By Donna Motley, Vice President of Claims

Before setting goals, you need to evaluate the past. I’m not referring to New Year Resolutions – I’m referring to behavioral changes. Review the work related injuries that occurred at your facility this past year. If you count “zero” – keep up the good work – something is working in your favor! Is it your safety program? Safety meetings? Safety training? A Safety reward program? Open communication with your employees? Work place culture? All of the above?

Did your facility record a “near miss” or two? If so, consider a near miss to be a “warning” of what could have happened. Review the near miss scenario to de-termine what could have happened, i.e. the worst case scenario. Then review and implement corrective actions to avoid another such incident. Michigan is a “no-fault” system. Workers’ Compensation benefits are not deter-mined based on whether or not the employee was “at fault”, resulting in the injury. The only exception is if the employee is injured as a result of their intentional and willful misconduct, (i.e. – the employee punched the wall in anger).

Finally, if an injury did occur last year, regardless of how minor, an investigation and review should be performed with your employees. Answer the question, “why” did the injury occur? Was the injured worker an innocent by-stander? Injuries often involve more than one em-ployee. What corrective actions can be taken so the same injury does not occur again? When unsafe acts are reported to you, as the employer, do you take correction action? If not, should an injury occur as the result of an unsafe act or faulty equipment that had been previously reported, the employer can be held responsible/liable should the injured worker choose to file legal action.

Looking up MIOSHA statistics, as of this writing (mid-De-cember), Michigan has had 41 fatalities. The age of the deceased worker ranges between 24 and 65 years old. Mechanism of injury was : crush, caught in or between, struck by, fall, cave-in and shock. The industry in which the injury occurred is irrelevant. Think of your facility, pretty much any one of these injury types (i.e. cause) could occur on your premises.

Take the opportunity of a New Year to review your poli-cies and procedures. Make safety a priority. As an em-ployer, you don’t want to be responsible for serious injury to any employee. As an employer, you have a responsi-bility to provide a safe work environment for your em-ployees. The role of OSHA is to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for workers – monetary fines can be imposed upon employers for failure to do so. If you have not already had the experience, should a serious injury occur at your facility, MIOSHA will be at your door!

With employers experiencing labor shortages, I’m sure you want to keep the workers you have, as well as keep them healthy. COVID is still rearing its ugly head. Medi-cal costs continue to rise. Marijuana is legal. The best bet to avoid injuries, is to be pro-active.