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Articles by Phil Pinnington
A step head: how the right safety footwear reduces workplace slips, trips and falls
Slips, trips and falls remains the most common cause of workplace injuries in the UK, accounting for 31 per cent of all non-fatal workplace injuries reported by employers under the RIDDOR incident reporting regime in 2023/24.1 According to the latest Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics, slips, trips and falls on the same level accounted for almost 18,500 reported cases during the 2023/24 period.
The £11 million sales safety tax: why every business needs to tackle slip risks
Picture this: you’re walking through your workplace, keenly aware of potential slip hazards. You’ve read the memos, attended the safety briefings and even nodded sagely during discussions about the importance of slip prevention. Yet when you spot a small puddle in the corridor, you simply step over it, making a mental note to mention it to someone... eventually.
Health and safety auditing: friend or foe?
When most people hear the word ‘audit’, it’s often met with trepidation. It conjures images of paperwork, inspections and someone pointing out everything that’s wrong. But when it comes to health and safety auditing, is it really the enemy of a productive workplace – or could it be one of its strongest allies? So, why would an occupational health and safety audit be the friend your business didn’t know it needed?
Asbestos Awareness Week
Today, the risks associated with asbestos are well and widely known. We know that even a single airborne fibre risks triggering the development of a range of respiratory conditions, years or even decades later. Whilst the risks from asbestos were well known by the medical field as early as the mid-1920s, public awareness of risk (and therefore our wider societal response) remained low until the early 1990s. The UK went on to ban asbestos in 1999, almost seventy years after its first use.
We all want a future free from falls – so let’s get behind No Falls Week | British Safety Council | British Safety Council
Between 2022 and 2023, 40 workers lost their lives falling while working at height, making this the leading cause of UK workplace deaths that year. Worryingly, this was 11 deaths more than the previous year and 5 deaths above the 5-year average, so it’s clear that action is needed if we want a future free from falls. The picture becomes bleaker still when we review non-fatal injury data, which documents 5,118 worker injuries linked to falling from a height in the workplace.
Employers with tailored work from home strategies will reap rewards, say researchers
Forward-thinking companies that take this into account and adopt an approach that is tailored to individuals, however, will reap the benefits of remote working, researchers say. The Experiences of Working From Home Umbrella Review, led by King’s College London in collaboration with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and published in the Journal of Occupational Health, found many health, wellbeing and productivity benefits associated with working from home, but also numerous downsides.
E-scooters and lithium batteries: the new fire risk for the workplace? | British Safety Council
Over the last six months batteries have regularly made the headlines, with tragic stories of fires and explosions, resulting in injury and loss of life. Each could be traced back to the charging of lithium-ion (Li-on) e-scooters and e-bikes. This begins to underscore the problems posed by these new forms of transport.
Violence and abuse against shop workers up 50 per cent last year, says British Retail Consortium
The BRC is calling for the government to introduce a standalone offence in England and Wales to cover assaults, threatening behaviour and abuse against retail workers specifically, as is the case in Scotland. In 2021, the Scottish Parliament making it an offence to assault, threaten or abuse shop workers, with those convicted of committing such offences liable to imprisonment or a fine.
home and hybrid working
Back at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic I wrote an article. It was titled ‘Home Alone’ and I reflected on the impact of home working during a pandemic and its immediate aftermath. If you’ve read it, I think it is fair to say that some of the questions raised and some of my predictions seem to have now become the norm for many organisations.
Asbestos: a growing challenge for the future?
Today, the risks associated with asbestos are well and widely known. We know that even a single airborne fibre risks triggering the development of a range of respiratory conditions, years or even decades later. Whilst the risks from asbestos were well known by the medical field as early as the mid-1920s, public awareness of risk (and therefore our wider societal response) remained low until the early 1990s. The UK went on to ban asbestos in 1999, almost seventy years after its first use.
home working | remote working
Much has been written and discussed about our working lives post-pandemic. We are shortly to reach a significant milestone, the first anniversary of full-blown home working. Some employers foresaw the likelihood of lockdown and started to plan. Most, however, were forced to switch their businesses to remote working with little or no preparation. It’s fair to say that despite the relaxing of lockdown during the summer months, many employers opted to maintain the home working model for many employees.
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