We want falling accident rates - not falling workers

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Health & Safety October 29 2018
CWU area safety reps and their management counterparts will be carrying out a series of ‘spot-checks’ at Royal Mail delivery units around the country next week, as the union and the business jointly launch a safety campaign targeting slips, trips and falls.

“In the 2017/18 working year, there were 137 deaths in the workplace and 621,000 injuries, many as a result of slips trips and falls, and if we have a bad winter the risks will increase further,” says Dave Joyce, CWU national health, safety and environment officer.

The Slips, Trips & Falls campaign starts on Monday November 5th, with visits to selected workplaces – chosen on the basis of the highest impacting units – to raise awareness of the risks our hardworking delivery members can face on duty.

“This initiative will focus on four key areas that can reduce risk of injury,” says Dave, who lists preparation, identification, assessment and compliance as the crucial strands of the campaign.

“It’s about firstly working out how best to prepare, identifying what the potential hazards are, making sure that the walk risk assessments and dynamic risk assessments are carried out, and fully complying with the appropriate safe system of work (SSOW),” he explained, adding: “We don’t want members taking unnecessary risks.”

Slips, Trips and Falls will feature in worktime listening and learning (WTLL) sessions, and displayed on workplace posters, while the specific deployment of the campaign in the selected units will be tracked to measure the ongoing success of the campaign.

“Please watch out for STF information and activities in your unit and please help to spread the word about safe working,” Dave urged.

With winter on its way, and the increasing potential hazards of outdoor duties, we want to work together to try to make sure that it’s the accident and injury statistics that fall – not the workers.”

Dave concluded: “It’s a busy time for our area safety reps in Royal Mail presently as we also launched a joint Dog Safety High Impact Unitscampaign last month and our ASRs are doing a great job concentrating on these key issues that cause high injury numbers amongst our members.”

For further information, please contact your unit or branch area safety rep and/or please see LTB 574 (STF) & 573 (Dogs)