IOSH blasts business health and safety claims
April 1st 2008 "If your business sees health
and safety as a burden, then
you don't understand
enough about it or you're
not doing it right," the
president of the Institution
of Occupational Safety and
Health (IOSH), Ray Hurst,
has said
"It seems to me that
some employers still expect
health and safety will 'just
happen'. Once they
recognise it won't, some of
them then think it's all just
an unnecessary burden. They
need to understand that the
actual requirements aren't
that onerous or as portrayed
in the 'elf and safety' stories
they may read, and that the
benefits are more than
worth the effort."
Ray,said companies who
accused health and safety of
being an unnecessary burden
were likely to be the ones
who don't understand the
real requirements and
benefits or who aren't doing
it properly.
"I firmly believe health
and safety isn't something
that's problematic, you just
have to get the competent
health and safety advice you
need to find appropriate
answers. Most of the time,
those answers aren't
complicated or difficult."
Ray asked a question: of
those companies
complaining about the
regulatory burden of health
and safety, how many have
tried using the IOSH website
and free tools or have
attended one of our lowcost
network events? He
appealed to businesses, if
they have a problem with
health and safety, talk to a
qualified health and safety
professional and don't just
struggle on in silence. More articles from IOSH: | 
