Show Me the Safety

Oddly enough where I work they redid the original Safety Commitee into department commitees and formed a Safety Department.

Sadly time and again I have brought up safety issues only to hear nothing back and see very little if anything done to correct the issues. Time and again I have seen department leaders come up with new places to put production materials or work stations only to block breaker panels, block exits among other things.

Short version, on paper they talk about having open conversations about safety, but in practice fall short to the point if OSHA were to walk in the door, it could cost a bit before they left.

There's no way I'm going to let you pass my problems off as being your own.

A few months ago, our facility passed 1 million man-hours without an LTI and we offer no bonuses or incentives beyond being able to clock out at the end of the day with all your fingers and toes… incentive enough I would say.

(Note - for our industry… steel tubing and pipe production and fabrication… 1 million man-hours is pretty significant.)

What we do have is a commitment to Safety from the Plant Manager down to the cleaning person. Our Safety program is ISO 18001 compliant… soon to be certified and involves every person in the facility. Our safety committee is cross functional. Employees are encouraged to point out safety concerns. We shy away from any program that would discourage reporting even the smallest incident and actively encourage the reporting of minor scrapes and bruises.

Many companies I know of reprimand an employee for a safety violation and always place to onus on the person that had the violation. We don't do that here. Sure we realize that some safety violations are a result of an employee's intentional and conscious disregard for the policy, but those are extremely rare since the culture has changed. We always do a root cause analysis of every first-aid, every concern, every violation… no matter how small.

John Doe received a minor cut from a piece of scrap metal

Did he have his gloves on? No.

(many stop here and consider that a root cause, we don't)

Why? Because he forgot.

Why? Because he was not focusing on his task.

Why? Because he's tired.

Why? Because he has not been getting good sleep at night.

Why? Because he has a newborn at home and his wife is on bed rest.

(ok, now we're getting somewhere)

The point I am trying to make is, you do not need an incentive-based program as they generally discourage reporting minor first-aid type issues. But these are your bread and butter from a proactive management perspective. Encourage reporting of minor first-aid type issues, manage them, find the root cause and correct it. When your employees sincerely believe that you have a concern for their health and welfare and that you won't fire them the first time they have a brain fart, your facility safety performance will improve significantly… no incentives or bonuses needed, just a sincere concern for your employees well-being.

JavaHead

Are you dedicated to full time Safety? That is a major part of the Safety program. Where I am, I'm in charge of Safety, however it's treated as a collateral duty to my engineering duties that involve production. They put the burden on my shoulders but they don't pay me like someone that is going to take a lot of heat of someone should something serious happens. It's my understanding that there are a lot of companies that treat safety in that manner.

We have two sides of our company, we have a fabrication side and an assembly side. The fabrication supervisor takes everything I say seriously, he does write ups for safety violators and everyone over there observes safety. The Assembly side is a mess. There's too many chiefs over there and the leadmen and supervisors don't understand that if somebody drops a machine on somebody else, they will go to prison for voluntary manslaughter for not enforcing company safety policies. I've told them countless times and it's only me that telling them, I'm not getting suppourt from upper management because all they look for is production.

You have a tough row to hoe! Best of luck!

I feel your pain… we went through the same growing pains here as well about 9 years ago. Our HR Dept. had purview over Safety and the Engineering Dept. had purview over Environmental with no specific person assigned.

A new Plant Manager came in and changed it: First he created dedicated Safety and Environmental Coordinators. And, although they still fall under their aforementioned department managers, they report directly to the Plant Manager on all Safety or Environmental topics.

I'm the Environmental guy here, and I can attest that it was a rough transition at first… reporting to the Engineering Manager as my boss that does my performance reviews, etc. but reporting directly to the PM on Environmental concerns. The Safety Coordinator had the same transition issues, but once the structure was in place for a couple months and everyone settled in to the PM's vision, then it was just a matter of changing the culture out on the floor.

It takes complete buy-in from the Senior Staff and weeding out the middle management and supervisors that don't buy-in. About a year into the program (8 years ago now) we cycled through about 50% of our floor supervisors, a couple middle managers, and even one senior staff and a quite a few 'good' employees. Good meaning that guy that just jumps in there and gets it done… highly motivated to do a good job and quickly but as a results doesn't take that initial minute up front to ensure he's doing it safely… all gone. Once the culture changed and the employees could sense the sincerity of our efforts and the ultimate reason behind them… safety became a natural part of the process.

Bottom line is any safety program that doesn't have unwavering support from Senior Management, will fail.

From what a few responders have posted, I highly suggest that your advisement of company safety polices be written for CYI purposes. Also, there is a requirement by law that if you observe blatant disregards for regulatory safety requirements, that you must report them. If it is found that you knew of, but did not report, safety violations… you can also be held liable.

Same from the Environmental side… my job is to ensure that our managers know what they need to know so they don't violate any laws but it is also my job to ensure that I don't go to jail should they decide to break a few anyway.

Where does the safety officer fall in the chain of command?

If he reports to the president or equivalent and is all powerful then the company probably has a safety department.

If the emphasis is on slogan contests and posters then you probably have a joke department.

Look at Dupont's or Air Products - they have real safety departments.

It is a function of the empowered safety officer to see that workers can bring up problems and difficulties.

OSHA has issued 83 willful citations against Houston-based Goodman Manufacturing Co. for failing to record and improperly recording work-related injuries and illnesses at the company's Houston air conditioning cooling facility. Proposed penalties total $1,215,000.

"Accurate workplace injury and illness records are vital tools for identifying hazards and protecting workers' health and safety," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "Workers and employers need this information to recognize patterns of injuries and illnesses, and prevent future hazards."

OSHA's Houston North Area Office began its investigation March 2 in response to a complaint alleging that Goodman Manufacturing was not properly recording workplace injuries and illnesses in violation of OSHA's regulations. The investigation determined that Goodman had either not recorded or failed to properly record the nature and/or duration of 72% of employee injuries and illnesses from January 2008 to March 15, 2010, on its log.

Although Goodman was extremely knowledgeable about OSHA recordkeeping requirements, it made many unsupportable decisions that resulted in the deficiencies found by the agency. With regard to the injuries and illnesses improperly recorded, important information reflecting severity, such as the time away from work, was grossly incorrect.

"OSHA takes these violations extremely seriously," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels. "OSHA needs accurate data to effectively target its inspections and resources, and to measure the impact of OSHA's actions on workplace safety. Employers and workers need to understand how important accurate data are to workplace safety and health."

OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for OSHA's requirements or employee safety and health.

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Above taken from here.