The Importance of a Safety Plan as it Relates to

Workman’s Compensation
Mandy Sidelinger

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the associated monetary costs of

Workman’s Compensation as it relates to the adoption and implementation of a

business’s overall safety plan. Employers are searching for ways to reduce costs

without negatively impacting their workforce or work process. The best way to keep

Workman’s Compensation costs under control is to prevent workplace injuries from

occurring in the first place. This paper examines the history of Workman’s

Compensation, the legal and governmental implications, and the challenges and

techniques used to promote a safe working environment.

Keywords: Workers’ compensation, Safety plan, Correlations

Introduction

Workman's Compensation is frequently disparaged as a costly component of

doing business in today’s litigious world. Companies must continually analyze the

cost of workers’ compensation as it affects their overall profit margin and question

whether or not a stringent safety program is advantageous to trimming this financial

burden. The desire to save time and money in the manufacturing industry is critical to
the financial security of a business. Preventing injuries without impeding the

manufacturing process is critical to a businesses’ triumph. A detailed and

comprehensive safety plan is fundamental to significantly reducing Workman’s

Compensation claims, decreasing lost-time accidents in the workplace, and improving

employee morale thereby increasing overall productivity.

Initially proposed to furnish both the employer and the injured employee with a

harmonious solution when a workplace injury occurred, in today’s society, Workman’s

Compensation tends to prevail in outcomes in controversial disputes and costly legal

action for business owners. Fraudulent claims, fear of skyrocketing premiums, and

confusing litigation procedures often complicate the situation causing additional

animosity and workplace stress. There also are shifts toward employees simulating

injury to receive benefits without having to work as normal wage levels, and some

corporations have begun to shy away from providing the compensation benefits to

legitimately injured workers in fear that their insurance premiums will sky-rocket.

Prevention of injury, illness, and disease should be built into all companies’ strategic

planning, and collective agreements.

Literature Review

There have been previous research studies that reinforce the idea of

association between a strong safety initiative and worker’s compensation. Be it

economic arguments or the uncertainty of information provided by OSHA or through

company safety plans, all show a strong cause for the most stringent safety

management and having a tailor-made safety program.

Workmen's Compensation and Occupational Safety Under Imperfect Information:

In the research done by Samuel A. Rea (1981), it is denoted that there is a

“common framework” for the analysis of government safety regulations, worker’s

compensation, and disability rights. He portrayed the reality that there are many

imperfections in many company’s systems. This included the idea that employees

have a false sense of how risky their job is, and the amount of influence they actually

have over the amount of risk that is taken. It has also been proven that it can be very

difficult, without proper safety management, to monitor the precautionary steps taken

by employees. Rea’s (1981) research also stated the safety program values in

containing moral hazards taken in by employees and aiding in employees’

understanding so to not underestimate risks taken. Finally, with safety plans in

association with worker’s compensation were displayed in a model proving that even

with safety plans lacking all useful information, worker’s compensation premiums

will still lower and less claims will be made due to a strong focus by all employees on

safety.

Workers' Compensation and the Distribution of Occupational Injuries

John Ruser (1993) also reinforced the significance of injury rate values

impacted by workers’ compensation. He also brought up and proved the point of the
injury severity being affected by workers’ compensation. Ruser’s (1993) research

included econometric models that displayed direct correlation between the amount of

injuries for a wide range of manufacturing corporations with worker’s compensation

rates. It was stated that Ruser (1993) “found that higher benefits increase the

frequencies of most nonfatal injuries, but reduce the number of fatalities.” This

concludes the flaw of workers’ compensation, that employees have the feeling of

“security” by having such benefits. This in turn leads employees to actually lose sight

of the importance of safety procedures, without proper reinforcement and constant

training.

