Politically Correct Is Incorrect
Dave Smith has been an Industrial Maintenance Electrician since 1975. He has taught maintenance, troubleshooting and safety courses to thousands of electricians in mines, mills, refineries, factories, plants, power stations and offshore platforms throughout North America and the Middle East. Dave is a hands-on guy and teache...
A corporation, after all, is a legal entity owned by absentee shareholders, created to allow a group of individuals to carry on business activities. Like a rock, a corporation is an inanimate thing-brought alive only by the presence of humans.
Half-a-million dollars sounds like a lot, but it's a drop in the bucket to a corporation with thousands of employees (and far less than mundane budgets, such as bathroom supplies). The result of such a fine is that this publicity traded corporation merely pays a little bit less to its shareholders, and the workplace tragedy would likely not have much effect on share price. As it is a publicly traded company, the fine is not money owed by the CEO or a senior, middle or junior manager. As in any other accepted loss in business, it is very unlikely for anyone to be fired because of it. It's just another write-off.
In this particular accident, one individual created a hazardous situation but did not mark nor barricade the hazard. several other individuals actually encountered the hazard prior to the accident but were able to escape. They, too, never marked or barricaded the hazard.
I'm not arguing against the fine to the corporation (it does help keep them on their toes, and the appearance of justice appeals to the masses), but to exclude the ones who had the closest control over preventing the accident means this will continue to happen. So while it is politically correct to levy huge fines against corporations, it is not politically correct to levy huge fines against workers.
If workers knew they would be on the hook when they failed to do their duty, to be duly diligent, and someone died or was seriously injured, then it would not take long for before they started doing everything they possibly could to prevent accidents.
For instance, if I drive through a stop sign and kill a family, everyone would blame me-and rightfully so. If I removed a stop sign and someone else went through the unmarked intersection and killed a family, I would still be rightfully blamed.
But what if I see that someone has removed a stop sign and do nothing? If someone goes through the intersection and kills the family, I am still to blame (though I'm far enough removed from the incident that nothing would happen to me). And, finally, I see an unmarked intersection, recognize the danger and realize that a stop sign should be installed, yet do nothing and someone dies, I should still be rightfully blamed (though, again, nothing would happen to me).
It is this fourth level of involvement that our hazard-recognition processes attempt to address and were not implemented in the two instances prior to the work-place death. All three of these individuals-the one who created the hazard and the two who encountered it and escaped-have all been through dozens of safety meetings. Level Four thinking should be automatic but it's not, simply because we accept its absence.
In this death, a corporation paid a huge fine and the family and public vented at a legal entity. Until we vent our anger-and punishment-at those who can most directly prevent accidents and deaths, they will continue.
No matter how many statements we write into a safety program, nor how many times we hold safety meetings, there is nothing that gets a workers attention faster than fear of loss. Every student in every marketing class is taught that people respond to fear of loss. Many highly successful ads have caused consumers to buy immediately because they believed that, without it, they might lose something.
Wise woman have known for eons that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and it will be a wise judiciary that realizes that the way to results can be through an individual's wallet. Sure, some regular folks may lose thousands of dollars from their own bank accounts, but that's nothing compared to a family looking down the table at an empty chair at every get-together.
Until next time, be ready, be careful and be safe.
Canada Training Group has been providing consulting services to industry since 1980; Dave Smith, the president, can be reached at davesmith@canada-training-group.ca.