From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Foreword by Ernest Bevin on the importance of preventing factory accidents during the war effort.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 176\2\ img259 | |
| Date | 1st November 1940 guessed | |
| FOREWORD IN THE COUNTRY'S DRIVE FOR VICTORY production is of paramount importance and anything that can be done to prevent dislocation of factory working is worth while. Accidents cause loss of time to the individual worker, but the loss of production is increased by the lost time of other people in attending to the injured and in the general upset caused in the workshop. Regarding an injured person solely as a producer, accidents are serious, but I have also in mind the suffering and depression that comes to the injured person, a matter that cannot be given a price. It is the duty of the Factory Department of this Ministry to help industry to deal with the prevention of accidents, but the ultimate success of any scheme rests with the management of individual firms, acting in cooperation with their workpeople, through their putting into operation the preventive measures that are advised. I am glad to have the service and help of the National Safety First Association, who have had nearly twenty-five years' experience of the methods by which progressive firms reduce their accident rates. This pamphlet outlines a special scheme and I must have the co-operation of industry in making the best use of it. If the scheme succeeds in preventing even 1% of the accidents now occurring in industry, loss of production will be avoided and the money cost amply covered. The country recognises that the workpeople are in the front line. The value of the industrial worker is too great to have him or her laid aside, even for a day; so any hints for the prevention of accidents should be treated not as offering a safety funk hole, but as a real help towards keeping up that production which is so necessary to bring us to victory. Remember—accidents in factories are a bonus for the enemy. Ernest Bevin Page Two | ||