Slips, Trips and Falls
They're common but why are they so difficult for many businesses to manage?
Slips, trips and falls are one the most common risks in the workplace. They lead to a third of all workplace injuries and are one of the most common causes of civil lawsuits especially in workplaces with public access. This is one of the hardest elements of safety for a business to manage.
The main thing to understand is where these risks exist and how they happen. As mentioned previously workplaces that have public access such as shops and restaurants are the most common places where the risk of someone taking a fall is most common. Often this can be down to something like a wet floor. An occupation is liable for notifying everyone of a potential hazard or could face legal action mostly through civil claims. This can be easily avoided in most cases. We will go into further details with what potential risks and hazards can occur and how an occupation can manage these preventing themselves from become liable for injury and have to with a civil claim.
With something like a wet floor, obviously wet floor signs are widely available and used however this should be last resort in most cases. An occupation should plan for measures that prevent the floor being wet in the first place through elimination and substitution. Can you avoid or prevent floors from getting wet and contaminated in the first place? Spillages can come happen so an occupation will have to think about how to manage the hazard as quick as possible. Having measures to routinely keep floors clean can help lower the risks of slips happening. If an area remains wet even after cleaning, everyone must be indicated of where the wet area is through the likes of wet floor signs. If anything, anyone within the occupations be it workers or the public should be made to avoid the area of all costs as signs may likely not cover the whole area that has become slippery which could still lead to someone slipping and suing if not correctly advised.
Wet floors, cables and uneven floors are a common trip hazard. Like with wet floors it should be indicated to anyone in the workplace that the risk is there. Again, this should be last resort as measures should be in place to eliminate these risks and perhaps substitute the risk. Some of the questions that should/could be considered are is there way trailing cables can be moved completely out the way of an area where someone can trip? Is there any way an uneven floor can be fixed or altered to make it less of a hazard? Good housekeeping amongst workers and staff is also advised in helping to prevent trip hazards from occurring in the workplace.
An occupation is liable if the correct precautions aren’t placed. Like with anything that falls under the health and safety act, the severity of the consequences can vary. For example, if there aren’t any measures in place for maintaining a wet surface and someone is to slip and injure themselves leading to potential hospital stays or even surgery, the occupation may owe thousands to the claimant depending on the court case and any settlements. For small business’ this could be very damaging to them financially, so it is as important for the small businesses to have measures in place for slips, trips and falls than it is for the bigger businesses or corporations.
