Ten years ago, workplace safety was not as important a topic as it is today. However, as the business has grown and evolved, so has our understanding of the importance of employee protection. Let’s consider some of the main changes that we have seen in recent decades:
Regulations and Compliance: Governments and industry bodies have introduced stricter regulations that have forced companies to invest in security measures. These regulations vary from country to country, but they all have the common goal of protecting employees.
Technological Advances: The integration of technology has played a major role in workplace safety. From mobile devices to sophisticated messaging systems, technology has truly played a crucial role in reducing accidents.
Safety culture: Companies are paying more attention to safety culture. Training programs, safety drills, and open communication channels have become standard practice. Employees are not only educated on security protocols, but encouraged to report threats.
The Labor Inspection examines daily the observance of labor safety norms in companies, to what extent they are observed and whether the working environment is safe for employees.
What is an investigation?
The investigation of workplace accidents, occupational diseases and hazardous incidents investigates how and why an adverse event (accident, infection, dangerous event, negligence) occurred and determines the measures that need to be taken to prevent such an event.
which leads to improved health and safety systems in the workplace.
An investigation is reactive because an event must first occur to trigger the investigation. The labor inspector must determine not only what was the result of the event, but also how and why it happened, so that appropriate measures can be taken to prevent its recurrence in the future, which will improve the safety and health management system in the workplace.
Based on the reports, the Labor Inspectorate revealed the statistics of accidents in the workplace in Georgia.
In 2022, 192 facilities were inspected on the basis of workplace accidents.
Accidents occurring in the workplace mean injury to the health of an employee or another person, limitation of working capacity or death.
In the reporting period of 2022, 35 employees died and 330 were injured at the workplace.
The statistics of the number of dead and injured as a result of accidents in the workplace, according to gender and migrant status, look like this:
In total, 261 men were injured and 35 died, in the case of women, 69 were injured and 0 died.
On the other hand, in accordance with the Organic Law of Georgia “On Labor Safety”, the employer is obliged to inform the supervisory body about medium, severe, fatal and mass accidents.
In the reporting period of 2022, the following accidents occurred in the workplace:
3 mass accidents;
Of the injured, 87 cases were classified as serious accidents (female 11; male 76);
243 cases as accidents of medium severity (women 58; men 185)
The methodology was developed based on international experience and information obtained in the country, which groups various economic activities based on indicators, in terms of compliance with labor safety norms and incidents, and divides them into particularly high, very high, high, medium and low risk sectors.
The number of deaths as a result of accidents in the workplace according to the priority sectors is as follows: in the extremely high risk group – 17 cases, in the very high risk group – 7 cases, in the high risk group – 9 cases, in the medium risk group – 1 case, in the low risk group – 1 case.