Do You Take Workplace Safety Seriously?
Could your business be largely closed down because workplace safety had not been taken seriously enough.
A recent crane collapse in a shipyard killed one person and seriously injured another, prompted the ship-building company to indefinitely suspended manufacturing vessels as officials consider how to move forward with repairs. Workers have been laid off because work cannot proceed. Just stop and think what this would cost your business if something like that happened to your people. This happened in the USA but the legislation and work practices are similar around the world as is human nature.
I have certainly needed to deal with crane collapses, misuse and injuries in some of the businesses I have worked with.
I frequently noticed that young guys love to operate a crane or a forklift and of course they are supremely confident in their ability to do so. Their confidence is so much greater than their skill and experience unfortunately. Even when they have passed their "ticket" I have seen a guy seriously injured by forgetting to refer to the lift tables in the cab and try to lift a heavy load sideways at full extension. Result - one toppled crane, a couple of hundred thousand dollars damage and a panicked young man who had also forgotten his seatbelt, thrown about then opening the door and jumping with totally unnecessary severe injuries. The ego was also dented.
The questions you need to ask is are they qualified and also are they supervised? Do you have copies of their qualifications and have you checked their competency and kept good records of this?
How would your business cope with a $250,000 fine because one of your workers suffered hearing loss. to pay $50,000 to each of five employees for noise-induced hearing loss, a total of $250,000. And the company may have to pay out more for hearing loss, as the court has yet to rule on the claims of 35 other former employees which would amount to $2 million if they all were ordered to receive $50,000. The company was found to have violated its duty of care to employees when it failed to provide: - a workplace managed so that workers do not suffer from excessive noise - hearing protection worm by all employuees in high noise environments - regular and periodic hearing tests, and - warnings of the dangers associated with long-term chronic occupational noise exposure. And the court noted that the company had decided not to spend $110,000 for noise control equipment during a $35 million plant expansion in the late 1970s. The message is that "she WON"T be right mate!" If you employ or manage people in any industry how can you prevent accidents and deaths? And can you do this so that you don't add huge overheads to your business?
Could your next mobile call be to come and sort out the mess because you have the body of someone's precious 17 year old son, or someone's father and husband on your workplace?
Or the ambulance is tending to a young lad with a compound fracture to his leg that may never recover completely
This is not being dramatic. It happens. Can you imagine the repercussions? It is not only the shock and hurt at the time but the legal and financial fallout goes on for years. It may result in you going to jail and/or losing your house to pay the damages.
A simple and effective safety management system can prevent all this
Questions and Answers
Article Tags:
workplace safety
,safety management system
,online training
,online group training course
,jean cannon
Suzanne White explains how the Chinese New Year works. What the Rat is like and how the Earth Rat will treat all of us during the next 12 months. Each Chinese Sign's 2008 horoscope is included. Hang on to your hat, here comes the Rat!
In USA, one of the leading brands that offer diverse and high quality products promoting proper hygiene is Difresh USA. If you are looking for the best opportunity to grow and have the opportunity for a new business Difresh USA can help you for they are looking for Exclusive Local Distributors
Getting clean and refresh doesn't sacrifice the place where you are for it should be a habit. Having a healthy body will allow you to do things right and good. And no matter where you are you should practice a healthy and proper hygiene even in little things you do.
Maintaining a healthy and proper hygiene badly needs products that are truly effective and could truly answer our need for this. No matter where we are and at anytime we want to get clean we basically need these products right away and only Difresh USA can supply these in a very easy way
The key reason why some firms thrive while some implode during an financial recession is still a puzzle to many people business-owning business owners. Some wrongly assume that all businesses should suffer via recessionary cycles. But the truth is that some companies are usually essentially recession-proof, and it is not necessarily because they are much larger, better known, or a lot more generously capitalized.
Companies like Arch Coal (ACI) and Massey Energy (MEE) watched his or her stock climbed.
To me, a sustainable business is one that keeps on going with minimum drama, a sensible profit and a good lifestyle for everyone who works there, including the owner and that does not include having owners who are overworked and stressed in their business.
We have heard about the dreadful human cost and the houses lost but spare a thought also for the businesses and the consequent jobs lost. They have not had a lot of publicity. The recovery may well take years. How many won't recover? STOP and think about YOUR emergency planning even for things you thought were totally unlikely.
2010 was the equal hottest year recorded since man began recording temperatures 1880 and also the wettest and this is in spite of the big freeze n the northern hemisphere. 2005 was the equal hottest. A hotter world causes more evaporation from land and oceans resulting in a warmer atmosphere that holds and releases more water. The result is more violent storms and 100 year events becoming 20 year events.
The anecdotal evidence is that 80% of small business owners don't prepare a business plan and even less actually run their business from a plan. And if you do, you almost certainly concentrate on your strengths and opportunities and gloss over your threats and weaknesses because the plan is largely focussed on convincing the bank you are a good risk. Did you actually stop and think about risk? But that's another story.
Why even think of putting new housing development in polluted industrial areas? Just where is industry supposed to move? And what on earth would this cost? Doesn't it occur to some people that we actually do need some industry in this country? It really is helpful in producing wealth and employing people.
Discuss this Article
