The ISO 45001 standard helps organizations that adopt it to improve the health and safety of workers. In fact, even if fatal accidents at work are fortunately decreasing more and more, probably also due to greater awareness, in recent years there has been a tendency to increase stress, depression and anxiety that have massively affected occupational diseases and lost working days.
It is therefore necessary for organizations to make a further effort to continue to monitor the management of health and safety within their realities without lowering their guard and, in this, the adaptation to the standard is an irreplaceable support because it provides a model to take into consideration all the risks related to the health and safety of the world of work.
Scrolling through the reports of the cases of accidents at work, we see that the cause of most fatal events are falls from heights, followed by the impact of moving vehicles. These figures do not include, of course, the deaths that concern workers involved in road accidents or traveling by plane, etc. There are many factors that have contributed to the general decline in workplace injuries:
- the legal obligation to report deaths, injuries, and illnesses that occur in the workplace;
- regulations requiring employers to comply with standards that focus on health and safety;
- criminal proceedings and financial penalties provided for organizations that violate regulations;
- the identification of risks for employees during the performance of their work through in-depth assessments;
- the general awareness that has helped create a more safety-conscious environment in general;
- the adoption of management systems that provide organizations with a model to effectively manage their responsibilities in terms of health and safety.
Accidents and fatalities at work are well recorded and monitored, however, in more recent times new areas of concern have been highlighted that could have a significant impact on employee health in the near future and cost employers time and money due to worker absence and reduced productivity.
The figures related to worker fatigue, in fact, constitute important numbers. In particular, people who work on multiple shifts are particularly vulnerable. Night shifts and long work shifts with limited breaks can contribute to increasing the number of accidents and injuries. Fatigue, in fact, slows down reaction time, reduces coordination and, among other things, leads to underestimate the risk. Fatigue was the main cause of some of the most notorious accidents in recent history, such as Chernobyl or Exxon Valdez.
Mental health problems also cost the economy a lot of money. Stress, anxiety, and depression lead workers to lose many working days and, in general, weigh heavily on the budgets of organizations. The most common causes of all these ailments are tight deadlines, too much responsibility and the lack of valid and constant managerial support over time.
Finally, violence at work is treated in the same way as any other work-related risk in the eyes of the law. Any incident in which a person is abused, threatened, or assaulted in circumstances related to their work constitutes a risk under which employers have a legal duty to initiate management.
Maintaining an effective Occupational Health and Safety Management System constitutes an extremely useful model to help organizations reduce deaths, accidents, and poor health conditions of employees and supports them in creating a safe working environment in which people can work with the least possible risks. In addition to a more relaxed and serene environment, employers will also benefit from the reduction of absenteeism for the causes we have listed above and from the general improvement of productivity. A standard, ISO 45001, really of great support in this perspective!