Slips, Trips and Falls
Slips, trips and falls account for a significant portion of workplace accidents. The most common injury types as the result of slips , trips or falls are usually to the back, ankles or wrists that can leave employees with long term issues, and in extreme cases effect their quality of life. In 2006/07 in Australia, approximately 20% of all serious workers compensation claims was the result of a slip, trip or fall type of incident (Table 15: Compendium of Workers’ Compensation Statistics Australia 2006–07.
Slips, Trips and Falls. Why Managers Should Care?
Legally, socially and morally as a manger it should be your highest priority to keep your employees safe. An employee that suffers a long term work related injury cannot only be demoralizing to a workplace, the financial cost is estimated on average to be $5000 and 21 days off for the employee. This compensation figure only covers a small percentage of the costs. It does not account for indirect costs, such as:
- The time to process and manage the injury
- Increased workloads for other staff to perform the injured person’s work
- Loss of expertise and necessary skills and additional training for replacement staff
- Decreased productivity
- The human aspect of pain and suffering.
Effective strategies to prevent slips, trips and falls are usually simple, inexpensive and lead to both immediate and long-term benefits, increased productivity and reduced compensation costs. The following pages within this section provides a good starting point to reduce and prevent slip, trips and falls occurrences.
