SPOTLIGHT
ELECTRICAL ACCIDENTS
CONTINUE TO FALL
By Paul Reeve CFIOSH, ECA
Director of Business.
I
n terms of safety at work, the electrotechnical industry
has been on a challenging but remarkable journey over
the past 16 years. Back in 2001, then Deputy Prime
Minister John Prescott issued construction industry leaders
with a warning, giving them six months to achieve a step
change in onsite safety, or be required to do so through
new legislation. As part of an industry-wide response, the
electrotechnical sector created the ‘ZAP’ safety campaign,
which successfully steered, supported and documented
major improvements in safety performance.
In the years since the so-called ‘Prescott Summit’,
the electrotechnical industry (including electrical, fire,
datacomms and more) has shown long term, continual
improvement in safety. The annual JIB Survey of Accidents
at Work, based mainly on statistics from ECA members,
clearly demonstrates a remarkable trend of improvement in
the ‘Accident Incidence Rate’ (see graph).
Overall, there were responses from 209 companies to
the 2016 JIB report. In terms of the respondents with over
31 operatives (the annual, statistically significant, reference
sample), there were 98 companies, employing a total of
13,864 operatives and apprentices.
The results of this sample group showed that the 2016
Accident Incidence Rate (AIR) for RIDDOR-reportable
accidents was only 14 per cent of what it was when ZAP
began in 2001. All other things being equal, this means a
worker in the electrotechnical industry was, in 2016, seven
times less likely to have a reportable accident at work
than in 2001. There were no reported fatalities from
electrotechnical businesses in the 2016 survey findings.
The fall in accident rate is the result of an industry-wide
effort from member companies and their employees, and
the ECA and Unite, notably through the now-completed
‘ZAP’ initiative. Significantly, the rate of improvement
since 2001 is around double than that seen in the wider
construction industry, and while we should note that much
of what ECA members do includes maintenance, in addition
to onsite construction, the benefits are the same.
Paul Reeve CFIOSH, ECA Director of Business
The ECA continues to use data collected from the
survey to identify areas for action that will further reduce
the number of accidents, in pursuit of a safer, and more
productive, industry. The accident information is freely
available, and is also passed on to the HSE. We are,
however, talking about worker safety, so there is no room
for complacency. There were still some serious injuries in
2016, and falls - the original target of the ZAP campaign
- were once again reported as the most common type of
serious injury.
‘The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974’ sets out
the general, but essential, requirements for employers
to ensure the health and safety of their employees, and
anyone who may be affected by their work. Employers
are also required to carry out ‘suitable and sufficient’ risk
assessments, to identify measures that eliminate or control
risks in the workplace.
As part of its package of support for members, the
ECA has developed eRAMS, an easy-to-use online risk
assessment and method statement e-tool. eRAMS is free
to ECA members, and it is now commercially available
via CHAS to all other construction and maintenance
contractors, to support their own drive to reduce workplace
accidents.
For more information on eRAMS and how it can help your business, please visit:
www.eca.co.uk/business-industry-support/health-safety/risk-assessments-method-statements/erams.aspx
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HSE INTERNATIONAL