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The most common injury was cuts to hands and fingers
sustained by assistants in butchers' shops, and several accidents
were caused by slipping on over-polished floors, from stepladders
or from falling downstairs or staircases. One person who
tripped and fell down a flight of stairs cracked a bone in his
foot. Another fracture occurred to the arm of an employee who
tripped and fell into a shallow disused pit in a yard; - The
remaining accidents reported resulted in sprains or bruises.
One of the objects the Ministry hope to achieve by making
it necessary for employers to report details of accidents that
occur to their employees during the course of their employment,
is the prevention, where possible, of similar accidents happening
to employees in the future.
In this connection the Public Health Inspectors fully
investigated all accident notifications. Obviously, in the case
of the man falling into a pit in the yard of his employers' premises,
the accident may have been avoided or have been less severe if the
pit had been covered. Following the Public Health Inspector's
investigation and recommendation the pit was properly covered and
made safe.
Highly polished floors, the cause of several accidents, can
be made safer if a non-slip polish is used and the responsible
employers were advised accordingly. One employee slipped and
fell off a pair of steps, caused in part because the steps were
defective. A cleaner had a splinter embedded in a finger through
cleaning a wooden table top. Both these articles were subsequently
replaced. Not all accidents reported, however, can be attributed
to negligence, or thoughtlessness or carelessness on the part of an
employer. People fall over or sometimes trip up for no apparent
reason, and young butcher's apprentices through lack of experience
will doubtless continue to cut their fingers from time to time.
Nevertheless, from the experience gained so far in this field,
it appears to be an extremely worthwhile exercise to investigate
the cause of all accidents occurring to employees.
It is perhaps significant to note that all the accidents
reported concerned employees of large organisations such as banks,
chain and co-operative stores, multi-grocers shops, etc. Whilst
by virtue of their size it could reasonably be expected that such
organisations would have a larger number of accidents to report,
it would seem likely that employers of units of labour without
welfare or personnel departments, may be overlooking their
responsibilities in notifying the Council of accidents. It may
well become necessary for the Ministry of Labour (to whom returns
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