Accidents in the workplace
In the last newsletter, I covered the Legal role and responsibilities of CEO’s with regards to health and safety in the workplace. The newsletter was based on an article from the SA Labour Guide by Tinus Boshoff. In this newsletter I would like to discuss accidents in the workplace referring to recent media reports of fires in buildings and in factories.
You may recall the recent fire of a building in Tshwane, Pretoria in which 6 people were killed. In another incident, a fire that occurred in a mattress factory in Industria, no one was killed but severe damage to the factory occurred. Besides the loss of lives that can occur, there is also a huge financial loss to companies. When one looks at workplace accidents, one will often discover that they could be prevented simply by having staff trained in first aid, fire fighting and in occupational health and safety.
Simple, common mistakes occur all the time. Yet, employees can more often than not, avoid making such mistakes. A simple example would be where an employee is not aware that a chemical he is working with is flammable so he lights up a cigarette. Often, what one finds is that extinguishers are not easily accessible or that the employee uses the wrong type of extinguisher to extinguish the fire.
Employees trained in fire fighting can control the fire early on, before it spreads. Employees that have undergone training in occupational health and safety can point out areas that are potentially dangerous, well before disaster strikes. Once fires spread, it is seldom that the fire department can get it under control easily as the fire can spread rapidly and by the time they arrive, it is too late!
What is also important to note is that evacuation of buildings when fires occur should be conducted appropriately. Fire marshals can manage the evacuation and staff will know where collection points are. An emergency is usually characterised by confusion and panic. Preparation in first aid and fire fighting as well as practiced fire drills have been proven to prevent injuries or deaths.
I have been dealing with a firm for first aid training for more than 3 years. They felt that they needed to do the training but that they were dealing with other issue that were on top of their priority list. Recently , as life has it, one of their older senior directors had a “heart-attack”. No one in the company had first aid training and the situation rapidly became frantic and everyone panicked. The ambulance was called and did arrive on time to save the senior partner’s life. They have now booked the training for all their employees.
It is difficult for many managers to envisage that a company not involved in production would require first aid training. Their perception is that they are not in manufacturing and as such, the risk of injury is low. As can be seen in the example above this is not the case.
Besides the legal requirements there is a level of responsibility to that goes toward employee wellbeing as well as the potential cost to companies.
Accidents in the workplace
In the last newsletter, I covered the Legal role and responsibilities of CEO’s with regards to health and safety in the workplace. The newsletter was based on an article from the SA Labour Guide by Tinus Boshoff. In this newsletter I would like to discuss accidents in the workplace referring to recent media reports of fires in buildings and in factories.
You may recall the recent fire of a building in Tshwane, Pretoria in which 6 people were killed. In another incident, a fire that occurred in a mattress factory in Industria, no one was killed but severe damage to the factory occurred. Besides the loss of lives that can occur, there is also a huge financial loss to companies. When one looks at workplace accidents, one will often discover that they could be prevented simply by having staff trained in first aid, fire fighting and in occupational health and safety.
Simple, common mistakes occur all the time. Yet, employees can more often than not, avoid making such mistakes. A simple example would be where an employee is not aware that a chemical he is working with is flammable so he lights up a cigarette. Often, what one finds is that extinguishers are not easily accessible or that the employee uses the wrong type of extinguisher to extinguish the fire.
Employees trained in fire fighting can control the fire early on, before it spreads. Employees that have undergone training in occupational health and safety can point out areas that are potentially dangerous, well before disaster strikes. Once fires spread, it is seldom that the fire department can get it under control easily as the fire can spread rapidly and by the time they arrive, it is too late!
What is also important to note is that evacuation of buildings when fires occur should be conducted appropriately. Fire marshals can manage the evacuation and staff will know where collection points are. An emergency is usually characterised by confusion and panic. Preparation in first aid and fire fighting as well as practiced fire drills have been proven to prevent injuries or deaths.
I have been dealing with a firm for first aid training for more than 3 years. They felt that they needed to do the training but that they were dealing with other issue that were on top of their priority list. Recently , as life has it, one of their older senior directors had a “heart-attack”. No one in the company had first aid training and the situation rapidly became frantic and everyone panicked. The ambulance was called and did arrive on time to save the senior partner’s life. They have now booked the training for all their employees.
It is difficult for many managers to envisage that a company not involved in production would require first aid training. Their perception is that they are not in manufacturing and as such, the risk of injury is low. As can be seen in the example above this is not the case.
Besides the legal requirements there is a level of responsibility to that goes toward employee wellbeing as well as the potential cost to companies.