商务风险管理指南：管理健康和安全.pdf

6 Managing Health and Safety Helen in the Legal Department has emailed you to say the business is being sued by a keyboard operator who works from home . ‘She’s using a computer supplied by us,’ says Helen, ‘but she worked at her kitchen worktop on a stool. She’s been to her GP complaining of back pain. She says we didn’t give her any ergonomic assessment, advice on set-up, seating, posture or breaks.’ You sigh. You’ve a lot of work on. This is a really unwelcome distraction. And you can’t help but think it’s a try-on. Should you stop people working from home? Should you conduct assessments in everyone’s home, for everyone who ever works at home? As if you don’t have enough to do. ‘Let’s call the health and safety experts,’ you say, wearily . The Real Cost of Accidents Accidents are hugely expensive, both in terms of personal suffering as well as corporate losses: • Over 200 people are killed at work in the UK each year. In the USA, there are 13 workplace fatalities each day, while Canada’s workforce suffers 1,000 deaths a year. • Many thousands more people die each year from occupational illnesses, including some cancers and respiratory diseases. • UK organizations lose around 30 million working days each year due to occupational ill health and injury. • About two million people suffer from an illness that they believe to be caused or made worse by work. • This ill-health, injury and death causes further costs in organizations, such as uninsured losses and bad PR. But it isn’t simply rogue businesses that are affected. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE, .uk) examined five firms with lower than average safety bills. Over a 13-week survey period, all lost large amounts of money due to accidents which caused injury, damage or disruption. A transport firm lost 37 per cent of its profits, an oil platform dropped 14 per cent of its output, a creamery lost £243,000, and a construction company forfeited 8 per cent of a project’