The Role Of Health And Safety In A Warehouse

A warehouse can be a dangerous place, especially where health and safety aren’t being prioritized. But exactly what does a good, risk-free warehouse look like, and what changes might be considered to improve safety in this kind of work environment?

What are the warehouse health and safety regulations?

Workers in the US are entitled to a safe workplace under federal law. Workers, moreover, have the right to speak up about potential hazards without fear that they’ll suffer a loss of professional opportunities, or other repercussions. 

There are a number of problems specific to warehousing that are addressed in OSHA’s standards for general industry. These include requirements for the upkeep of pathways through the warehouse, emergency routes, and the operation of forklifts and work platforms.

Why is health and safety important in a warehouse?

So, why should warehouse operators be concerned about these things?

Warehouse operators in the US might have a legal duty to take appropriate safety precautions, as well as an ethical one. Good safety practices also make sense from a pure business perspective, too – they tend to drive down absenteeism, and make healthy workers more productive.

A warehouse is an environment in which workers might frequently rely on machinery. Keeping that machinery maintained is essential. This might mean having a stock of components to hand, including time delay relays, diodes, and capacitors. 

It should also be noted that an unsafe warehouse will tend to lead to higher levels of staff turnover. This might be a direct result of workers becoming injured, or it might be a result of workers pre-emptively deciding to leave the company before they get injured. The cost of high employee turnover can be considerable in this environment. Every worker who leaves the company will need to be replaced, and the replacement will need to be trained extensively if they’re to work effectively in the warehouse. All of this imposes extra costs on the operator.

An unsafe work environment tends to drive down morale since it sends a message to workers that their welfare is not being prioritized by those above them. Thus, making safety a priority is a way of ensuring that the facility is operated by happy, committed workers.

Where warehouse operators fail to address hazards, and those hazards inflict injury on workers and other people, the company might end up on the receiving end of legal action. The General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act requires that employers keep the workplace “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to [the warehouse’s] employees.” 

When employers fail to abide by this duty, they can be made to pay damages in court – and their reputation might also suffer, too.