Companies in the auto industry are the worst in the UK for putting the health and safety of their employees at risk, according to a new survey.

Motor traders, according to RRC Business Training, take too many chances with health and safety issues by not ensuring staff receive the required training and by failing to assess workplace safety.

RRC Business Training research found that in companies with an average of 1,238 employees a third of motor trade firms are not providing staff with any form of instruction, compared to a fifth of all UK businesses. For example, despite Health and Safety Executive figures which estimate that around 3.7m working days are lost each year as a result of back pain, the majority (71%) of motor trade businesses are still not carrying out computer workstation assessments.

Gary Fallaize, RRC Business Training managing director, said: “In a more commercial and competitive world organisations are increasingly driven by the bottom line and even though HSE statistics show that health and safety related accidents and illnesses cost British businesses the equivalent of around 4-8% of all UK industrial and commercial companies' gross trading profits, employers still do not see health and safety as something that affects the balance sheets in the same way as, say, sales and marketing. So, whereas considerable funding is assigned to providing training in finance or advertising, health and safety is given no where near as high a priority as it deserves.”

RRC Business Training surveyed 103 office managers across a range of industry sectors.