6 Ways To Avoid Avoid Accidents At Work
Everyone understands that an employer of staff has a duty to avoid injuring their staff whilst they are working, but what can an employee do to help with their employer's responsibilities?
1. Attend Training
Most employers will provide some form of training that will help an employee to carry out their tasks safely. Whilst training can be seen as mundane it is usually provided for a good reason. Attending this training and listening and applying the training to your job could save future injury to your colleagues or to yourself.
2. Ensure Colleagues Apply The Training
If you work closely with certain colleagues it is worth ensuring that they are also paying attention to and applying any safety training. If they work near you if they are not carrying out their tasks safely and in accordance with their training this could result in an injury to them or even to you.
3. Wear Appropriate Clothing
You need to wear the appropriate training for your position. If you operate machinery this will usually involve ensuring that you do not wear any loose clothing that could become tangled in it,
and may also include wearing appropriate footwear. You should also ensure that if you do wear jewellery it will not become trapped in any machinery.
4. Report Dangerous Or Potentially Dangerous Situations
If you notice that someone is operating machinery dangerously, or not in accordance with your training, you should point this out to them. If they continually refuse to follow the instructions, you should report their non-compliance to your employer as their actions could cause injury not only to them but also to you.
Likewise, if you notice that a machine has a leak, or that packaging is routinely being left on the floor which could lead to someone tripping over it, again this should be reported to your employer.
5. Foolish Colleagues
Every business seems to have a comedian or two, someone that likes to play practical jokes and to make people laugh. Whilst this is not usually a problem, if their pranks could lead to physical injury you should ask them to stop, and if they refuse you should report the matter to your employer. We have seen many accident claims arise from colleagues fooling around and subsequently causing an injury.
6. Use Equipment Safely
You should use any equipment as you are instructed to do so by the operating instructions, or by any additional training received from your employer. Failure to do so could lead to injury, and if you have not followed instructions you may not be able to make a claim for compensation.
Conclusion
Most of the points here are common sense, but it is surprising that many of the claims we see arise due to a lack of common sense being used in the workplace. Nobody attends work expecting to be injured during the course of the day and many accidents could be avoided if employees follow the advice above.
