Safety Breakthroughs

Ed Foulke, co-chair of the firm's Workplace Safety and Catastrophe Management Practice Group, was interviewed on Safety Breakthrough Talk Radio about the importance of a well thought out and enforced safety program. He said that most employers think the biggest cost to them after an employee is injured on the job is how much they will spend on workers’ compensation premiums.  But workers’ compensation costs are only about forty percent of the total cost of an injured employee. Other expenses include down time of equipment, the extra cost of bringing in temporary replacements and dealing with government agencies.  Sometimes penalties and fines are involved. Ed said, “Everybody’s been focused on productivity, efficiency, and quality and they don’t realize, that you can never have great productivity, efficiency, and quality until you have a great safety.”