Health and Safety Compliance
Every business must comply with the legal requirement to have a health and safety policy in place and a competent person to monitor the policy. The same obligation applies whether you are a sole trader or a multi-national corporation. Whilst it may seem daunting having to comply with all the legislation placed on businesses there are considerable benefits to having an effective health & safety policy in place including;
- Safety - the most obvious benefit is ensuring the safety of your employees
- Financial - a failure to comply with health & safety legisaltion can result in a heavy fine through the criminal courts and, in todays increasingly litigious society, the cost of damages awarded against negligent employers
- Time - an accident at work will mean a loss of production time. Not only for the injured person but also anyone attending to them and from the resultant investigation. Recent changes in legisalation could also mean directors, managers and employees facing the prospect of a prison sentence for breaches of health & safety law
- Hidden costs - whilst your insurance can cover some of the costs arising from an incident there will be other factors to consider. The cost of your insurance excess, the prosect of increased insurance premiums and a workforce who lack motivation can all arise from a poor health & safety culture.