Employers could radically reduce the high numbers of deaths and injuries to workers if they carried out preventive programmes and monitored incidents and accidents systematically, according to a major new report.
Such programmes should be carried out involving all key stakeholders, including employees, according to the Spanish-based European Agency for Safety and Health at Work in its report, How to Reduce Workplace Accidents, which was published last week.
Around 5,500 people are killed at work every year in the EU, with 75,000 people so severely injured that they have to give up full-time employment.
In 1998 (the latest year for which full figures are available), as many as 4.7 million work-related injuries resulted in workers being absent from work for more than three days following the incident. Work-related injuries cost the EU 150 million lost working days each year, with direct insurance costs amounting to some €20 billion (£15.75 billion) annually.
The report documents incident-prevention schemes, including a campaign in Austria to prevent falls at work that reduced such falls by more than 10 per cent. A Spanish programme resulted in a 25 per cent reduction in accidents in high-risk enterprises.
A German construction industry campaign to prevent falls from heights reduced them by up to 30 per cent. In Britain, many painful and costly accidents in the textile industry have been virtually eliminated by a small sewing machine guard designed by the collaborative work of the social partners.
In 1996, British clothing company William Baird reviewed compensation claims for needle-in-finger injuries from sewing machines. Around 250 claims had been made the previous year, following approximately 500 incidents. It cost approximately €810 to settle each incident that led to a claim, costing William Baird around €195,000.
The company approached the GMB trade union and discussed redesigning existing guards on the sewing machines.
"This approach differed from many others in the industry, in that modifying equipment was being considered. Often, the view of many employers was to increase awareness of operators, yet do nothing about the machine," the report says.
Having decided to redesign the guarding, the company looked at a factory with the highest rate of needle-in-finger injuries. They asked the local safety committee to design a suitable guard. A small team was established comprising two GMB trade union safety representatives, an engineer and a supervisor.
The engineer designed guards based on the ideas of the group, some of which failed. However, after six months of modifications, a prototype guard had been created. It allowed the worker to see the needle while working, could be opened easily for threading the needle and guarded against finger injuries. It now only remained to be seen if it reduced injuries - and costs.
Several machines were fitted with the new guard. This brought new problems, such as fitting the guards correctly. Engineers were trained to fit the guards properly. A second problem arose because the guard, being made of Perspex, caused glare for some operators - thereby interfering with working operations.
Cutting a "V" into the guard resolved this, allowing the operator to see the needlepoint but preventing finger access. Another solution was to change the lighting for operators experiencing glare.
A third problem was that the company used several thousand sewing machines, and guards would need to be made for them all. In 1998, the trade union launched a "Stitchy Finger" campaign, highlighting injuries caused by needles. It encouraged all safety representatives to use the new guard.
William Baird phased in the new guard.
"Up to 2000, where the guards had been fitted, there were no first-aid-treated accidents where the machine was under power. There were some accidents where the operator caught the needlepoint when they were changing the thread. However, the key success was almost eliminating these accidents when the machine was in operation," the report says.
"Within the first year of fitting guards, the company's insurance premium was cut by 50 per cent. Within two years of the first guard being fitted, needle-in-finger accidents dropped from around 500 to 40. Where guards were fitted, no needle-in-finger accidents have been recorded."
jmarms@irish-times.ie
