One in ten injured at work
A survey issued by the insurance company AXA has found that one in ten people have been injured at work in the past five years. The most common accidents were slips, falls and trips, which were responsible for 33 %of all injuries. Kitchen accidents accounted for 19 % and those involving lifting 11% of the total. The results reveal that employers need to reduce the levels of accidents in the workplace as it is the duty of the employer to provide a safe place of work.
The survey had questioned 41,541 employees in the UK about their workplace injuries. 34 % of the reported injuries suffered in the last five years were musculoskeletal disorders, such as sprained muscles, back pain and strains. 28 % were cuts, whilst burns accounted for 21 %, broken bones 11% and loss of mobility 6 per cent of the injuries.
One of the surprising trends, discovered by the survey, was that around 8 % of workplace injuries resulted from physical attacks on employees by either their colleagues or by customers. In some sectors, such as professional services, 15 per cent of those who had suffered an injury had been assaulted by a customer.
A link was also found between the size of the company and the likelihood of suffering an injury, it seems it’s more dangerous to work for a larger organisation. The survey found that those working for companies with 250 employees or more had nearly twice the chance of suffering an injury as had those working for companies with between 10 and 250 employees. In line with this trend, the smallest companies, with 9 employees or fewer had the lowest rates of workplace injury.
Age may be a further risk factor when it comes to workplace injuries. Employees over the age of 50 were most likely to suffer a fall at work (47 per cent) compared with 18-29 year-olds (28 per cent), who were the least likely.
It is now clear from the recent survey that whilst many companies claim to adhere to health and safety regulations, more could be done to prevent accidents at work.
Updated on 6/26/2008