Training videos could prevent serious accidents at work

When you're a penniless student, like I once was, you find yourself applying for the most random jobs so you can earn enough cash to pay for a dampened room in your university's top notch halls of residence at £80 a week. With a bathroom infested with silver worm, I felt as though it was my duty to act as the breadwinner and provide for my adopted siblings.

Fortunately, I was quite lucky and managed to get most of the jobs I applied for. I've dressed up as a bottle of champagne, waited on celebrities and have even been one of those annoying people on the street that leap on shoppers, asking if they would like to fill out a quick questionnaire.

And of course with every new job comes another training video filmed in the early 90s when men had curtains and women had perms. Those greying videos were an important part of my induction and so it used to baffle me when managers apologised and said, "Sorry, I've got a few boring videos for you to watch."

So yes, maybe a video telling you to bend your knees when you pick up a heavy object isn't exactly thrilling but it has prevented me from suffering possible accidents at work.

The video I watched whilst working at a supermarket definitely prepared me for possible workplace accidents and even to this day when I'm shopping and see a grape on the floor, I have to kick it out of the way so nobody, especially elderly shoppers, slips and falls on the piece of fruit.

But not everywhere will provide their staff with training as good as I've received in some of my previous employments. Whilst working at a factory and making kitchen appliances, I was quite disturbed to find that nobody actually had anything more than a quick 15 minute induction on any one particular machine.

For me, it wasn't so difficult to understand what was required of the job but I did notice that several of the foreign workers, who spoke little English, would often tell the supervisor they understood what they had said but then turned to me or another worker and ask what they were meant to be doing. Looking back, I'm surprised that nobody suffered serious personal injuries in an accident at work.

Just recently I read a news story about a Kurdish worker who suffered personal injuries in a similar working environment and lost all the fingers on his left hand. In December 2004, Bakhtiar Khader was working at a bread-making company called Honeytop Foodstuff and sustained a severe hand injury whilst operating a food machine.

His personal injury solicitor said that the 22-year-old worker spoke very little English and after failing to receive an induction at the company, relied heavily upon instructions from other employees. Fortunately, soon after the work accident occurred, Honeytop Foodstuff provided the resources for workers to be trained in their first language.

Communication appears to be a problem for many companies when training members of staff and a number of videos have been provided with translations to ensure that foreign workers can understand the company's health and safety guidelines. Websites such as www.safetymedia.co.uk provide a number of training videos with subtitles in a variety of languages including Kurdish, Hindi, Polish and Gujarati.

The Health and Safety Executive (www.hse.gov.uk) is also striving to make sure workers receive the correct training to reduce the number in accidents at work in the future.

HSE inspector John Brerzansky recently said, "Too often HSE Inspectors find that safe methods of work are not being effectively communicated to the workplace."

Doug Bennet, risk manager for the AXA (www.axa.co.uk) agreed with the HSE in a recent study about the dangers of working in the leisure industry.

He said, "Employees in the leisure industry need to be particularly aware of the hazards they face in the workplace and should be fully briefed on health and safety procedures.

"Good health and safety procedures are vital to the running of a successful business."

It appears that a bigger effort is being made to educate workers on health and safety in the workplace, which should also reduce the amount of compensation claims people make after sustaining a work place injury.

Fortunately, I have never had to make an injury claim because I've received the correct training for every job I've applied for. It's not worth thinking about the dangers and subsequent personal injuries I could have faced if hadn't have been trained properly.

My previous employment, which mostly consisted of casual work, was fun and exciting because my job was always changing and I always met new people. But with my student days long behind me, office work is the way forward. I just hope I don't encounter too many accidents at work involving paperclips and staplers!

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About the author:
Lucia Appleby, YouClaim are the leading online personal injury compensation claim people with a 97% claim success rate. Call 0800 10 757 95 or visit http://www.youclaim.co.uk for more details.

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Tags: breadwinner, celebrities, curtains, knees, new job, questionnaire, siblings, slips, supermarket, supervisor, workplace accidents