The key themes highlighted in the 2012 Annual Report were;
There were 48 work-related deaths reported to the Authority in 2012, an 11% decrease from the 54 reported in 2011. Of these fatalities, 42 involved workers. 22 of the fatalities in 2012 involved self-employed persons (similar to 2011), including 17 farmers.
13,835 workplace inspections and investigations were carried out in 2012 (5% higher than originally targeted). 6% of inspections resulted in formal enforcement action taken.
The Construction and Agriculture sectors had the highest number of inspections, with 3,932 & 3,136 respectively. This was in line with the Authority’s risk based approach to resource allocation.
There were 20 prosecutions concluded with sentence and fines totaling €425,000 and an 18-month suspended imposed.
There were over 11,000 businesses using the free safety management tool ‘BeSMART’ by December 2012.The ‘Taking Care of Business’ initiative for small and medium enterprises continued to provide information and advice to the sector.
As part of the Authority’s chemicals regulation programme, a joint initiative with the National Poison Centre helped initiate an industry led ‘voluntary product stewardship programme’ regarding detergent liquitabs and incidents with children. This involves commitments to change the packaging to reduce the visibility of the capsules and restrict access to the capsules by small children.
The key themes highlighted in the Statistics Summary for 2011 – 2012 were;
The worker fatality rate, as at 31 December 2012, was 2.3 per 100,000 workers.
There were 6,619 non-fatal injuries reported in 2012, representing a 5% decrease in the numbers reported, for the second year running.
The Human Health and Social Work sector recorded the highest number of non-fatal injuries reported (20%). The Manuafacturing sector was the next highest with 17% of reports.
As in previous years manual handling inuries were the most common non-fatal injury account for approximately one third of all injuries. Slips, trips and falls was the second most common accident trigger (18%)
Martin O’Halloran, CEO of the Authority, said, “I am pleased at the way that we have been able to vary our approach to gain maximum impact in relation to workplace safety and health and chemicals regulation. The use of guidance, advice and assistance as the primary tools of engagement means that formal enforcement and prosecutions are taken only when necessary. It also conveys an important message, we want to work with all enterprises, but those that disregard the safety and health of workers will be penalised.”
Source HSA.ie
