Accidents in Industry Workplace

It is a hard fact to bear in mind that accidents in industry workplace are to be avoided or discarded and efforts in this direction has been influenced by two mutually opposing aspects, viz., :

(a) Costs of accident prevention and

(b) Moral regard for human life and well being.

The industry had to pay or compensate for loss of life or injury. Several industries in earlier days came out with compensation in monetary makes after reaching compromises with workers' unions but had to face workers' unrest and strikes. They realized that accidents resulted in greater losses because of loss of working hours and found it more economical to invest in accident prevention programmes and training. Now the legislative safeguards are available in several areas of industrial activities that clearly define the steps to be taken for preventing accidents and their nonexistence is illegal. The laws of compensation in case of accidents are also defined and courts and tribunals as well consider individual cases of dispute taking view of circumstance in which the accident take place.

It has been a wide realization in industry that cost of accident prevention is much more than compensated in terms of reduced cost of compensation after accident, lesser cost of loss of work if dispute arises and the higher productivity of workers if they feel safe. It is still not fortunately believed by small industries that cost of accident prevention is prohibitive end rate of workplace accidents there is higher than in larger industries. Such type of small companies often complains that enactment of new rules for safety will put them out of business. They are inclined perhaps, to refuse the concept of moral regard for human life and injury. For providing compensation the employers can opt for insurance system. Large organizations and government often go for self - insurance. Medium size and small industries will make sure them with some insurance company.