You are the director of a company which spends thousands of dollars on developing Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) policies and procedures.
Countless hours are spent training your staff in the latest safe work practices. Your OH&S manager gives you the minutes of the meeting he has with the supervisors where he reminds them about conducting risk assessments before each job and other OH&S issues. On your regular walks around the factory you see the supervisors holding their "toolbox" meetings with their teams. It all seems to be going smoothly until...
You get a call from the company first-aid officer to urgently attend sick bay. You walk in and see the ambulance officer placing one of your workers on a stretcher, his arm wrapped in a tight and bloody bandage.
Your first-aid officer tells you that the worker's arm was caught in a machine and badly cut - he might even lose his arm. The next day you receive a visit from WorkCover. They inspect the machine and tell you they will be back to interview a number of staff, including yourself, the OH&S manager, the team supervisors and the injured worker. You aren't too worried because from your observations your company has been doing the right things.
All Is Not As It Seems
Your first meeting is with the OH&S manager. It should be straightforward, you have seen the minutes from his meetings. Unfortunately he tells you that not all the supervisors attend the meetings. In fact the supervisor in question paid little attention to what was being said and, was "lazy" when it came to completing risk assessments, often doing them incorrectly or not at all.
Next you decide to talk to the supervisor responsible for both the machine and the injured worker. He sits in front of you with a glazed look. He tells you that the meetings were boring and a waste of time and that the time spent at the weekly meeting meant he has less time to do his job. (You think to yourself that if the guard had stayed on the machine this accident would never have happened).
You visit the injured worker at home and he tells you that the supervisor gave the "OK" to take the safety guard off, if they could get the job done quicker and meet the teams quota for each day. When asked about the "toolbox" meetings and whether he was told about the importance of the safety guards and following the company's OH&S policies, he said "Yeah our supervisor mentioned that stuff, but we were always told the most important thing was to get as much product made each day and do whatever it takes". He went on to say, "We would then all just tick the boxes to say we had our meeting, then go back to our jobs".
During your interview with the other team members it became clear that there was a breakdown in what appeared to be a solid OH&S training process. WorkCover conducted its interviews and eventually prosecuted the company, yourself (as the director) and the supervisor. Whilst you weren't too shocked that the company was prosecuted and fined $120,000, you were stunned that you as a director were fined $20,000. The supervisor was surprised to be fined $20,000 for his failure to supervise the worker, failure to ensure a safety system for work and his "condoning of his team taking the guard off the machine". The Commission also criticised the supervisor for his "lazy" attitude when it came to teaching and instructing his team about safe work practices.
The supervisor was devastated when he was told that he would have a criminal record as a result of the conviction. He thought only the company could get fined. He and his wife were now faced with the prospect of having to take out a second mortgage to pay for his legal fees and the fine, or having to sell his home. He also received a criminal conviction which meant he had to cancel the family holiday to Disneyland because he could not get a visa.
How Could This Have Been Avoided?
After the dust settled you look at how this could be avoided in the future. You drafted the following plans:
- You would attend all supervisors meetings.
- The meetings would be held each week for an hour, attendance was compulsory for all supervisors.
- Each supervisor would take turns to present and run the meeting with the OH&S manager. That way they had some real involvement in the process.
- An incentive program would be implemented, whereby supervisors who achieved 100% completion of risk assessment reports would be given a bonus.
- If the company reduces injury incident rate by 20% over the next three years, each worker would be given a bonus.
- You would hire an independent OH&S auditor to conduct quarterly risk assessment of the entire factory.
- Supervisors would have to sit a test once a year on the topics presented at each meeting, the test would be varied between practical and quick Q&A sessions. Certificates would be presented to staff on successful completion. If they failed then further training would be provided to the individual supervisors.
- You would pay for your OH&S manager to attend workshops to enhance his or her skills, training and knowledge.
- You would sit the same tests as supervisors and have to pass them just like the supervisors.
You realise that in order to get the supervisors involved you would show them that you took OH&S issues seriously by not asking them to do anything that you weren't prepared to do. You also knew the importance of rewards and incentives which, whilst they might cost a couple of thousand dollars each year, would still be significantly cheaper than another WorkCover prosecution.
The first supervisors meeting was run by the supervisor involved in the accident and he explained to the others the financial struggle he has placed on his family because he didn't take the OH&S meeting and training seriously. He also told them about the difficulties having a criminal record caused him and his family. All of a sudden the supervisors realised that the company could no longer protect them and that they now were at personal risk.
It has now been six months and the injury incident rate is down 5%. The supervisors have a completion rate of the risk assessment of 60% (up from 20%) and attendance at the supervisor's meetings are 90%. It's a good start.