More than a third of hospitality workers (35%) regularly break health and safety rules because they view them as unnecessary, a survey has suggested.
The study, commissioned by consultancy Phoenix Health & Safety, polled 1,500 UK hospitality workers to find the reasons why health and safety regulations are most commonly broken.
As well as the 35% who saw the rules as unnecessary, a similar percentage (35%) argued the risk wasn’t so great as to need the safety rules in place.
The same percentage again said they cut corners to speed up work, while 33% said it was because bad habits had become “commonplace” in their organisation. Just over a quarter (28%) said it was because they had been unaware the rule existed.
The three most frequently broken health and safety regulations were not reporting an incident to superiors (39%), slipping/tripping hazards not being addressed (24%), and not doing adequate risk assessments (19%).
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These were followed by individuals choosing not to use appropriate PPE (16%) or not having access to it (13%), not following working-from-height guidelines (13%), and not following moving and handling guidelines (12%).
Finally, it was blocking fire escapes or other essential gangways (11%), individuals choosing not to use office equipment that could prevent injury (6%), and not having clear signage (6%).
Nick Higginson, chief executive of Phoenix Health & Safety, said: “By looking at these results we can see that a major reason why regulations are being broken is a poor understanding of the rules and why they’re in place, with 35% of people seeing rules as unnecessary.
“It is easy to forget the importance of regulations and fall into bad habits if they’re not addressed on a regular basis. This is why frequent training is imperative to ensure employees have an up-to-date understanding of all health and safety measures in place and why they matter.
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“It is the responsibility of organisations to ensure that all health and safety regulations are in place and a culture of following the rules is installed in the workplace, but it is also the responsibility of employees themselves to ensure the regulations are followed,” he added.