Occupational Disease and Workers' Compensation: Coverage, Costs, and

Consequences

This research by J. Paul Leigh and John A. Robbins (2004) stated that

preventative measures including safety regulations and OSHA permissible exposure

limits (PELs) could reduce the number of occupational disease fatalities that are not

covered by workers' compensation. The authors researched many epidemiological

studies and estimated the deaths and costs of death in workplace diseases such as job-

related cancer and chronic respiratory disease. These estimates were compared to the

costs and deaths that workers’ compensation had covered. The authors found a

startling amount of deaths “missed” by workers’ compensation. Roughly 46,000 to

93,000 deaths and up to $23 billion in medical costs that stemmed from job related

diseases were not covered by workers’compensation (Leigh and Robbins 2004). This
correlation shows that although the flaw in the workers’ compensation system does

not always cover work-related disease, these deaths could be reduced by a company’s

industrial health and safety awareness. By proposing training and proper personal

protective equipment, employees could reduce exposure to hazards that could prevent

these diseases.

History

Internationally, the first Workman’s Compensation Act was passed in England

in 1897 only to be preceded by Germany’s Sickness and Accident Laws of 1884

(Guyton). However, the history of workman’s compensation actually dates back

thousands of years prior. The law of Ur issued monetary recompense for definite

injury to workers' “body parts”, including skeletal fractures. The Code of Hammurabi

that dates back to 1750 B.C. also provided for compensation for undeviating

impairments and injuries and. Ancient Greek, Roman, Arab, and Chinese law

provided defined payments for difference parts of the human body (Guyton). As the

Middle Ages feudalistic form of government took hold, the feudal lord was the final

determiner of any recompense deserved by the injured employee. The more

principled the lord, the more humanely and generously the injured serf would be

treated.

As English Common Law of the Middle Ages developed, a legalized structure

spread through Europe based on three principles, which were contributory negligence,

the “fellow servant” rule, and the assumption of risk (Guyton). The employer could
not be held liable if the employee had any responsibility in the resulting injury.

Likewise, if the injury sustained was caused in any way by a fellow employee, the

employer bore no responsibility under the “fellow servant” rule. Finally, if it could be

decided that a worker “assumed” responsibility for a dangerous occupation when

accepting the job offer, then the employer could not be held responsible since the

worker had assumed the job knowing the dangers that it entailed.

Those injured during the Industrial Revolution had few alternatives other than

attempting to deal directly with the employer. If that failed, the other available option

was to pursue a civil lawsuit that very infrequently weighed in on behalf of the

employee. As the compensation laws in Europe took hold, the United States followed

suit with the first workers' compensation laws in 1908, which applied solely to the

federal workforce (Jie). Then in 1911, Wisconsin became the first state to establish a

comprehensive compensation system, which became the basis of modern workers'

compensation laws (Jie).

After Wisconsin's law was introduced, other states rapidly implemented

comparable legislation. The fundamental concept of this system was to guarantee that

an injured worker would receive prompt and adequate medical case as well as just

compensation for lost wages. Under this system the employer liability would be

limited. These laws gave assurance to not only workers but also employers that their

rights would be protected. This resulted in employee productivity increases because

of the new found protection of the employees; which arose from the fact employers

had a vested financial interested in their workers. Any injured employees caused
workers' compensation premiums to spike, which caused employers to truly be forced

to want to protect their workers. (Guyton).

Governmental Impact

The workers' compensation system has remained comparatively unchanged

since its initiation until the Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act

in 1970 and the American with Disabilities Act in 1990. The Occupational Safety

and Health Act of 1970 was primarily created to protect workers from incidents that

were preventable. Three governmental agencies, National Institute for Occupational

Safety and Health, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Bureau of

Labor Statistics, worked together to initiate this process. The National Institute for

Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducts health and safety research,

provides educational tools for workers, and creates recommendations for the best

safety practices for particular industries. The Occupational Safety and Health

Administration, OSHA, is the enforcer of regulations for safety and health in the work

environment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS, tracks data connected to employee

incidents including illnesses and fatalities (Guyton).

