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Work Place Injury and Illness - What
Costs?
| Today's Occupational Health and Safety
Regulations in Australia were developed as a consequence of a report from the Robens
Committee to the British Parliament in 1972. This report recommended that a greater
emphasis be placed on a cooperative approach to OH&S in the workplace. Employers (and
their representative bodies), employees (and their Unions where applicable) and the
government department must work together to ensure the health and safety of workers in the
work place.
Significant advances have been made in the
development and implementation of "Codes of Practice", training programs, and
the provision of a wide range of information about safety issues in the work place.
Mandatory or voluntary safety committees, and election of OH&S representatives have
lead to a greater involvement of employees in work place safety programs. These strategies
have helped to reduce the number of work place injury and deaths that occur annually in
Australia.
Costs of accidents can be measured in human,
social, economic and organisational costs.
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Human
- Injured person cannot return to usual work
tasks, temporarily or permanently.
- Quality of life poor, due to constant pain.
- Emotional physical trauma.
- Financial hardship
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Social
Financial burden may fall onto other family members.
Fellow workers and family may need counseling.
Economic
Medical expenses, compensation and rehabilitation costs to family,
company and taxpayers
Organisational
- Costs of hiring and training of replacement
staff.
- Loss of production while staff respond to
accident or equipment needs to be shut down to be replaced or repaired.
- Some workers may not wish to return to usual
job due to severity of accident.
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