to do?

Ultimately, we are trying to protect the health and well being of staff and those who could be affected by your work activities.

But can we get it right and do we get right all the time?

Too often success is celebrated and rightly so, but when things go wrong it is commonly brushed under the carpet.  People don’t want to acknowledge that they got it wrong.

However, in getting it wrong will give vital information that will enable us to get things right.

There is one industry embraces this like no other and that is the airline industry.  All airliners carry a black box recorder, and this is the reference point when things go wrong. Recording what was said and what actions were taken by the crew, along with all the diagnostic information about the plane.

And why do airliners take this approach?  It is quite simple……. They don’t want the same mistake to happen twice.

Analysis of accident statistics, whether it be your own in-house stats or the national stats, as we are going to look at today, will give you valuable information to allow you to improve or strengthen your health and safety management systems.

You need to embrace failure and learn from it.

If you were to have an accident the health of the injured party is paramount, and at no point can you put a monetary value on a life, but the commercial costs of accident should be examined.

What costs will you have to pay?…..

• Repairs (damaged equipment, premises)
• Insurance costs
• Sick pay
• Legal advice and costs
• Time (of staff involved in the investigation)
• Wages of temporary staff
• Damage to reputation and business relationship
• Fines from enforcement action
• Loss of productivity

The cost of accident can soon add up.

Let’s break those costs down.  Looking at last set of full figures for 2019/20, 38.8 million working days were lost at a cost of £16.2 billion to the UK economy.

When we look at that £16.8 billion, approximately £3.5 billion was borne to the employer.  I’m no business expert but industry cannot afford to lose £3.5 billion year on year.

Interestingly the employee was the biggest loser, losing around £9.5 billion through loss of pay.  So it pays (literally) for employees to buy into the health and safety in the workplace and ensure that it is working how it should.

What I want to do now is look at workplaces accident statistics and fatalities, look at the industries they occur in and how you can use these stats to better improve your own health & safety system.

I commonly hear statements such as the following when out and about completing my work…….

‘Its ok it will never happen to me’

Or

‘I’ve done it this way for 20 years and never got hurt why do I need to change it now?’

Unfortunately the statistics don’t lie and it does show that you cant take a nonchalant attitude towards health and safety.  In my experience is not a matter of if it may happen but when it will happen.

In 2020/21 142 people lost their lives as a result of an accident in work.

Here is a question for you………

Have you ever got up in the morning and gone to work and thought……. I might not come home tonight?

We don’t do we, we get up go to work, do a days work and then come home and put our feet up.  But as this figure shows for some not so lucky people this wasn’t the case.

So what type of accident are causing these fatalities?

• Falls from height
• Struck by vehicles
• Trapped (collapses/overturning of vehicles)
• Contact with machinery

Now when we look at these and can be easily assumed that they were all related to high risk industries and activities, like construction or manufacturing.  But would you be surprised to hear that 11 fatalities in 2020/21 occurred in the admin and support sector?

What we must not presume fatalities are linked to high risk industries.  If H&S management is poor in any work place there is the potential for them to occur

What I want to do is take a look at one of those causes that I come across in almost every environment I visit as part of my job and that is……….Falls from height

This can be easily over looked as there is not a full understanding of when people are working at height, and it is assumed that it only takes place it work like construction or maintenance, therefore it’s not fully assessed.

Ill give you an example……

It’s in an office environment, its Christmas time, and everyone wants to get on the Christmas spirit and put the decs up.

One employee stands on a desk –  there you go, they are now working at height.  If the fall, as the statistic shows it potentially   has fatal consequences

So what can we do to prevent it?

In a nutshell you need a proactive health safety system that takes into account all activities that could be completed by staff and ensure they are fully prepared (with suitable training and equipment) to complete the work.

Now lets concentrate on work place accidents

Each year a labour force survey is completed by the office of national statistics.  The Health & Safety Executive (the main enforcing body in the country) commissions questions on workplace illness and injury to be included.

In addition, Reporting of diseases and dangerous occurrence regulations (or RIDDOR) legally requires fatalities and certain non-fatal injuries to be reported (we cover the exact requirements under RIDDOR in our episode on accident reporting).  This allows a comprehensive report to be compiled on what are most common accidents occurring in the workplace.  From the latest report let’s look at the 5 most commonly occurring causes of injury in the work place and what you could do to reduce the likelihood of them occurring in your workplace.

1. Slips, trips and falls accounted for 33% of accidents.

So lets just try and define this a bit better.  A person may slip on something or trip over an item or object which then results in the fall.  But why are they so prevalent accounting for a third of all workplace accidents?  Well just think about any work place, no one is sitting still for their entire day. For whatever reason they will be moving around their place of work, whether it be to talk to colleagues, making a cuppa or visiting the bathroom

If these type of accidents are most prevalent how do we go about stopping them?  One way would be to stop people moving in the workplace…….. not exactly a productive option.

So we need to identify what they causes are and then put controls in place.

So for slips you want to look at things like……

• Cleaning (when its done and how its done)
• Higher risk areas like toilets or kitchens where fluids could get spilt on the floor
• Water ingress into a building (rainy day)
• What shoes staff are wearing
• Extreme weather conditions
• Floor surfaces (anti slip material)

For trips you would want to look at…….