American with Disabilities Act took was enacted in 1990. The Americans with

Disabilities Act was passed by the federal government to forbid employers,

governments, other agencies and labor unions from discriminating against people

with disabilities in the hiring process. This Act is considered interconnected to

workers' compensation since employers are required to make reasonable

accommodations for disabled employees and disabled individuals may take legal

action if they are later wrongfully terminated because of the debilitating injury

(Adams).

Current Challenges in Today’s Implementation

Managers overall agree that reducing the severity and frequency of workplace

incidents in a key result of a well-defined safety plan. These numbers are definite and

are easy to measure using correlative models. However, managers can come to a

“road block” when prevention and avoidance of injury are mentioned.

One problem in this case is the views of so many different experts with so

many different answers. Some find it hard to establish a direct cause-and-effect

relationship between a safety program’s specificity and an employee incident

avoidance.

Many corporations find this problem in their efforts to create a unified “sense

of safety.” Such as, a mandated safety program cannot 100% ensure that there will be

no incidences. With large corporations with many locations, it can be hard to ensure

that all managers follow a well-thought out training program without some variation.

However, referring to Figure 1, “maintaining a good safety record for at least

two or three years can reduce a company's workers' comp and general liability

insurance (GLI) premiums by as much as 40%”, according to Bill Thomas (2008), a

well known safety specialist. This figure reveals the decrease in claims in Texas as

more stringent safety programs were implemented.

Legal and Economic Implications

In the legal term of worker’s compensation an employee is automatically

entitled to some form of compensation whenever an accident in which they are

involved happens in the work environment. Sometimes lawsuits can still arise out of

workers’ compensation cases. The two main types of settlements are “Stipulated

Finding and Award”, in which an agreement is reached without a judge but has the

same results as a courtroom trial, and “Compromise and Release” which can

completely close the case (Thomas)

Another slight problem with some worker’s compensation cases is the

statutory compensation law that states the amount and form of compensation an

injured employee is entitled to. The problem is that employers can actually buy

insurance against that statute Secondly; the statute offers a “set amount” based on

injury types. If a worker is able to find employment up to a partial level of capacity,

that is what their payouts will be based upon.

There is also a flaw in the “light-duty” aspect of worker’s compensation,

because an employer could say that no light duty could exist for that worker and state

the worker is not able to fulfill duties. This can force employees seeking

compensation back to court many times.

 A final and the most major issue are the fraudulent cases that are filed by

employees looking to benefit monetarily by stating an injury is worse than it actually

is, or completely faking an injury all together. The cost of investigating the incident as

well off-site monitoring of the “injured” employee, can become an additional cost to

the employer.

Innovative Techniques/Corrective Measures

A comprehensive safety plan can not only prevent injuries in the workplace

but can also significantly reduce Workman’s Compensation claims. Workers'

compensation insurance holders can change the base rates derived from numerous

factors. The most integral factor is the employer's safety history. The cost of the

premium is directly correlated to the expected costs of future incidents. If previous

accidents have had lower costs, the future costs can be expected to also be lower. This

leads to lower premium rates charges to the companies. This portrays the economic

incentives to employers to have preventative measures against accidents.

The “Domino Effect” takes over at this point, and as Workman’s

Compensation claims decrease, then a decrease in lost-time accidents in the

workplace are noted. As accidents decrease this leads to improved employee and

employer morale and ultimately overall productivity increases. This leads to a win-

win situation in the workplace for all involved.

Research Methodology

A comprehensive safety plan encourages safe working behavior in employees

by emphasizing the use of safety procedures and proper equipment. There are a

variety of reasons why accidents occur in the workplace. Equipment-related accidents

are likely to occur when the equipment does not have optimal operation or when

workers use equipment in which they are not accurately trained to run. Equipment

safety procedures should be instituted in the work environment not only to keep the

equipment functioning properly, but also to keep employees safe.

Preventive-maintenance programs aid in keeping equipment in the best and

safest condition and allow maintenance teams to detect avertable hazards.

