Safe Workplace and Safety News

This is the safety news blog for the Safe Workplace web site. We cover workplace safety related news with a focus on how safety, or a lack of safety, impacts employers, employees and their families. We also cover topics such as safety training, safety tools, and legal issues related to safety. For regular safety news and information enter your email address in the box above the Subscribe button to the right (then click on the button).

Monday, January 21, 2008

EU Offers Tax Sweetener to Reduce Accidents at Work

I am not someone who thinks that whatever is being done in Europe is automatically better and is the example that we must follow in the U.S. Yes, they may have some good ideas, but we have some smart folks in the U.S. also. Each idea should be evaluated on its merits and applicability to the situation. I don't have enough information to evaluate the following, but I thought it was interesting and was worth mentioning.

A news article in Personnel Today talks about tax, and other government incentives the EU is putting in place to try to improve workplace safety. The article has a subheading that states:

"Employers with good workplace safety records could pay less tax and win more government contracts under new EU plans."

The goal is to reduce workplace accidents by 25% over the next five years by offering tax breaks and favored status for getting government contracts as incentives for improving safety. There would also be tougher sanctions for firms with poor safety records.

Labels: workplace safety