In courts throughout Australia, directors and managers are being held criminally responsible for the conduct of their corporation. The number of prosecutions is increasing as enforcement bodies' focus their attention beyond the corporate legal entity to the individuals who ‘drive' it.
The more responsibility one has within the corporate hierarchy and the greater the influence they have to affect action to prevent or rectify an unsafe condition, the more liable they will be.
Once senior management becomes aware of the problem or once circumstances exist which should result in management appreciating that there is a problem, the law says you must act. Turning a blind eye to safety issues or simply delegating the responsibilities to someone without any form of monitoring or review will not keep you out of trouble.
What do you have to do to avoid prosecution?
The best approach a director or senior manager can use to protect him or herself is to develop, implement and maintain a safety management system. Unless the company consists of only a small number of centrally located employees it is physically impossible to attempt otherwise.
The system must:
- Identify responsibilities and accountabilities for all levels of the organisation.
- Require the identification, assessment and control of hazards in the workplace.
- Require the development of safe work procedures for high-risk work activities.
- Make provision for adequate supervision of employees and contractors.
- Promote necessary training, information and instruction so employees can carry out their responsibilities under the system.
- Facilitate regular and meaningful consultation with employees about the system, safe work procedures and any aspect of workplace safety, which may affect them.
- Ensure adequate records are maintained for audits, training, reference or court!
The role of the business owner or senior manager is to ensure the system is actually used. It is one thing to develop a system, but it is another to maintain and monitor that system to ensure it is being carried out. To protect your organisation and yourself, you must do both. The best of intentions left on the shelf is the clearest evidence that the company's directors and others concerned in the management of the corporation are not truly engaged in the process.
How do you measure this?
Safety performance has been traditionally measured using lag indicators such as the number of accidents or days off work. This of course, does not provide you any real clues on how safe you and your company are.
No history of injuries is often the result of luck as opposed to good safety management. People who rely on these statistics really are deluding themselves, probably at the expense of their workers.
The type of information that business owners should be requesting from staff should include:
- Number of new safe work procedures developed.
- Number of OHS training sessions conducted.
- Number / results of toolbox talks or OHS Committee Meetings held.
- Number of new hazards identified.
- Number of risk assessments conducted.
- Number of outstanding entries in a corrective action register.
- Results of systems audits.
Because business owners cannot be running around on the "shop floor" their future is dependent upon the frequency, nature and quality of information they demand from their staff. The more information - the better. In fact, you would be surprised to learn that just by asking for these types of actions, it helps your employees focus and become more strategic about managing their own time.
Of course, lead indicators such as these are just one strategy you can employ to manage your OHS risks, but it is an important one. "Due diligence" will vary dependent upon the position and the organisation, but by effectively delegating via the requirements of your safety management system, you are off to a good start.