Maintenance employees must schedule routine maintenance of equipment. Crews

may be able to detect potential problems in advance thereby avoiding down time for

repairs and possible employee injury from improperly working equipment. This can

be followed up with a preventative maintenance plan that allows for the testing of

bearings, gears, engines and electrical wires to be tested on a regularly scheduled

basis as well as periodic testing while the equipment is in full operation (Adams).

Employees’ safety is further ensured by implementing personal protective

equipment procedures into equipment safety processes. Respirators, appropriate head

gear, durable footwear such as steel-toed boots, eye protection, and gloves are

examples of personal protective equipment that are essential to safeguard workers and

prevent on the job accidents. Adamantly ensuring that workers that use any type of
equipment wear PPE when running the machine they are trained on, filing PPE under

sections in a company’s safety manual, as well as the topic of discussion at regularly

scheduled safety meetings can prove beneficial in accident prevention. When

employees are working with equipment in the work environment, they should be

wearing PPE and be properly inspected as to if they are adequately “dressed” on any

extreme occasions.

Constant reinforcement is necessary to ensure that employees realize the

company’s commitment to the safety plan. Clearly posted notices in break rooms and

common areas notifying employees that personal protective equipment are necessary

to serve as a constant reminder of the importance of this gear. Employers should

consider providing the gear for their employees. This shows that upper management

is supporting the safety foundation of the business.

Instruction manuals that detail safety procedures are another critical

component of a safety plan. It is best to organize different information into various

sections. This leads to ease of understanding and increased comprehension by

employees. Graphics should be included for additional clarification, and if needed,

equipment can be label or color-coded to match the printed detailed safety procedure.

It is necessary to include procedural requirements to follow in case of machinery

failure. Measures should be in place so that malfunctioning equipment or machinery

reported immediately to the floor supervisor, employer, or machinery mechanics.

There should also be procedures in place for the proper disposal of hazardous and

waste materials.
 Along with a written accident plan, employees need to be taught to respond

quickly in times of emergency. Employees need to be aware of fire alarms,

emergency exits, and the location and proper use of first aid kits. Instruction in safety

procedures should not be limited to new hires. Ongoing educational planning and

long-term training plans ensure that safety remains foremost in the minds of

employees, supervisors, and management teams. The end result is more cohesive

work environments that promote a philosophy of safety and helps the company

qualify for safety discount programs that help employers provide a safe workplace

and while earning a premium discount on their Workman’s Compensation insurance

package.

Employee education and training must include an orientation plan for new hires as

well as continued training for those who have completed their probationary periods.

Many OSHA standards explicitly require management to train employees and inform

them of the safety and health concerns surrounding their job. There are also OSHA

regulations that state the employer’s responsibility is to limit certain job assignments

specifically to employees who are “certified.” This generally refers to the fact that

these employees have had special training either on the job site or outside of the

workplace environment. These requirements replicate the belief that training is an

integral part of every workplace’s safety and health program to protect workers from

accidents and fatalities.

Results and Discussions

 As workers receive additional ongoing training they are better able to manage

their jobs in an efficient and safe manner. As equipment and processes become more

complex, the hazards associated with them become more multifaceted also. To maintain

stability in the workplace, risk factors must be minimized and employees must be

protected. One example shown below is to prepare a complete safety manual. Safety of

employees is of paramount importance to a company for smooth functioning of the

operations.

As a final demonstration of the methodology used, a specific safety plan and

incident reporting guide that I have made is included:

SAFETY POLICY
COMPANY
Title: Safety Program
Effected: All Effective Date: 11/2/2010
Approved By: Approved Date: 11/2/2010

1.0 Safety Policy

• COMPANY is committed to providing all employees with a healthy and safe

work environment. We are also responsible for ensuring adequate controls of

health and safety risks arising from work activities. This responsibility for the

health and safety is not compromised by production or any other issues. This

commitment extends to all visitors to COMPANY including customers,

 contractors, and temporary workers, as well as members of the general public

who might be affected by our operations.

