28 April -Workers’ Memorial Day

A poignant reminder, that as the HSE statement put it, “Everybody has a right to come home safe and well from their job” or in the words of the International Labour Organisation(ILO)

“ Decent work is safe work.”

With all the emphasis on safety in the workplace in the UK you may be surprised to know 142 people died last year while at work and according the ILO website worldwide “every 15 seconds, a worker dies from a work-related accident or disease.” So without a doubt we could do better……perhaps just by sharing this post will serve as a reminder as to the importance of safety, in world so often focussed on immediate cost savings and efficiencies, particularly in this period of austerity and economic uncertainty.

In fact sharing health and safety information is one of the corner stones of achieving good health and safety outcomes. This was a key finding of HSE’s Research Report RR952 “A review of the literature on effective leadership behaviours for safety” which went onto say that

“Safety communication was another recurring theme that was implicated in half of the major incidents reviewed.”

Underlining that “Promoting a constructive approach to error management (e.g. promoting the learning and sharing of errors) and enhancing safety communications (e.g. discussing safety issues, encouraging workers to offer ideas for improving safety) can influence positive safety behaviours and reduce the experience of work-related pain.”

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