Aussies are ‘best dressed’ in PPE, but keep falling over

The General Mat Company reports that more than 17% of workplace injuries are caused by “slips and falls on the same level”. A further 24% of all major workplace injuries 2007/2008 were back injuries.

Of all workplace back injuries, 92% of permanent disability injuries involved sprains and strains. (WorkCover NSW - Workers Compensation Statistics 2007/2008.) This is why anti-fatigue matting is so important.

The NSW Workers Compensation Statistics for 2007/2008 - the most recent survey for NSW - mentions falls, trips and slips as a major cause of injury. Some 987 claims incurred approximately $16,245,000 gross incurred costs.

“It’s obvious to me that employers spend a fortune protecting their workers from their feet up, but apparently some ignore safety measures on the floor beneath them, the lack of which causes the fall,” states Michael Siegle, Managing Director of The General Mat Company (GMC). “In NSW alone - with the WorkCover Authority of NSW increasing fines for unsafe floors by as much as five times what they were previously - some employers have great reason to take a hard look at the floor provided for their employees.

“WorkCover’s handbook ‘Preventing Slips’, a trips and falls-guidance note, contains numerous suggestions as to the best ways to combat the problem. In some ways, from the ground up, employees in the Australian workforce are kitted out to the highest possible standard in the world but it is the floor beneath all this attire which has raised serious doubts about the safety of our workplaces.”

The Occupational Health and Safety Act 1983 states: “If persons, while working, are required to stand in substantially the same position on a floor or brick, concrete, metal, stone or other similar material, the floor (or part where persons stand while working) must be covered, where practicable, with a semi-resilient, thermally non-conductive material.”

Siegle adds: “Considering these are merely the figures for one state of Australia (NSW), one can only imagine the enormity of the injury factor on a national basis attributed to slips, trips and falls. Floors may always be in view, but as they are constantly under our feet we tend to overlook them and the importance of ensuring they are covered with material to embody safety.

“Even merely standing on a floor without adequate cover has been responsible for many personal strain injuries which ended up as costly compensation claims.”