• Maintained walkways (level, even)
• Design of walkways (wide enough)
• Obstructions (good housekeeping)
• Layout of the work place (trailing cables)
• Condition of stairs/steps (highlighted, grips)

Factors such as these need to be actively monitored at regular intervals, but how?  Well you may introduce workplace inspection where you will be able to identify issues first hand.  Alternatively, a reporting system could be used where staff can report issues and then action can be taken.

When it comes to the fall, the fall itself may not be dangerous.  However, the injury could occur from what a persons fall on to.  But is we are controlling slip and trip hazards then we are reducing the likelihood of a fall occurring.

2. Handling, carrying and lifting (18%)

Again we need to get a full understanding of what is involved here.  This will encompass:

• Lifting
• Holding
• Carrying
• Push
• Pulling

And these are you main manual handling activities.

This can be taken for granted and assumed that everyone can do it.  But unless you have a full understanding of what staff could be expected to lift, carry, hold push or pull as part of their daily work then the chances of accident happening are high.

When talking to clients are ask how much manual handling do your staff do and the most common answer I get back……. They don’t do any.  Then I delve a little deeper and ask question like what happens when you take deliveries or how do the staff re-stock shelves?  Then the light bulb moment occurs and they realise staff are doing a lot more than they thought

To try and reduce the risk we need to look a 4 key factors:

1) We need to have a full understanding of what jobs need to be done as part of daily activities.  Is it pushing/pulling of stack cages in a supermarket? Or is it dealing with delivery office supplies?

2) We must understand and appreciate the capabilities of the individual doing the task; and not just assume they can do it.

3) Look at what items are going to lifted or moved and how best is that done? Is it team lift? Do you need some equipment like a trolley?

4) And lastly the environment in which the lifting is taking place should be considered.  Is there enough space and lighting?  Is it in good condition?

3. Struck by moving objects (10%)

Ok if we look at a higher risk environment like a construction site there are lots of moving object……. Vehicles, equipment, machinery, it’s a lot more obvious.  But what about lower risk environment like office or shops?  Well the obvious moving object most people will think about in a work place is a car or vehicle and quite rightly so because when vehicles and humans mix there is only one winner. That’s why you have a clear understanding of what vehicles will be on or delivering to you place of work? How is the work place organised to prevent vehicles and pedestrians mixing? Can I organise delivery times out of hours so pedestrians are not present?

Now that is obvious moving object but we also have to look at how are items stored so they don’t fall.  Also if items need to be moved around the work place how is done? What equipment is used to do it? (trollies, cages) Is it suitable allowing the person pushing it clear visibility?

4. Violence (8%)

Everyone will automatically think of physical violence when it comes to this, but it will also include verbal abuse and threats.  Now depending on the sector you work in will determine how likely you or your staff are to be exposed to this, with customer facing businesses being prime candidates.  But don’t take it for granted disputes can occur in any work environment.

With that in mind you need to have processes in place to deal with dispute, or train staff to spot early signs of something  that could escalate into something bigger.

You may in some instances install means of staff summoning help or assistance, for example panic buttons, or another example such as the hospitality/entertainment industry additional help in the form of doorman are hired.

5. Fall from height (8%)

As we stated right at the beginning this one can be easily overlooked and can have fatal consequences.

Industries where this type of work is common such as construction, maintenance etc you will find (not always) that the work i properly assessed and planned, however in other work environments working at height is often a secondary task to main work being completed.  What do I mean by that?  Lets take an accountants office where the primary work is to crunch the numbers all day but what about when a light bulb needs changing or an items needs to be retrieved from a high shelf?  More often than not that will involving working at height.  So, you have to take a broader view of all the jobs that will need to be completed not just the primary work completed by your business.

So how can we complete this type of work safely.  Firstly, try and avoid it altogether.  Design of equipment has changed allowing certain jobs to be done from ground level without the need to work at height at all, prime example window cleaners.  More often than not nowadays you see a window cleaner working with an extendable pole from the ground.   Perfect…….. if the window cleaner doesn’t need to go on a ladder then they can’t fall off it.

Ok if it can’t be avoided what can you do?

Educate staff on what working at height is and when they might have to do it.

Train them on how the work should be completed safely and how equipment is meant to be used correctly

Supply andt importantly maintain the correct equipment to do the job, for example supplying a set of suitably rated step ladders will prevent people climbing on desks or a chair (often with casters on it!!!……never a good choice).

What I have tried to do is give you a quick overview of most common causes of accident and if you are listening think I want to know more about one or all of those areas, not to worry we will try and cover them in more detail in further episodes

But what have we learnt? Basically, sometimes we have to go wrong to make things right.  Analysing your accident data will give you valuable information to strengthen your health and safety systems.  It will show where accidents are most commonly happening in your work place and what is causing them,  allowing you to concentrate your focus and resources on future prevention.

Ignoring the information that accident statistics gives us can be costly and could ultimately cost someone their life.  We cannot expect everything to be perfect, but the key is learning valuable lessons from when things do go wrong.

I will leave you with a quote from the Irish play write George Bernard Shaw which sums it up perfectly…..

‘’Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.’

You’ve been listening to Safety Made Simple, our podcast series helping to make the world of Health and Safety easier to understand and easy to implement. If there is a topic you would like us to cover then please get in touch using the hashtag #Safetymadesimple or via our website @praxis42.com.