H&S inspections study shows positive effects on
businesses
Health & Safety news update 23/05/2012
A recent study in the US has shown that unannounced inspections
by health and safety authorities succeed in improving injury rates
and do not take a negative toll on companies' bottom lines.
The ten-year study was carried out on more than 800 workplaces
in California between 1996-2006. Half of them were subject to
random inspections from the US’s equivalent of the Health and
Safety Executive, the Occupational Health and Safety
Administration, and half were not.
The half that were inspected saw a 9.4 per cent fall in the
number of injuries experienced and a 26 per cent reduction in the
costs incurred from injuries, including compensation payouts.
One of the authors of the study, Professor Michael Toffel, from
Harvard Business School, said that if such inspections were carried
out nationwide throughout the US, then the savings could amount to
as much as $6 billion (£3.8 billion) for the business. He
explained, “It focuses the minds of managers to create solutions,
like installing blade guards around a saw, or railings on elevated
walkways.”
Peg Seminario, the head of health and safety at influential
industry body, the American Federation of Labor-Congress of
Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) said, “[The study] tells us that
protecting your workers on the job and keeping them safe is good
for workers but also good for business. What’s too costly is not
addressing injuries and illnesses. We can’t afford not to protect
people.”
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