A majority of Swedish work places fail to learn from incidents that could cause harm to employees, according to a new study by the Swedish Work Environment Authority, which found that the construction industry performed particularly poorly in accident prevention.
The Swedish Work Environment Authority inspected nearly 2,200 work places and found that 60 percent have insufficient routines for learning from unexpected incidents. The Authority found inadequate routines for reporting, handling and coordinating.
Examples of such incidents could be a lamp falling down from a factory ceiling or a glove getting caught in a lathe, the Authority said. It could also be an employer failing to find a substitute when a member of staff falls ill.
“Most work places need to work a lot harder on detecting early signals in order to prevent work injuries in the form of illnesses and accidents,” said Jennie Karlsson of the Work Environment Authority.
“Preventative work benefits everyone,” she added. “It is smart for the business and it benefits the individual and the welfare system since it makes it possible to avoid work injuries that end up costing society money.”
Source: Radio Sweden
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