Employers that aim to improve safety by focusing on worker behaviour, rather than hazards, risk creating a counter-productive blame culture and turning the hierarchy of controls "on its head", according to a new report from Britain's Trade Union Congress.
"It is not worker behaviour that should be the focus of action to improve safety but management behaviour, because management are in control of work and... make the decisions about workplace health and safety," the report, Behavioural Safety, states.
"The way to prevent injuries and illnesses is to remove the risks caused by hazards in the workplace. That means doing a risk assessment and, where there is a risk, acting on it.
"You prevent someone who is operating a guillotine from cutting off their hand by ensuring the machine is properly guarded and the blade cannot operate if there is any obstruction, not by teaching the operator to keep their hands out of the way."
Idiot-proof systems essential
According to the report, "behavioural safety" is the name given to strategies aimed at improving workplace safety by changing the conduct of employees. Central to these strategies, which are usually developed by management consultants, is the belief that most workplace injuries and illnesses result from "unsafe acts", it says. Indeed, some consultancies claim that as many as 96 per cent of injuries are caused by employee error, and only four per cent by unsafe conditions.
But these figures tend to be calculated from accident reports compiled by line managers, without questioning managers' claims or considering such factors as required work speeds, productivity levels and shift patterns, the report says. "Behavioural safety is founded on a wrong premise, which is that it is workers who cause injuries," it says.
"[But] before an 'unsafe behaviour' can cause an injury there has to be a hazard. If you remove the hazard, you eliminate the risk of exposure. "It is better to develop a system that is idiot-proof rather than have a health and safety system that is based on a worker doing what they have been trained and told to do."
Behaviour modification reverses control hierarchy
Many workplace injuries are caused by multiple factors resulting from a "failure to implement a safe system of work", and a focus on fixing the unsafe actions of workers "turns the hierarchy of controls on its head", the report says.
"Behaviour modification programs favour PPE and training as the main ways of preventing injury," it says. But employers that go down this path are at risk of breaching safety laws.
The elimination of hazards is critical, it says, and must be a priority.
Work-induced hearing loss, for example, is best prevented by reducing noise, rather than "giving workers ear protectors or advising them to stay away from noisy areas".
The report also warns against rewarding workers for accident-free periods, or punishing - through counselling, for instance - seemingly injury-prone staff.
"Where prizes or bonuses are offered to a group of workers, such as a single department, it can lead to resentment by work colleagues against an employee who is injured, as they may be blamed for the others losing their bonus," it says.
"This leads to workers failing to report injuries or near misses."
The report acknowledges that training workers in safe ways of working is "an important vehicle" for reducing injury and illness rates.
"However it is not a substitute for removing or controlling the risk," it says.
So, in light of this information, when you do last undertaken a Workplace Inspection?
Are you compliant? Are you managing your risk?
Safety for Life Pty Ltd
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