RISK MANAGEMENT

Risk Management

Risk Management

Part 1

No corporation located in the United States, large or small, can operate without obeying a myriad of government regulations. The extraordinary growth of government regulations in the 1970s and the inflationary pressures generated by the increasing costs of compliance, made it necessary to more closely examine their social benefits. One of the most debatable areas of government regulation has been occupational safety and health. It has been vigorously argued that the costs of regulations far exceed their benefits and that they have created much unnecessary, counterproductive activity.

More than 90 million American workers spend their days on the job in workplaces around the country. They constitute one of the most valuable national resources of our nation. Unfortunately, many of these workers are injured and others are killed in job-related accidents. Until 1970, no uniform, comprehensive provisions existed to protect workers from job hazards. In 1970, it was reported that job-related accidents accounted for more than 14,000 worker deaths and nearly 2.5 million workers injured or disabled. The number of lost workdays arising from accidents was ten times greater than person-days lost because of strikes. 1 In the same year, the National Safety Council estimated economic losses resulting from work-related accidents to be about $8 billion.

Occupational injuries and diseases have, in fact, serious implications extending beyond the loss of personal income and the physical and emotional trauma suffered by the injured workers and their families. Employers experience higher costs as a result of delays, damaged equipment, medical expenses, disability compensation, litigation, and perhaps declining productivity because of job hazards. Society loses the income and product represented by foregone workdays and, therefore, must accept a lower standard of living than would be the case in a more accident-free economy.

Part 2

A wastewater treatment plant worker died after he was ...