labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Safety in the workplace is important, and the Illinois worker safety statistics may prove surprising to employers and employees alike. A total of 255,750 people fell over at work, and in 2005 there were 270,890 painful back injuries. Just over half a million workers sustained tears, strains or sprains.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA oversees workplace safety in Illinois. At the heart of any good safety in the workplace program must be education. Workers should be regularly reminded of the proper safety techniques that need to be employed. The OSHA Workplace Safety Pack is a valuable tool for this purpose. The pack has information on workplace ergonomics, a lifting safety poster, a workstation safety tips poster and a Slips, Trips and Falls poster. All these are providing easily understood information for workers on how to prevent injuries.

Employee injuries and be expensive. They will almost certainly need to take time off work, and this can be expensive for the employer, who may have to take on temporary staff, and for the worker who will suffer from the loss of wages. Added to this there may be medical bills and law suits.

The statistics for the year 2005, which is the last full year that has figures available make for grim reading. There were 4,214,200 accidents relating to work nationwide, and these meant 1,234,700 lost working days. Tragically, 5,702 employees died during the year due to fatal work related accidents.

These numbers only related to accidents for workers in the private sector. The high figure does not include worker accidents for employees involving firefighters, paramedics, police and other non-profit or government organizations.

Workplace related incidents account for one of the most common causes of death in the workplace. Only accidents involving vehicles account for more, where the number of work related deaths is 1,258.

With such statistics worker safety education should be paramount in any workplace. 

Last 10 posts by Amelia

• COBRA Subsidy Extended Again - March 5th, 2010
• New York Uniform, Meals and Lodging Rules - February 10th, 2010
• New York Non-Exempt Employee Rules - February 3rd, 2010
• New York Tipped Minimum Wage is $4.75 - January 27th, 2010
• Oklahoma Direct Deposit - January 20th, 2010
• 2010 Minimum Wage Recap - January 1st, 2010
• Vermont Minimum Wage 2010 is $8.06 - December 30th, 2009
• New GINA Regulations - December 23rd, 2009
• Kansas 2010 Minimum Wage Increases to $7.25 - December 9th, 2009
• 2010 Washington Minimum Wage is $8.55 - December 2nd, 2009