Occupational health and safety is an interdisciplinary field. We are all responsible for safety and health at work - from employers to every single individual who participates in the work process in any way. The main purpose of health and safety at work is to prevent injuries and incidents at work. Incidents mean economic losses for the employers; the absence of a worker means lower income, and even after the worker returns to work, it may be expected that the worker may need to be reintroduced to his work or offered another job due to severe injuries that may prevent him from performing his original one. Unfortunately, accidents at work can also have long-term consequences for the individual involved in the accident; the injury may impair his professional as well as his private life.
Dealing with, investigating and analysing injuries and accidents at work requires investigators to take a systematic approach to the problem. Accidents at work can be the result of an inadequate work environment or organizational factors, and they are most often the result of a human factor or an incorrect approach to work on the part of employees, ie. routine work, finding shortcuts and disregarding instructions for safe work. That is why it is important that people are educated on and aware of the importance of health and safety at work.
Quality training of employees for safe and healthy work, promotion of a good safety culture of the company, analysis of jobs from a safety point of view, risk assessment and management, and investigation of injuries, accidents and near events are key elements that together form the prevention of accidents at work.
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