Health and Safety is a moral consideration as well as legal one. Whilst most business owners accept that the Health and Safety of their workers is of the utmost priority, in the absence of legislation, many would choose not to institute a defined policy.
By law any organistion with 5 or more employees must have a written Health and Safety policy.
Having a good health and safety record is recognised as being good for both your employees and your business. Protecting your workforce and others affected by your activities is vitally important. There are many advantages of having a good health and safety record, one of the most easily identifiable of which is lower insurance premiums for a company with few or no health and safety incidents. However, it is estimated that this is just one of the potential financial rewards as the following costs can also result from a health and safety incident:
■ Sick pay
■ Damage or loss of product and raw materials
■ Repairs to plant and equipment
■ Loss of productivity
■ Overtime working and temporary labour to make up for any loss of productivity
■ Production delays
■ Investigation time
■ Fines
An important way of maintaining good health and safety in the workplace is by having a health and safety policy which is clear, concise and made known to everyone in the workplace. The law requires that employers with five or more employees must have a written health and safety policy statement, and increasingly clients are requiring all contractors to produce a written health and safety policy to demonstrate their commitment to health and safety. It is therefore strongly advisable for all contractors to have a
written health and safety policy regardless of the number of people they employ