Danger money for hazardous workplaces

One third of employees believe their work equipment is hazardous but more than a quarter would compromise their health for danger money, a new survey shows.

The survey, conducted by network company LinkMe.com.au, also found that 40% of people felt their employer did not care about their health and safety concerns.

18% of the 1500 people surveyed would accept $10,000 as the minimum pay rise to compromise their health and safety, 17% would accept $5000, 9% would accept $3000 and 15% would accept just $1000.

“The fact that Australian workers are so desperate for money that they would compromise their own health and safety for a mere $1000 reflects a cavalier or even desperate part of Australian working life,” LinkMe.com.au CEO Campbell Sallabank said.

With more than 30,000 claims for workplace compensation in 2007, the lack of OHS concerns is a multi-billion dollar cost to Australian businesses every year, he said.

“A formal process for rectifying OHS issues is essential in the modern workplace,” said Sallabank.

“Implementing a committee responsible for ensuring that concerns are dealt with swiftly and effectively is one tactic companies can adopt to deal with the issue.”

42% of people surveyed continue to use unsafe equipment because they felt they had no other choice, while 31% said the nature of their work was always going to be detrimental to their health.

28% believed nothing would change even if they made a complaint and 16% were concerned that complaining might threaten their job security.