Sick days 'cost economy €1.6bn a year'
Irish firms need to redouble their efforts to drive down the levels of accidents and absenteeism at work, it was claimed today.
Sick days cost the economy €1.6bn every year while a total of 63 people have already died in work-related accidents this year.
Junior Trade Minister Minister Michael Ahern today told a SIPTU seminar in Cork city that there had been a 25% reduction in work-related deaths since 1989 but stressed that most were still preventable.
“We have achieved much since 1989 but we need to redouble our efforts to drive down the level and the costs of accidents and ill-health at work.
“Workplace safety is paramount. It is a basic entitlement. However there are huge responsibilities on all parties. We must all recognise, as individuals, the part that each one of us can and must play to ensure safety in the workplace.”
However Mr Ahern said that the new Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 2005 would signal a new dawn in occupational health and safety standards for the state’s two million employees.
The Cork East TD said the legislation has increased fines and penalties to deter the minority who flout health and safety laws.
It also includes on-the-spot fines and directors and managers can be held liable if complicit in deaths and accidents.
“The Act is a serious wake-up call for employers and for workers who ignore safety and health and sends a direct signal to employers and employees alike that they need to act together on safety and health if the national record is to be improved,” he said.
The most common causes of accidents at work including slips, trips and falls but bad lifting habits can also result in back injury.
Research has shown that up to 50% of small companies do little or nothing to prevent accidents at work and make no investment in preventing accidents.
“This is inexcusable as there is enormous positive payback for investment in occupational safety and health,” Mr Ahern said.
The new Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act updates and amends the provisions of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989.
The Act, which was signed into law by the President on June 22, 2005, and which came into force on September 1, is the first major review of occupational health and safety since the report of Mr Justice Barrington in 1983, which led to the 1989 Act and the setting-up of the Health and Safety Authority.
The minister said today that he will soon sign into law the the Construction Regulations and the General Application Regulations which will bring the building industry into line with requirements under the Act.
