A Call For Action To Reduce The Incidence Of Workplace Injuries

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) August 25, 2010 -- Injuries in the workplace cost the economy a great deal of money. In 2008-09 some 29.3 million working days were lost to work related injuries or diseases. Each working day that is lost, costs businesses money. 100%Compensation, a legal firm are urging greater safety awareness in the workplace, by making employers face up to their lawful responsibilities in terms of health and safety, thus reducing the number of injuries in the workplace.

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When businesses have to either work short staffed or buy in cover because a member of staff has either suffered an injury or injuries in the workplace, then this costs the business money. Productivity or outputs are affected and sometimes staff have to work additional hours as overtime to meet the slack that is caused when teams are operating with one staff member down.

Yet some businesses seem to be content to take shortcuts, cut down on training or just leave staff to it, not realising that if there are any injuries in the workplace, then they will have to meet the costs of replacing that person until they are well enough to return to the workplace.
In a sense this is a backward view, because if the 29 million working days could be saved by not having any injuries or work related diseases causing staff to go off sick, then the economy would be infinitely healthier than it is now.

There is also another side to the statistic of 29.3 million days lost per year. Each of those working days is experienced by a person, who has been injured or contracted a work related disease. They want to be at work. They want to feel as if they are contributing to Society. Instead they are at home, perhaps living on a reduced salary, experiencing pain and feeling a sense of despair and frustration.

Meanwhile, their employer is having to provide cover, whilst that person is off sick, due to a work related injury or disease. Surely this is not a situation that provides any benefit to either the employer or the employee.

If left to continue, the UK as a whole will continue to waste millions of working days each year until the situation is remedied and action is taken to ensure that employers meet all their statutory duties and obligations. The people who have been injured or who are ill will continue to suffer. Action needs to be taken and taken soon to stop this injustice.

One way that employers will have to face up to their legal obligations, is if people who have experienced any injuries in the workplace, take action and seek to obtain legal redress. This will ensure that not only are they compensated for their injuries, but the employer will have to take health and safety issues seriously, to ensure other people do not get injured or develop work related diseases.

Shrugging off work related diseases or injuries that happened in the workplace will not do anything to change the status quo. Workers will continue to be hurt and injured and employers will fail to take action. Therefore there is a pressing need for action to be taken, whenever injuries in the workplace occur.

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