The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) of Ireland has published a new guide, Stop Slips and Trips – Get a Grip, for employers and employees to help reduce workplace injuries caused by simple slips, trips, and falls. Although this type of injury might initially seem very minor compared with industrial accidents involving heavy machinery, about one fifth of the workers injured from falls stay absent from work for over one month.
Injuries at work due to falls account for about half of all claims for injuries at work that are made by the Injuries Board Ireland.
As with all types of workplace injury prevention programs, the HSA recommends that employers should track all incidents, assess the risks, and concentrate on prevention. The preventative measure for slips or trips are fairly obvious: placing safety signs in places where trips might occur like unexpected steps, providing protective equipment and appropriate shoes to staff that might regularly be exposed to the risky areas like loading bays, ensuring that there is sufficient lighting so hazards are visible, ensure workers can dry any wet shoes, deal with liquid spills immediately, and most obviously, ensuring there are no bumps and holes on the floor.
The HSA always highlights that workplace safety is a joint responsibility between workers and employers, with both groups responsible for ensuring that there are as few accidents as possible. However, employers have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their workers. Not just to prevent injury claims and because it’s a legal requirement, but because employers have a duty of care for their employees.