• COMPANY strives to reduce the severity and frequency of workplace

injuries, illnesses, and near - misses. Reasonable practical measures are taken

to minimize or eliminate any significant safety or health impacts found.

• COMPANY is committed to establishing processes for communication

between employees and management on safety issues. We continually update

employees on all Health and Safety issues. This communication includes, but

is not limited to clients and any subcontractors when applicable.

• COMPANY strives to maintain full compliance with all safety and health

regulations applicable to our manufacturing activities. This same attention to

regulatory compliance is expected from our vendors and contractors with

respect to the products and services they provide.

• To ensure the ongoing success of our Safety Program we continually monitor

process effectiveness and take pro-active steps to detect and correct any

unsafe acts or working conditions. We evaluate new and existing materials,

equipment, manufacturing and construction related activities to determine and

correct any significant safety and/or health impacts found.

 • COMPANY provides all safety equipment, protective clothing, and personal

protective equipment needed to perform job related tasks safely. In addition

COMPANY provides required instruction, training, supervision and other

relevant health and safety information to employees. We ensure all employees

are competent in the work related activates they are engaged in. All employees

are encouraged to take reasonable care for the health and safety of him /

herself, and fellow employees. All individuals are encouraged to report any

hazard which cannot be controlled personally to appropriate personnel.

• COMPANY takes appropriate steps to plan for, and protect our employees in

the event of a fire, natural disaster, workplace violence or similar emergency.

• Failure of any employee(s) / individual(s) to comply with the requirements of

the COMPANY safety program will result in appropriate actions being taken.

These actions may include but are not limited to disciplinary actions.

• The above is summarized in the General Safety Policy:

(Safety begins with an attitude and progresses to a culture)

2.0 GENERAL
 2.1 Definitions:

2.1.1 Visitor – Any customer, vendor, contractor, delivery / shipping

person, service / utility person, salesperson, business affiliate/associate,

temporary employee, visiting COMPANY employee, or guest whose

presence is known and authorized by location management.

2.2 References:

2.2.1 Illness & Injury Reporting

2.3 Forms:

2.3.1 None

3.0 PROCEDURE

3.1 The reduction of incident frequency and severity

3.1.1 One of the objectives of the COMPANYs Safety Program is to

continually reduce the frequency and severity of workplace injuries

illnesses. Our ultimate goal is to achieve and maintain an incident-free

work place.

3.1.2 COMPANY strives to reduce and maintain both plant and

corporate-wide OSHA Recordable Incident Rates at a level below

industry average.
 3.1.3 Investigate record and report all workplace injuries / illnesses and

near – miss incidents, so that the root cause is identified, worker’s

compensation and regulatory requirements are fulfilled, and necessary

corrective action(s) can be implemented.

3.1.4 Incident reduction is one of the major responsibilities of the Site

Management Team, and Safety Committee. When an incident occurs

employees are assigned specific responsibilities related to reporting,

incident investigation, counseling, corrective and preventive actions,

and other follow up activities. Corrective Actions may include but are

not limited to engineering changes, process changes, Specifics of these

activities can be seen in illness and injury reporting.

3.2 Employee safety and health

3.2.1 COMPANY’s Safety Program also aims to promote the safety and health

of our employees while they are on the job.

3.2.2 Systems such as Job Safety Analysis’s (JSA) s will be utilized to review

existing job tasks, equipment and workplace condition so that hazards are

identified and reduced or eliminated.

 3.2.3 Communications related to known safety hazards are communicated to

all employees and their concerns are heard and addressed by Site

Management.

