Purpose Of Health And Safety

Policy Purpose:

An organisation should have an occupational safety and health policy as part of the preparation of the Safety Statement. The policy is based on the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders and sets out two things, these are how an organisation is going to implement measures on how to reduce or possibly completely remove the condition from the workplace. The purpose of the policy is to highlight the issue within the workplace and provide a framework for the training & development of employees throughout the entire organisation to enhance their performance but more importantly their safety. It is also extremely important for employees to be correctly informed on how to prevent the disorder from occurring. This can be achieved through

In order to achieve this employees must be made aware of the issues surrounding it. The policy by minimising the injury on employees will improve the absenteeism in the company. This will lead to productivity of the company improving but most importantly the health and safety of workers being enhanced. The policies sole intension is to prevent any illness or injury occurring in the workplace, this will be achieved by both the policy and management. The ultimate goal of any company is to ensure the safety of employees at all times, this policy will further enhance the company’s goal. The responsibility for employee safety requires constant and continuous efforts by management and up to date policies to ensure this safety is at its highest level, this policy will add to employee safety and enhance employee performance. It is paramount that all employees are informed of the policy failure to ensure this will lead to both the employee’s safety being compromised and the downfall of the policy. The legislation has established fundamental principles that must be followed by companies in respect of health

However in just Ireland alone each year it is estimated that 14 million days are lost each year due to absence and ill health, the most staggering fact of all is around half of that figure at 7 million days are lost due to Musculoskeletal Disorders. The implications of this reach far beyond the workplace, due to absenteeism it is estimated that it costs the economy around E750m each year (3). The IBEC report of 2011 indicates that due to absenteeism it costs on average E818 per employee for each employer. The report shows that absenteeism ranges from 1.67% to 3.7 % (4). However a more recent report from the HSE (5) finds that the rates for absenteeism have increased in the public sector between 6% - 10% with an average of 4.9% due to absenteeism MSD

The objective of this policy is to reduce these costs that are associated with absenteeism, it will lead to costs to the company in the long run being reduced. This will be achieved through informing the employees by giving them a copy of the policy & providing them with a training course.