Introduction:
Health and Safety at Work in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) presents
a particular challenge for a number of reasons.
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On the one hand a large majority of the workforce is employed by SMEs
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Each SME could argue that its resource to protect and promote health at
work is much less than that of a large enterprise and therefore it could
not aspire to the same standard.
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There may be other reasons for the difficulties perceived in relation to
SMEs....
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Whatever the reasons, the consequences appear to be significant, thus the
rates of fatal injury and of amputation injury in small manufacturing workplaces
(those with fewer
than 50 employees) are quoted as being double
those in large workplaces (200 or more employees).
When the Health and Safety Executive/Local Authority Enforcement Liaison
Committee (HELA) published its Strategy for 1998/99, they considered that
Occupational health and small firms should be the focus of their planning
(see press release).
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