Putting the Price on Safety
By 250 News
Friday, September 29, 2006 03:59 AM
The Forest Safety Council has examined safety issues in the forest sector from 2003 to 2005 and says the forest industry lost as much as $216 million dollars because of injuries and fatalities.
The just released "The Cost of Unsafe" report says savings in terms of reduced injuries and fatalities are invaluable to the industry and it produced some dollars and cents issues to press the point.
According to the report, employers in direct harvesting paid $108 million in compensation premiums. the Council says a 50% improvement in the forest sector safety record would have saved companies a compbined $18 million dollars a year in WCB premiums.
The report says that indirectly, the costs of being unsafe include time lost when production is interupted, extra training is needed or deadlines aren’t met.
If the forest sector had achieved a reduction in their direct and indirect costs of approximately 50 per cent between 2003 and 2005, there would have been direct savings in reduced premiums of more than $54 million along with estimated savings in indrect costs of $162 million dollars.
Hot off the heels of that report comes official news of the launching of the SAFE Companies program. Companies taking part will get a rebate in their Workers' Compensation assessments meaning reduced fees, and increased productivity because of reduced injuries and lost time.
In order to qualify for the Workers comp benefits, companies will be certified as exceeding all required safety programs, and have made a committment to making safety a top priority. Each company will have to register, and undergo a certification process every year.
The registration and certification process is expected to start this fall with an expectation that all forest companies will be part of the program by the end of next year.
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Posted on Friday, September 29, 2006 03:59 AM in
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