The moral arguments in favour of health and safety are linked to ethical and responsible behaviour. Over the years, many moral obligations have been transformed into health and safety laws. For example, the International Labour Organization (ILO) Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981, C155, identifies some basic general legal obligations of employers to their employees in Article 16: There are strong legal reasons for employers to manage risk: DOI Link for Moral, Financial and Legal Reasons for Health and Safety Management But should organizations protect their Very careful with single employees? This guide outlines three business reasons why you should take lone worker safety seriously. legally, morally and financially. Occupational health and safety management is not an optional activity. It is demanded by criminality and any employer who does not comply with it exposes itself to very significant legal risks. Both at the organizational and individual levels. Organizations also have a moral responsibility to protect their employees. Unsafe working conditions could make workers, their friends and family uncomfortable and frightened when working. StaySafe provides an effective way to monitor and manage the safety of lone workers while ensuring you exercise due diligence. This chapter aims to justify improvements in health and safety with moral, financial and legal arguments. Some of the items, such as Business Losses may not be insurable or too expensive to insure. Therefore, insurance policies can never cover all the costs of an accident or illness, either because certain items are not covered by the policy or because the deductible is higher than the cost of the respective item.
Employers are required to take reasonable precautions with respect to employees. Mismanagement can result in: enforcement; and civil actions — claims for damages. The charging system obliges health, safety and environmental management to recover the costs of carrying out its regulatory tasks from those found guilty of a material breach of health and safety legislation. Most of the work commissioned is governed by a legally binding contract, and it is therefore very important that the contract covers all parts of the work – for example, fire safety measures. It is necessary to maintain a moral code in our society. Without this, employers may be tempted to view workers` health and safety as less important than financial gain. Accidents and illnesses are costly. These costs may be calculable directly from the accident, such as sick pay, repairs to damaged equipment, fines and legal fees, or more difficult to determine, such as lost orders and business interruptions. In practice, the costs that are more difficult to calculate are often much higher than those that are easier to estimate.
It is generally accepted that moral reasons should be the main motivator for risk management, although in some cases it is questionable whether this is indeed the case. The company expects every employer to adopt a correct attitude towards the health and safety of its employees. It is unacceptable to place employees in situations where their health and safety are threatened. Statistics on accidents, incidents and illnesses help reinforce the message that health and safety must be managed effectively. These statistics also show that those who work for small businesses are proportionally more at risk than those who work for large organizations. This is clearly morally reprehensible. With StaySafe, your business can:• Reduce damage by sending immediate assistance directly to each employee in the event of an emergency• Demonstrate good corporate governance by letting employees know that the company cares about their safety• Reduce manual costs and increase productivity, morale and reputation• Provide evidence that protective methods have been put in place during an audit or in the event of a dispute• Comply with your Legal duty of care if you are part of a strong lone worker policy So it`s important that we take the time to remember why health and safety is important. The main reasons are legal, financial and moral. Below are some examples of the potential financial impact. In addition to affecting their well-being, low morale and higher stress levels are likely to lead to decreased productivity and increased employee sick leave. In fact, research has shown that stress and mental health have been the most common causes of long-term absence. As a result, the moral argument for employee health and safety is often the strongest.
In addition to the obvious obligations an employer has to its employees, it also has a moral obligation to protect others whose health and safety may be affected by its activities, such as contractors or members of the public. Workplace accidents can lead to serious injury and even death. It is not morally correct to sacrifice human health for the activities of an organization. Failure to comply with legislation is likely to result in lawsuits that could cost the company fines, resources, and time, with cases taking months or even years. In some cases, individuals within the organization could be prosecuted and imprisoned if convicted. • Staff coverage or replacement• Sick pay• Decreased productivity• Loss of time due to work interruptions• Time and costs spent investigating an accident• Compensation• Fines• Loss of corporate reputation• Loss of contracts/customers• Property or property damage• Other legal fees• Deductible for insurance claims Personal financial losses resulting from an accident at work can have significant effects on people involved. The financial loss to the company could be almost as devastating. There are a variety of financial costs associated with job insecurity – from the direct costs associated with lawsuits to indirect costs such as lost time and lack of productivity. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, precarious employment can be prosecuted and fined, even if no accidents have occurred. Every organization has a legal duty of care to ensure the health, safety and well-being of all employees to the extent possible. In the United Kingdom, the Occupational Health and Safety Act sets strict requirements. No one, with the exception of domestic workers, is outside its scope.
Employees and employers must comply with the law or face the legal consequences. Positive health and safety management clearly brings financial benefits. Employers with good health and safety management systems are likely to save significant amounts of money on the cost of accidents that would otherwise have occurred. Some of these costs have undetermined value. This highlights the difficulty an organization can have when trying to determine the true cost of accidents to the business. The company may not have enough people with the right expertise and time to perform the analysis. You may not even know that some costs exist and therefore miss them completely. The culture of the organization can mean that many incidents are never reported and therefore never end up in the statistics that form the basis for costing. Some costs may not be known for a long time, such as: if civil proceedings are pending and substantial compensation can be awarded. It may be almost impossible to realistically estimate the costs of the impact of more subtle elements such as loss of morale (leading to decreased productivity) and loss of goodwill or public image (resulting in lower revenues).
Occupational accidents and diseases are extremely costly and represent a significant and often hidden source of damage. Costs can be both direct and indirect. These financial losses may or may not be covered by insurance. In all cases, the employers concerned will bear the full costs over time. Don`t think that the majority of these accidents are just the cost of doing business. The fact is that much of this could have been avoided. According to HSE, about 70% of workplace incidents could be prevented by good management. Duty bearers convicted of health and safety offences in 2019/20 were fined a total of £35.8 million, an average fine of around £110,000 per case leading to a conviction. A study published in 1993 by the Health and Safety Executive of the United Kingdom showed that the hidden costs of accidents at work were highlighted. The real impact on a company`s resources can extend and include: A study by the UK`s Health and Safety Executive showed that uninsured (hidden) costs can be eight to 36 times higher than known insured costs. This was illustrated as an “iceberg” model – where much of the cost (the uninsured) was hidden underwater.
A motivated workforce has many benefits, including: The StaySafe app consists of a web-based app and monitoring center, giving lone workers the ability to report help in any emergency situation, while the hub provides the employer with a simple and effective way to monitor the safety of their employees. 1. Employers shall ensure, as far as possible, that workplaces, machinery, equipment and procedures under their control are safe and health-safe. Managers and staff can and will go to jail for health and safety violations, and significant fines are imposed. Both the employee and the employer owe a duty of care to each other and to other employees. Both must take reasonable precautions to protect others from the foreseeable risk of injury. According to HSE, there were 147 fatal workplace injuries from 2018 to 2019, while 1.4 million workers suffered work-related illnesses and 581,000 non-fatal workplace injuries. The StaySafe solution is robust, reliable and flexible, making it suitable for all industries, business sizes and regions.