3.3 Ensuring Safety Program effectiveness and improvement

3.3.1 To ensure the effectiveness of the COMPANY Safety Program each

location strives for continual improvement. The items in place to encourage

continual improvement activities within each location include, but are not

limited to the following:

a) Monthly Safety Self Inspections of all manufacturing locations to

ensure a safe work environment

b) Monthly Safety Committee meetings are held to ensure

communication of detected safety issues, and actions taken to address

the issues discovered.

c) Detection of un-safe acts, un-safe work practices, and un-safe

workplace conditions, etc. that are identified are addressed by the

Corrective /Preventive Actions system if required and / or the action

items listed in the Safety Minutes.

 d) Formal review of the effectiveness of the corrective actions taken to

address the safety issues that have occurred and / or been detected.

e) Provide safety counseling sessions with any employee involved in a

workplace illness / injury / incident.

f) Verify understanding of Safety Training content.

3.4 Compliance with health and safety regulations

3.4.1 Each location ensures that the health and safety regulations applicable to our

operations are addressed by the following methods.

a) Maintaining awareness of and compliance to all applicable health

and safety requirements to our employees and workplace at all times.

b) Establishing a system that ensures products and services purchased

from contractors and vendors are compliant to applicable health and

safety requirements so that the risk to COMPANY is minimized, and

our regulatory compliance is maintained or enhanced.

3.5 Emergency Preparedness and Employee Safety

3.5.1 COMPANY’s Safety Program will meet or exceed any legal requirements to

provide protect employee safety in the event of a fire or similar workplace

emergency. This protection extends to visitors and affected members of the general

public in both emergency and non-emergency situations. To accomplish this each

COMPANY location takes the following actions.

a) Develops and trains employees in specific emergency response procedures.

b) Develops a system that the presence, identity, and affiliation of all visitors

are known at all times.

c) Takes reasonable steps to monitor visitor activity to ensure the use of

necessary safety equipment, and precautions are taken at all times.

d) Takes reasonable steps to minimize any adverse safety and health impacts

on the general public known to result from typical COMPANY manufacturing

actives, construction activities, and emergency situations.

3.5.2 COMPANY is committed to providing a safe work environment. Violence and

threats of violence will not be tolerated. Acts of violence, Intimidation, violent

behavior, or threats of violence will be treated as willful misconduct of the most

serious magnitude. Any COMPANY employee who engages in such conduct as stated
above maybe subject discipline and / or dismissal. Any visitor / individual who

engage in such conduct maybe subject removal from COMPANY property.

COMPANY may inform the police or other law enforcement agencies if there is a

suspicion that individuals / employees are engaging in, or threaten to engage in

violence.

SAFETY PROCEDURE
COMPANY
Title: Injury & Illness Reporting
Effected: All Effective Date: 11/2/10
Approved By: Approved Date: 11/2/10

1.0 PURPOSE

To define the system for reporting Injuries and Illness to appropriate Site

Management. In addition to ensuring the appropriate care and treatment of the

employee/s throughout all stages medical treatment and their return to work. This

procedure applies to all employees, contractors and visitors while they are on

COMPANY property.
2.0 GENERAL

2.1 Definitions:

2.1.1 Injury - An injury to an employee or other person in the course

of doing work that requires first aid or medical treatment; or the

recurrence, aggravation, acceleration, exacerbation or deterioration of

any existing injury in a person in the course of doing work that requires

first aid or medical treatment and to which job performance may have

been a contributing factor.

2.1.2 Non-Recordable OSHA Incident – Any injury requiring only

in-house first aid.

2.1.3 Recordable OSHA Incident Rate – Any injury that requires

outside medical treatment or lost time from work.

2.1.3 Near Miss- A ‘near miss’ is an incident that although it did not

result in an injury or illness, it had the potential to do so.

2.2 References:

2.2.1 OSHA 300 Log.

 2.3 Forms:

2.3.1 Injury / Illness Report

2.3.2 Accident Investigation Form

2.3.3 Witness Report

2.3.5 Incident / Near Miss Report

3.0 PROCEDURE

3.1 Reporting of an Incident / Injury

3.1.1 Any individual who is injured or involved in an incident must

inform their Supervisor/ Team Lead immediately.

