What do these two things have in common?
Both high heels and pillow fights are the cause of some of the injuries that occur in the 1.7 million ACC new claims each year. These injuries can occur anywhere at anytime with over 10% or 178,141 of the total new ACC claims each year being work related injuries.
ACC have completed an ‘Injury Face-Off’ quiz below to find out:
Which do you think were involved in more injuries in 2013….
1. High Heels or Gumboots?
2. Pillow Fights or arm wrestling?
3. Air guitar or dancing the tango?
4. Elevators or escalators?
5. Cats or dogs?
6. Christmas Day or New Year’s Day?
7. Boating or golf?
8. Men or women?
9. Fishing or hunting
10. Staplers or scissors?
Scroll down for the answers; some of these may surprise you!
These claims relate to all ACC injuries but a large number of these (maybe not dancing the tango) have the potential to occur in your workplace.
ACC have some simple tips to help us Kiwis prevent injuries occurring in your workplace, your home and on the road:
At home and work:
• Wipe up spills as soon as they happen
• Run power cords along walls, not across walkways
• Fasten loose rugs and mats to the floor
On the road:
• Don’t exceed posted speed limits
• Don’t drink and drive
• Drive to conditions
And in case you are wondering, here are the answers to the quiz:
1. High heels, 780 claims (Gumboots, 741 claims)
2. Pillow fights, 45 claims (Arm wrestling, seven claims)
3. Dancing the tango, 15 claims (Air guitar, zero claims)
4. Escalators, 447 claims (Elevators, 85 claims)
5. Dogs, 18,461 claims (Cats, 6451 claims).
6. New Year’s Day, 5,251 claims (Christmas Day 3,119 claims).
7. Golf, 6,482 claims (Boating, 3,309 claims)
8. Men, 959,509 claims (Women, 824,562 claims)
9. Fishing, 2,976 claims (Hunting, 1,306 claims)
10. Scissors, 1,098 claims (Staplers, 528 claims)
All claims are costing ACC $7 million daily. Then there is all the additional costs to your organisation or yourself if you are injured and unable to work.
....So next time you pick up a stapler or put on your favourite pair of gumboots or high heels be careful out there! - Help save New Zealanders’ money – taxpayers, employers, employees alike with a little planned consideration, prevention and care at both home and the workplace!!
Health & Safety isn't exactly a topic that people are normally excited about! So often we see companies who think they have H&S processes in place, or don’t need to worry about that ‘rubbish’. They are of the “if it’s bigger than you, get out of its way” school of thought.
Unfortunately this can’t be the case any more.
To protect your employees and your company, you need a robust H&S Management System.
This covers the processes to follow should an accident, or just as importantly, a Safety Incident occur. Safety Incidents (some people call them near misses) should be reported to enable remedial action to be taken to prevent possible injury in the future. This is where most companies fall over – staff don’t see the “Hell!.. that was close….” situation as being important to report.
But that precariously stacked box, which almost landed on your toe today, could be the box which causes a serious head injury to your not so fortunate colleague tomorrow.
Once a Health and Safety Management System has been developed and implemented, companies are then eligible to apply for accreditation through ACC’s Workplace Safety Management Practices (WSMP) programme. The process isn't too scary – it usually involves an auditor checking the H&S Management System currently in place, and rating your performance according to three levels. If you meet the required standards, you’ll be eligible for a substantial discount to your ACC levies! The levels and discounts range from Primary (10%), Secondary (15%) and Tertiary (20%). There are no fixed rules regarding who can apply, however, this programme is more suited to larger businesses that have:
Alternatively there is an ACC Safety Discounts Programme available to smaller business or self-employed people. Successful organisations could receive a 10% discount on ACC levies.
Think of your workplace and employees as an extension of your family – you need to put safety measures in place to protect them! You wouldn't let your children sleep in a house without working smoke detectors, or drive around in a car that doesn't have a warrant of fitness…would you?
by Kay Bradley
