According to Safety BLR, the risks of workplace injury or workplace fatalities can be impacted by how successful a company is. A business that is doing better tends to have a reduced chance of a worker getting hurt on-the-job.
While there are reasons that help to explain why more successful businesses have a better safety record, there is no excuse for this discrepancy. Every employee deserves a safe worksite, even if his employer is not one of the more successful competitors within an industry. No employee should suffer as a result of working for a less successful organization.
Every employee is also entitled to work injury benefits for on-the-job injury, regardless of whether or not the employee works for a top company or for a struggling firm. If an employee is hurt on-the-job, a New York workers’ compensation law firm can provide assistance to the injured victim and his or her family members.
A Company’s Success Correlates to Work Injury Risks for Employees
Safety BLR reported on the link between business success and a company’s work injury rates. The data came from research from the University of Texas at Dallas. University of Texas researchers discovered:
- The rates of injury at a company increase if the company has negative cashflow and decrease if a business has positive cash flow.
- The rates of injury at a company increase if there is a rise in company debt.
- When injury rates rise, firm value decreases.
A big part of the reason this is occurring is because companies that are more successful and have more cash flow have more money to invest in safety initiatives. Investing in safety often costs money. Safety initiatives that help to bring down accident and death rates include more automation for dangerous tasks; spending to maintain equipment; replacing older parts or older machines with newer parts and machines; and spending more money on safety training. Employing more staff, as successful companies tend to do, also means more supervision, which is yet another factor linked to a decline in accident and fatality rates.
Companies that have positive cashflow and that are doing better financially are much more likely to spend on the things that improve both productivity and safety. By contrast, a company that is struggling financially and in debt is usually going to prioritize servicing the debt rather than investing in the types of safety initiatives that keep employees from getting hurt.
Employers need to realize that skimping on safety is a really bad idea, even if the company is having a hard time financially. A workplace injury can lead to workers’ comp claims made with the help of a New York workers’ compensation law firm like Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff. This can raise the cost of insurance. An injury on-the-job could also result in OSHA fines and citations if the Occupational Safety and Health Administration discovers a company was not in compliance with the rules. No company wants to end up paying for all of these costs, when investing in safety is far cheaper and far less likely to lead to tragic outcomes.
