Failure to maintain adequate standards of safety in the workplace is costing Irish companies on average €2,750 a year in costs and lost revenue, according to the latest figures from the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).
While this might not sound like a huge amount of money, for small and medium-sized enterprises it can have a significant impact on their bottom line, especially when it is a cost they should not have to be contending with.
More than a quarter of Irish companies are operating without a health and safety statement (a certificate issued following a health and safety audit) and, even among the 72 per cent that do have a statement, only 4 per cent are fully compliant.
This, says Julian Rafter, is quite alarming, especially when you consider that in most cases a company's greatest asset is its employees.
"It doesn't take much to be health and safety compliant," says Rafter, managing director of Olive Safety, a Dublin-based provider of health and safety solutions.
In fact, he adds, the cost of not complying with health and safety legislation is 350 per cent more than the cost of carrying out a safety audit.
"A lot of it is common sense," he says, referring to a situation where a service company that had 30 people on the road as part of their job was recording about 35 accidents a year.
Olive recommended that the company send their employees on a defensive driving course, which they did, and within a year the number of accidents fell to just seven.
"There was a very simple focus on one area of activity and it ended up having a big difference on the overall business," Rafter says.
Still, doing something like that as a one-off is not enough. Being safety-conscious is something that must come from the top of the business and must be led by management, he says.
"When people understand that doing business safely can have an impact on the bottom line, they realise it is something that must be properly integrated into the business."
So far this year there have been 43 fatalities in the workplace, according to figures from the HSA. This is only seven less than the total for the whole of 2006. While some industries, such as construction, are more prone to accidents by the nature of the work they carry out, Rafter insists that no industry is immune.
In fact, workplace safety can include ergonomic issues, such as ensuring that employees are sitting properly and have the facilities to take a break from their work in safe surroundings without tripping over a stray wire or bumping into a pile of boxes. After all, if someone is out of work with a bad back as a result of sitting on a chair which was not right for them, it can place a financial burden on the company, as it has to pay the wages of a person who is not carrying out the job they were hired to do.
According to Rafter, the trend indicates that workplace fatalities are decreasing in Ireland, but he is quick to point out that the level of non-fatal accidents is still too high (figures in the HSA's annual report show that almost 8,000 people were involved in accidents of this kind last year).
As a result, the authority is starting to conduct more spot checks, even on companies which are not reporting incidents, in the hope of cracking down on non-compliant behaviour.
"It has changed its approach now and is checking up on companies that have not reported any incidents," says Rafter. "This way it hopes to keep companies on their toes."
Businesses which fail to adhere to the appropriate health and safety legislation (Safety Health At Work Act 2005) can face substantial fines, with the average fine imposed on offending Irish companies currently standing at about €27,662, according to Olive.
"What companies need to realise is that simply carrying out a health and safety audit can save them significant amounts of money in the long run," says Rafter. "For many, it is a real eye-opener."
More information about Olive Safety can be found at www.olivesafety.ie
