Major injury at work figure falls by 38%

Far fewer hotel and catering staff are suffering injuries at work than previously, but the number of inspections has also fallen, according to statistics from the Health & Safety Commission (HSC).

Its provisional figures for the 12 months from April 2000 to March 2001 reveal a 38% drop in the number of employees who reported a major injury. The number of cases fell to 481 from 779 the previous year.

The level of less serious injuries requiring at least three days' absence from work declined by 29% to 2,186 from 3,103.

The figures for hospitality reflect a general downward trend in the number of accidents at work in all sectors. But the HSC identified a worrying increase in fatalities. A total of 43 people died - seven in hotel and catering - compared with 32 deaths the previous year on the premises of local authority-enforced businesses.

The number of visits made by environmental inspectors to hotels and catering businesses fell from 97,000 in 1999 to 90,000 last year, but the number of premises visited increased by 1,000 to 217,000.

The number of full-time local authority enforcement officers fell by 8%, and the commission expressed concern over the decline in environmental health trainees entering the profession.

Alan Plom, head of the enforcement branch of the HSC's local authority unit, admitted that the decrease in reported injuries might be the result of the reduced number of inspectors and inspections, but said it was impossible to prove. "Taken to its conclusion, if there were no inspectors, there would be no reported injuries," he said.

Plom believed the downward trend in injuries was "genuine" and added: "While the fall in the number of inspectors is worrying, it is also true that their work has become much more focused on the hazards - slips and trips, and falls from heights - that cause the greatest number of accidents."

by Ben Walker

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 13-19 September 2001