Economic benefits of health and safety not fully realised, suggests report
October 1st 2009 A new report from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) is the latest to suggest good occupational safety and health practice can be a strong economic advantage for organisations.
The paper reviews the connection between Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) and economic performance especially in relation to small and medium-sized enterprises.
OSH is not usually viewed as a contributory factor to the economic viability of an organisation, with compliance with government guidelines, regulations and laws generally the primary focus of OSH policies. But EU-OSHA suggests the perceptions of the connection between effective OSH and the resulting financial benefits could, and should be improved.
According to EU-OSHA the strong economic advantages of good occupational health practice need to be highlighted continuously to organisations because the failure to acknowledge the importance of this link will limit the effectiveness of interventions aimed at preventing disease and injury (Lahiri, Levenstein, Nelson and Rosenberg, 2005; Toffel and Birkner, 2002). Additionally, while the cost of ensuring safety is important, “unsafety” is also costly (Rimington, 1993). For example, a reduction of accidents, damage and improvements to poor health can lead to a reduction in costs and a greater availability of people and plant. This, in turn, can improve efficiency and thereby heighten the effectiveness of businesses (Smallman and John, 2001).
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