According to The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. study of American workplaces, 58 percent of blue-collar households have a family member who, someplace in time, was injured at work. This only included severe injuries that needed medical care.

Blue-collar occupations entail manual labor. Thus they can deplete your body far more quickly than a white-collar job. Resultantly, blue-collar workers sustain injuries at work far more frequently than other workers due to heavy lifting, repetitive motions, working near machinery, and other hazards. This is considerably more likely to happen when businesses are understaffed, don’t prioritize safety, or have worn-out workers.

Blue-Collar Jobs Are Physically Demanding

Most blue-collar jobs entail manual labor while standing for at least eight hours daily. Even if you are in good shape, this will be very draining. In addition, most blue-collar jobs don’t operate on a standard 9–5 schedule. You can end up working an overnight shift of eight hours or a swing shift, or you might be assigned to a more conventional shift work schedule with varying shifts each day of the week. 

The irregular hours and physically demanding jobs increase the risks of several safety concerns.

Safety Risks Involved In Blue-collar Jobs

Blue-collar jobs involve extreme safety risks. For instance, workers in the oil industry on offshore rigs or in construction on skyscrapers are exposed to very serious risks. The primary safety risks include the following:

Physical Hazards

Extreme cold or heat, moving and falling objects and hazardous machinery are some examples of the risks blue-collar workers are vulnerable to. Physical hazards include risks like intense lights, rolling or pinning objects, live electrical connections, sharp edges, and others. These risks may cause serious accidents, and result in trips, falls, slips, and bleeding.

Health Hazards

Health concerns include those brought on by exposure to polluted air, potentially dangerous substances, radiation, and musculoskeletal conditions brought on by physically demanding work. Breathing in polluted air or inhaling dangerous chemical substances may cause an acute lung injury. Long hours of strenuous work without meal breaks can cause decreased blood pressure, and the worker may faint. 

Tips To Ensure Blue-collar Workers’ Safety

Employers are required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to safeguard their workers from workplace dangers that could result in harm. The management should give the impression that it is concerned about the workplace and makes efforts to ensure everyone is working in a safe setting.

Workers Must Wear Safety Gear

People must wear the proper personal protection equipment (PPE) while at work. Make sure your blue-collar workers wear PPE to protect their skin, eyes, face, hands, or feet depending on their line of work. 

High-visibility clothing is one of the essential PPE gear, especially for night workers. Hi-vis clothing is made of materials that increase the wearer’s visibility in low light and at night because the colors contrast with their surroundings. By wearing high-visibility clothing, you can avoid collisions with moving objects, vehicles, and other pedestrians.

Some critical safety gear your workers must wear at all times includes:

• gloves for protection
• protective hearing aids like earplugs and muffs
• Hard hats and safety helmets
• whole-body suits
• both masks and respirators
• appropriate footwear, including shin guards or foot protection
• Eye and face protection with welding shields and goggles
• Personal safety panic button

Health And Safety Training

Blue-collar jobs require extreme care; even seconds of carelessness can cause severe accidents. Hence, employers should conduct regular health and safety training to teach workers how they can prioritize their safety. 

Ensure your workers attend special training on staying safe in specific conditions, such as working with chemicals or while working on a site with heavy machinery. Give clear instructions for tasks requiring electrical and chemical exposure. 

Giving Your Employees Panic Button

The most important safety tip is to provide blue-collar employees with a medium for reporting dangerous situations immediately. Workers should be able to contact the supervisor immediately whenever an emergency situation arises, such as falling objects or trash, chemical spills, a dangerous fall, or worker confusion that results in disagreements. 

Why Does Your Blue-collar Staff Need Personal Safety Devices?

You reduce the safety risks that your team is exposed to by using proper workplace safety procedures. Maintaining a safe workplace also safeguards your organization’s finances. It keeps production at its peak and lowers absences and sick days. Your workforce will also be less likely to file a workers’ compensation claim for accidents sustained on the job. 

A personal safety device, such as Silent Beacon’s panic button, allows workers to immediately inform higher authorities in emergencies with just a touch of a button. 

Moreover, ensuring that blue-collar workers wear personal safety devices can lower your overall insurance rates, which will ultimately help you save on legal expenses.

Providing your workers with a safe working environment gives you and them peace of mind. As mentioned earlier, the Hartford Financial Group study also revealed that blue-collar workers expect themselves to be injured on the job at least once. When you have safety systems in place, your workers will be free from the worry of getting injured. This will improve their productivity.

How Will Silent Beacon Help Blue-collar Workers?

Silent Beacon’s panic button is a wireless personal safety device intended to call for assistance in an emergency. Pushing a button on a panic button enables the user to request assistance rapidly. Blue-collar workers are frequently obliged to work alone and in settings where they could be intimidated or attacked. The panic button will allow them to notify their seniors in case of emergencies. 

Different emergencies require different responses. For example, if a worker gets electrocuted while working on electrical machinery, he needs urgent medical assistance. In contrast, if an employee is assaulted and abused, he needs emotional support and the abuser to be caught. Silent Beacon allows you to customize responses to exude whom to contact in an unfortunate event. 

Get Silent Beacon for your blue-collar employees today!