3.1.2 If the incident requires outside medical attention Supervisor /

Team Lead is to seek professional medical help immediately by calling

911 and/or the appropriate number listed on the Emergency Call Flow

Chart and Call List. The Plant Manager is to be contacted immediately

when any injury or near miss occurs.

3.1.3 If an incident is reported and no injury is sustained by any

employee Supervisor /Team Lead is to complete Near Miss-Report and

forward to Site Management for review within 24 hours of the incident.

 After the review of Site Management ensures the completed form is

distributed per the instructions located on the Near Miss Report.

3.1.4 Employees are encouraged in reporting of minor and near miss

incidents can lead to prevention of more serious incidents or injuries.

3.1.5 Supervisor/Team Lead is to complete Incident Report, within 24

hours of the incident involving the injury of an employee and forward

to the Operations Manager. After review of site management completed

form is to be distributed per instructions located on the Incident Report.

3.1.3 Any employee that is injured or that is determined to be a

contributing factor in a near-miss is to submit to a drug screen.

3.2 Incident Investigation

3.2.1 Site Management is responsible for the incident investigation.

Site Management is to determine the cause of the incident and record

the findings on the Accident Investigation Form.

3.2.2 Site Management is to interview witnesses and record responses

utilizing the Witness Report.

 3.2.3 The employee that was injured or involved in the near-miss is to

aid in the investigation if possible. If injury results in missed

work/rehab etc…employee must provide a release to work and/or

documentation from medical provider with date able to resume full

duties; before returning to work.

3.2.4 The incident investigation is to be completed within 72 hours of

the incident occurrence. All information after review of site

management is to be forwarded to Corporate Safety, Human Resources,

and the Manufacturing Director per the forms or when requested.

3.2.5 After the investigation Site Management / Delegate is to complete

the Corrective Action Report / Preventive Action Report detailing the

root cause of the incident and the preventive actions taken.

3.2.6 Within 7 Days of the incident occurrence the injury is to be

recorded on the OSHA 300 Log.

3.3 Workers Compensation

3.3.1 Human Resources working with Site Management and Employee

determine details and extent of injury or illness.

 3.3.2 Human Resources after being informed of the incident / injury

begin process for workers compensation if needed. Corporate Safety

aids when needed in incident investigation and corrective actions.

3.3.3 Human Resources explain claims process, and employee

obligations where appropriate. Human Resources begin initial

notification of Injury to Insurer where appropriate.

3.3.4 If worker has been deemed unfit or fit for suitable or modified

duties, works with site management on identifying suitable work.

Human Resources are the Liaise with Employee, Site Management,

Treating Doctor and other treating Health Professionals, and/or

Rehabilitation Provider regarding the employee's return to work.

NOTE: See Figures 3 and 4 for injury procedure displays

Conclusions

According to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 2007 statistics,

there were 5,488 workplace fatalities in the United States. The top workplace

accidents causing injuries or fatalities are transportation accidents, equipment

operation, exposure to harmful substances, falls, fires, explosions and workplace

violence (OSHA). Worker's Compensation coverage protects injured workers

regardless of fault, to aid in the compensatory relief of medical expenses and lost
wages, but often the cost to the employer is such that it makes the ‘cost’ of doing

business too high.  The best way to avoid workplace accidents and decrease

Workman’s Compensation premiums is to be ‘safety savvy’.  To control risk factors,

avoid hazards,  and protect employees, every organization must prepare a complete

safety manual. Safety of employees is of utmost importance to an organization for

smooth functioning of the company. An appropriate safety manual will create a

healthy environment for both the employer and employees as well as serving as a

vehicle to promote decreased Workman’s Compensation cases, lower compensation

premiums, raise employee morale and increase overall productivity.

FIGURES SECTION

Figure 1: Claims lowered in Nueces County, TX

Figure 2: Injury reporting method
Figure 3: Near miss incident report method
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Leigh, J. Paul and John A. Robbins. 2003. “Occupational Disease and Workers'
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Rea, Samuel A., Jr. 1981. "Workmen's Compensation and Occupational Safety Under

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