News In Focus
28 April 2009
Report says society pays for workplace accidents, not companies
Thousands of lives each year could be saved if businesses were prevented from ‘cost shifting’ the real bill for work-related ill-health onto individuals and society, according to a report by University of Stirling Professor Rory O’Neill.
Launching his report, titled Who pays? You do, Professor O’Neill, of the university’s cccupational and environmental health research group, said: “The business lobby bleats continually about the ‘burden’ of health and safety regulation, but the burden of lax workplace safety standards is carried almost entirely by sick and injured workers, bereaved families and the public purse.
“Our research shows at best 25% of the cost of occupational ill health and injuries is borne by business, yet businesses create 100% of the risks that caused the problem.”
Professor O’Neill is calling for more rigorous enforcement of existing health and safety laws, with punitive penalties on companies guilty of egregious health and safety breaches. He also says there is a need for a revamped employer-financed compensation system that recognises the real costs of occupational injury, disease and related bereavements. The NHS should also recover from employers the full costs for the treatment of occupationally-caused diseases and disabilities.
The report criticises the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), which last month the published its "2009 Burdens Barometer", which targets 10 workplace safety regulations covering working time, chemicals, asbestos, explosives, biocides, work at height, vibration and noise, as well as occupational exposure limits and the corporate manslaughter act.
“The British Chambers of Commerce objects to the cost of these crucial health and safety laws, which it says cost business £2.2bn a year,” Professor O’Neill said. “But BCC’s calculation is undermined by a critical omission – the cash and human benefits of properly regulated workplace health and safety.
“With a fatal occupational injury costing society over £1.5m and an occupational cancer over £2.5m, the supposed cost to business is by comparison small change.”
Compensation bill
His report comes as proposed new laws aimed at speeding up compensation payouts to the victims of accidents in the workplace are being published at the Scottish Parliament.
Labour MSP Bill Butler said his member's bill would standardise the assumed living expenses of victims in wrongful death cases.
He said this would mean certain cases not having to go through the courts, cutting stress for families.
Ministers are looking at the proposals, drawn up by the Scottish Law Commission.