The health and safety risks of slips in any particular workplace should be addressed in the employer’s safety management system (SMS) which forms the major component of a company’s health and safety policy. The extent and complexity of the SMS will be determined by the size of the business and its structures and equipment, but it will always deal with the following areas:
• Environmental hazards
• Work procedure hazards
• Related safety processes
• Management related safety processes
Work accidents involving slips, trips and falls would be included in ‘Environmental hazards’ after analysis of the working environment had flagged up this category of hazard. The mechanisms of safety management systems, embedded in health and safety legislation, is beyond the scope of this article, but an employer’s legal duty of care to their employees requires that hazards be identified and as far as is reasonably practicable eliminated or reduced to a minimum. Only in cases where the risk of an accident at work posed by the hazard is small and the cost of eliminating that risk disproportionately large, can an exception be made.
An employer’s failure to discharge their duty of care might result in their employee’s health, safety and welfare being severely compromised. In the case of slip hazards in the workplace the following adverse outcomes are possible and do occur:
|
Adverse health outcomes |
Adverse safety outcomes |
|
Cuts and bruises |
Unrepaired leaks in roofs and equipment |
|
Sprains, strains and other injuries to muscles, tendons and ligaments |
Poor lighting leading to contaminated surfaces not being visible or overly strong lighting leading to glare with the same outcome. |
|
Fractures of varying severity |
People walking water and other floor contaminants into the building due to a lack of door mats |
|
Concussion – to permanent brain injury |
Work processes (which can be changed) requiring workers to walk over unavoidably slippery surfaces |
|
Burns if carrying corrosive chemicals |
Lack of personal protective equipment in the form on BS EN standard non-slip soled footwear for employees |
|
Spinal injuries & paralysis |
Variations in floor level using ramps increasing slip risk if covered in contaminants |
|
Death |
Possible risk of explosion, fire or injury to other workers if the employee who slips is carrying corrosive chemicals, explosive or flammable substances |
|
Long term/permanent disability/disfigurement |
Lack of non-slip (rough) flooring where contamination is unavoidable |
|
Emotional trauma to post traumatic stress |
Incorrect cleaning which leaves the floor with a slippery coating |
|
|
Lack of health and safety training in workforce and absence of ‘see it, sort it’ culture. |
