The importance of health and safety at work cannot be overstated. The employer has both a moral and a legal obligation to ensure that his employees work in both a safe and healthy environment.
Morally no worker should be forced to work in an environment where his welfare is at risk. It also makes good business sense to ensure that workers are both safe and healthy during working hours. Sick or injured workers lead to a drop in production and a subsequent loss of profits.
Moral issues aside, there are strict laws and regulations governing health and safety at work, and should an employer transgress these requirements he could find himself being prosecuted and having to pay out large sums in compensation.
Good work practices effectively pay for themselves as production remains free from disruption,insurance costs are minimised, the workforce remains contented and customers are delighted with a regular and prompt supply of fulfilled orders.
In the United Kingdom the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) are in change of health and safety regulations in the workplace. The HSE not only enforce these regulations, but will also prosecute employers when they are contravened. While this is very necessary, it puts an enormous strain on employers whose first concern, quite naturally, is to run their businesses as efficiently as possible.
While the HSE produces plenty of information on the regulations, which are often updated, the typical busy employer or manager often has little time to read through them, let alone fully understand them. It is because of this that agencies have emerged that advise employers, managers and key employees just what the law demands and how to comply by keeping your work premises and practices as safe as possible. These agencies also run courses on various aspects of health and safety, many of which are certificated.
One of these courses is the IOSH Working Safely Certificate. This course meets the HSE’s requirements as a safety certificate. It defines and identities risks and hazards and looks at ways of improving safety performance. The course also looks at safe systems of working, and considers personal responsibility for safety in the workplace, as well as the protection of staff in the working environment.
The fact that such courses exist emphasises the importance of health and safety at work in the modern world.
