Why Are We Safe?
As you enter the factory, a giant banner proclaims: “Yea For Us, We Are Safe!” then, in the next 100 feet, a trained inspector finds a dozen or more violations.
Late in March ’10, a steel company in Houston, Texas was fined several thousand dollars for multiple violations – some repeated, uncorrected from a 2008 inspection. The latest inspection in October of 2010 was triggered by an injury that resulted in the amputation of a worker’s arm. On the Web site of their corporate parent a moving, well-worded safety policy touts how much they care about their employees.
It is possible to be safe. I have a video that tells the story of Robert, a maintenance worker in a major steel mill who worked there for 35 years without a single injury. Not even a minor, not recordable injury.
On the other hand, 4,340 U.S. workers were killed on the job in 2009. Almost all of those could have been prevented.
Most people call industrial injuries “accidents.” They are very few accidents, most are incidents. Incidents are 100% preventable. The only true accident is a situation over which no human has any control – a natural phenomenon such as weather or geological occurrences.
So, why are employers safe? Most, left to their own devices will completely ignore safety. Providing a safe workplace is a strange, conflicting concept to most employers. The one which are safe, to one degree or another, are safe because of three reasons.
First, employers are (sort of) safe because it is the law. I was driving on an Interstate a few days ago. I was going 70 in a 70MPH speed zone. Suddenly, all lanes ahead of me slowed to a bit over 50 and paraded sedately past a State Trooper in the median. Everyone wanted to drive at a safe speed, but only while being watched. Most of the safety seminar providers have frequent classroom and Webinars about “What to do when OSHA comes knocking.” My answer is to offer them a cup of coffee and show them around.
Second, employers are safe because safety has a true, demonstrable financial savings. According to OSHA and ASSE studies, each $1 invested in safety returns $4 to $6. That alone should be enough to move the most hardened board or manager.
Third, employers are safe because it is the right thing to do. Every worker has the right to return to their families at the end of every shift safe, healthy with their physical constitution intact. Treat every worker as if he or she were your brother, sister, mother, father, son or daughter. Hilda Solis, the U.S. Secretary of Labor, says: “With every [fatality or injury], the lives of a worker’s family members were shattered and forever changed. We can’t forget that fact.”
Two weeks ago in Houston, a jerk hacked into a portable, electric road sign. Instead of its intended warning, it now read: “:) LOL” which a lady I followed on Twitter thought was funny. I did a little digging and found that the original message warned of a closed bridge ahead. I posted on Twitter that maybe the new message was not so funny after all, that the original message was useful information now not available to drivers in downtown Houston. I asked how I was to feel if my son drove down that street and was injured or killed because of some guy’s idea of a joke. She stopped following me and blocked my posts — the equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears and singing.
As long as you are safe, the reason is not critical to the end result: safe workers. Being safe because it is the right thing to do is the best – and safest! – reason.
Author
Richard L. Jessup
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/richardjessup
Twitter: www.twitter.com/safetyrich
URL: www.safetyrich1.com
Safety Photos……… Health and Safety for Beginners………SafetyRich
