62% of employees say their employer has placed less emphasis on health and safety since the recession hit, according to a survey by National Accident Helpline.

These shocking figures have been revealed after the Health and Safety Executive reported that 34 million work days are lost every year because of work-related illness or injury - a worrying 1.4 days for every British employee.

Legal director of National Accident Helpline, John Campbell, said:

"Investing time and money to make your workplace as safe as possible may seem less important during a recession, but these figures show that there is a financial incentive to do so. Employees who have accidents because of poor workplace safety have every right to claim for compensation."

There is no doubt that it's tough out there, but our advice would be not to risk compensation claims and the costs of sickness absence and instead continue to provide a safe and productive place of work. Any other method is just false economy.