'Do your bit' to reduce death and injury in the workplace

Date:

11 March 2010

Bosses are being encouraged to get their employees more involved in health and safety in a bid to reduce injury and ill health.

The Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) new campaign 'do your bit' is in response to workplace research which provides evidence to suggest that involving workers has a positive effect on health and safety performance.

The 'do your bit' campaign is a year long initiative offering free or subsidised training courses to help businesses get their employees more involved in improving their health and safety.

To support the campaign, HSE has launched a new website which provides practical advice and materials for businesses and details of the upcoming series of training opportunities. In addition, it features first hand accounts from businesses who are already reaping the rewards from actively involving workers in health and safety.

Judith Hackitt, Chair of HSE, said: "Where businesses have good workforce involvement they also often achieve better performance in health and safety and experience better productivity because their staff are motivated and feel engaged in the organisation."

Katja Hall, CBI Director of Employment Policy, said: "Good health and safety performance relies on employees and employers working together. The HSE worker involvement campaign will not only play an important role in boosting people's understanding of their role in health and safety management, but can also help businesses understand and remove barriers to good worker involvement."

HSE is initially aiming the campaign and subsidised training for new potential health and safety representatives at the construction, manufacturing, transport and motor vehicle repair sectors.

Any organisations seeking to improve on their existing consultation and worker involvement arrangements can express their interest in a fully funded training package.

Organisations can register for either of the above offers of training at www.hse.gov.uk/doyourbit.

Notes to editors

1. HSE do your bit website www.hse.gov.uk/doyourbit
2. Research on the effectiveness of worker involvement in reducing workplace risk http://www.hse.gov.uk/involvement/research.htm
3. Case study (a): The Tamdown Group - one of the UK's leading regional civil engineering contracting companies has seen a significant reduction in RIDDOR reportable accidents, with one in 2009, compared with six the previous year. There has also been an increase in near miss and non-injury incident reporting and the added bonus of insurance premiums falling by 25 per cent. Full details: http://www.hse.gov.uk/involvement/doyourbit/case-study-tamdown.htm
4. Case study (b):Manor Fresh, which packs potatoes and vegetables for leading UK retailers, has seen workplace incidents reduce from 78 to 48 over the past three years. This is being attributed to the staff being actively involved in creating a new safety culture, after Manor Fresh was formed from the merger of two companies. The company has also seen a reduction in staff turnover, and sick leave figures are well below the national average. Full details: http://www.hse.gov.uk/involvement/doyourbit/case-study-manor-fresh.htm

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