Occupational health and safety has been a concern since the
beginning of the industrialisation, and protected in legislation since
the second half of the 20th century yet until recent days, the cost of
work related injuries and accidents is making up 4% of global GDP each
year – not mentioning the human cost of lost lives and lifelong
suffering.
It is not only because employers often see occupational
health and safety as paper work and a bottomless pit of spending –
workers might see it as a burden themselves, withholding them from doing
their job as effectively as they could do if they were taking those
little, irrelevant risks, which they could handle anyway.
This approach is, however, quite harmful.
You have to remember that there are existing laws to protect human rights, and in the event of signing an employment contract parties are buying and selling time, professionalism, and workforce – not human life and health. No organisation, insurance group or state benefits will be able to entirely compensate an individual and their family after losing any of the latter ones to their job, in spite of the high price companies have to pay if it turns out that they have failed to comply with health and safety rules.
About benefits and costs of addressing health and safety at work see also: https://www.hse.gov.uk/leadership/benefits.htm
Coded by derailia