Accident Statistics

Do your accident statistics reflect the truth?

I have been in many companies where their accident statistic report is far from what is really happening on the shop floor.

Many companies chose to manipulate their reports in order to comply for ISO or to win contracts, but in doing so they often overlook simple solutions to reduce accidents and risk hefty fines for non-compliance with Health & Safety regulations.

A while back I was asked to do a site safety report for a small company I do some work for, as with all my site safety reports, I started in the office looking over risk assessments, safe operating procedures and the accident reports.

The company employ 10 employees on the shop floor and 5 further workers in the office. The shop floor workers pick and pack small items weighing no more than 10kgs, and late afternoon load these into a couriers van, so the accident risk in the company is low to medium with the most obvious risk of injury being manual handling, so I was not surprised to see the accident rate was very low, 1 accident in the last 6 months.

While I was out on the shop floor I noticed the workers carrying out the packing were not wearing gloves and 2 of the workers had fresh looking plasters on, when I questioned them I was told the gloves supplied made packing awkward so most people chose not to wear them and that on average, there were 2 to 3 workers per week who received minor cuts.

I took up my concerns with the supervisor who told me that as they were minor cuts, they only required cleaning and plaster put on, so it was not worth all the paperwork to record them.

After completing my site safety report, I presented it to the director along with my concerns of the 2 to 3 cuts that were happening per week and going unreported. The director ensured me he had no idea of this as he had left Health & Safety in the hands of the supervisor who had been on an IOSH Managing Safety course.

I recommended they trial cut 4 gloves and supplied some demos for them which were thin and gave the wearer good dexterity. I am glad to report back that after revisiting them some 4 months later, the workers and bosses were all happy with the gloves and the accident figures were really at an all time low.

The point of the post is that:

1. No Director should just assume his / her staff are looking after Health & Safety, after all, any backlash will come straight to him / her.
2. If accidents are not reported, trends will be missed along with the opportunity to correct them.

 Remember!

All companies must appoint a competent person

Quote from HSE

“You must get help from a competent person to enable you to meet the requirements of health and safety law.

A competent person is someone who has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities that allow them to assist you properly. The level of competence required will depend on the complexity of the situation and the particular help you need.”

The competent person can either be an employee, suitably trained or outside consultants can be used, but either way, it should be noted the overall responsibility remains with the Employer.

SaFA Training & Consultancy Ltd  are one such consultancy company operating in Yorkshire and surrounding areas.

Need Health and Safety advice? Look up SaFA Training at www.safatraining.co.uk