Directors & Officers

The Cost of Accidents and Ill-Health

Each year over 1 million injuries and 2.3 million cases of ill-health are experienced by staff, around 40 million working days are lost to illness, and over 25 000 individuals are forced to give up work because of injury or ill health.

This costs employers up to £6.5 billion each year of work.

The impact on your organisation

• Sickness costs the employer £534 per employee per year.
• Indirect costs of sickness such as absences costs the employer double the direct costs per employee per year.
• The cost for sickness per employee is £1,600 - roughly 9% of the standard payroll costs.
• The cost of work-related ill-health in the water industry was found to be £8,650.
• The average cost of hand/arm vibration syndrome was determined to be £11,498.
• The average cost of work-related upper limb disorder was determined to be £5,251.
• In a transport company studied by the HSE, the costs of accidents were equivalent to 1/3 of its annual profits.

All of these occupationally related conditions occurred across many industries. The above values show what they might be costing you.

Time away from work following injury

It is difficult to predict how long a person may be off for any particular injury. However, information from the 2000/01 Labour force survey shows that:

• Over half (52.8%) of all people who are injured are off work for one/two weeks.
• Nearly a quarter (23.1%) of all people who are injured will be off work for two weeks plus.

But I have insurance for this, don't I?

Many employers believe the costs of incidents are covered by their insurance but this isn't necessarily the case.

Costs not covered by insurance

• Loss of time
• Sick pay
• Damage or loss of product and raw materials
• Repairs to plant and equipment
• Extra wages, overtime working and temporary labour
• Production delays
• Investigation time
• Fines
• Loss of contracts
• Legal costs
• Loss of business reputation
• Improvements to worthy practices
• Overtime payments
• Cost of repairs
• Cost of extra materials
• Fines and penalties

Case Study - Engineering Accident

A worker was using an unguarded drilling machine in a small engineering company. His jumper caught on the drill entangling his arm. Both bones in his lower arm were broken and he suffered extensive tissue and muscle injury. He underwent major surgery and was off work for three months. On his return he was placed on administrative duties for five months and was unable to operate machinery for eight months.

The managing director was prosecuted following the incident.

Useful Contacts

HSE Books

HSE priced and free publications are readily available by mail order from:

HSE Books
PO Box 1999
Sudbury
Suffolk
CO10 2WA

Website: www.hsebooks.co.uk

HSE priced publications are also available from bookshops.

May 2007