Safety first in the Teesside workplace

Feb 9 2010 by Jez Davison, Evening Gazette

THE number of accidents in the workplace on Teesside has risen by 18%, new data has shown.

In the year to March 2009, there were 374 slips, trips and falls in Redcar & Cleveland, Stockton and Middlesbrough, against 317 the previous year.

The data from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) also showed there were 59 workplace accidents in the Hartlepool area and 101 in the Darlington area.

The new figures follow last week’s prosecution of a Teesside snack company for failing to protect a foreign worker with limited English from serious injury. It led the HSE to call for employers to ensure migrant workers fully understood rules around the workplace.

The organisation estimates that slips and trips alone cost UK employers around £512m a year in lost productivity - and Teesside firms have been hit in the pocket.

Last year more than 10,000 people suffered serious injury from a slip or trip at work, according to the HSE, which is trying to highlight the devastating consequences of workplace accidents through its Shattered Lives campaign.

Chris Gillies, North-east-based principal inspector for HSE, said a tightening of current legislation was not the answer.

“It’s about getting employers to take action quickly and undertake thorough risk assessments,” he said.

“People think that slips, trips and falls are trivial and insignificant - but they are the most common cause of injury in the workplace.”