The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has criticised Health and Safety Executive proposals aimed at relaxing the rules for reporting workplace injuries.
The HSE closes its consultation on proposals to amend the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations today, recommending that employers would only have to report injuries which result in absences for seven working days or more.
Under the current RIDDOR rules reports have to be written if a member of staff is forced to miss three working days.
According to the HSE, an employer would save £7.91 for each report not submitted.
Commenting on the proposals, David Bott, Apil president (pictured), said: “This step is a real worry because it could make employers more blasé about workers’ safety.
“The HSE has effectively proposed a trade-off between workers’ safety and a saving for a business of £7.91 per report,” said Mr Bott. “It is a pitiful sum when you set it against the value of preventing a serious injury.”
Mr Bott added: “Valuable lessons can be learned by the mistakes of the past. Watering down the rules which help ensure workers’ safety will only expose them to risk of further harm.
“The best way to cut costs is to cut the negligence which causes needless injury in the first place. If a company currently finds itself spending lots of time and money submitting RIDDOR reports, then clearly that business may have serious health and safety issues which need to be addressed.”
Source: PostOnline
