How to Prevent Slips and Trips at your Workplace

All companies in the UK are supposed to maintain an ‘Accident Book’. This book maintains records of all accidents that may have kept employees for working three days or more.

The book is maintained primarily for the benefit of the employees, as it provides a useful record for claiming compensation later on, as well as taking measures to prevent those accidents in the future.

But it’s not just the employees who are responsible for reporting workplace injuries. You as an employer are responsible too. According to the Reporting of injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR), employers are supposed to report work-related injuries to their local authority or the Health and Safety Executive, and provide sick pay and compensation. Not only that, it is your responsible to perform a thorough risk assessment and take all possible measures to prevent work-place injuries. If you fail to do so, you will be held liable by the court.

You can find out more about work-place injuries by visiting GOV.UK.

One of the leading causes of work-place injury is slipping and tripping. Here are some ways in which you can prevent them from happening in your workplace:

Janitorial Practices

Slips mainly happen because of wet flooring surfaces, which can only be prevented by good janitorial practises. If your organization is well-maintained and cleaned, it means that it is following a well set-out safety program.

Cleaning practices should be done on a routine basis. Follow these steps to ensure good cleaning and mitigate risks of accidents:

1. Assess areas that have high foot traffic and the number of times in day they may need cleaning.
2. Delegate responsibilities to individuals to perform the required tasks.
3. Ensure that the tasks are being performed on a daily basis with proper supervision.

Maintaining Slippery Surfaces

There are some areas that tend to be more slippery than others. These include:

• Parking lots
• Bathrooms
• Sidewalks
• Food preparation rooms
• Tiled floors

The maintenance activities that are necessary for these areas include:

• Keeping these areas in good repair condition
• Suspend use of these areas in extreme conditions, like snow fall or rain
• Display “wet surface” warning signs when cleaning is in progressive
• Put up mats and rugs on entrances and exits
• Have emergency spill cleaning equipment on standby

Prevention of Tripping Incidents

Other than slipping, tripping is another thing that causes a lot of work-place accidents. The only way to avoid this accident is to conduct frequent inspections to identify the areas where there is a risk of tripping. Other than that, keeping things in the passageways, storerooms, and other service rooms in an orderly fashion is important to prevent tripping.

Giving the employees awareness about the risk of slipping and tripping is another way to prevent work-place injuries. Ensure that your employees know:

• the high-risk areas,
• the shoes that they are required to wear
• the precautions that they must take when going into certain areas

We are one of the leading solicitation services in the UK and help individuals in personal injury claims. You can also contact us to learn more about your responsibilities as an employer and the potential liability you can face in case one of your employees is injured.