WAKE UP CALL FOR LEADERS!

• Various safety journals / periodicals, call attention to the role of leaders in HSSE:
• “Attitudes to health and safety are determined by the bosses, not the organization’s size”.
• “Health and safety is a key to success. Bosses who do not show direction in this area are failing in their duty as leaders and are not fulfilling their moral obligation, as a result damaging their own hard built organization”.
• “An organization will never be able to achieve the highest standards of health and safety management without the active involvement of the bosses”.
• “Health & Safety drive without involvement of boss is like a rudderless ship”.
• “Health and safety is a fundamental part of business. Companies need someone with passion and energy to ensure it stays at the core of the organization. This someone has to be from amongst the bosses”.

WHAT BOSSES MUST DO

• Showing commitment to safety;

• Establishing effective ‘downward’ communication systems and safety forums for gaining participation of all;

• Treating health and safety management as important as business decisions.

• Engaging the workforce in the promotion and achievement of safe and healthy conditions;

• Effective ‘upward’ communication;

• Providing quality training.

• Identifying and managing health and safety risks;

• Accessing (and following) competent advice;

• Monitoring, reporting & reviewing performance

When HSSE is not seen as a regulatory burden: it offers significant opportunities.

Benefits can include:

• reduced costs and reduced risks

1. employees’ absence and turnover rates are lower,
2. accidents are fewer,
3. the threat of legal action is lessened;

• improved standing among suppliers and partners;
• a better reputation as a responsible corporate citizen among investors, customers and communities;
• increased productivity – employees are healthier, happier and better motivated secure

Health and safety law, in developed world, states that organizations must:

• provide a “Safety Manual” – written health and safety policy (if they employ five or more people);
• assess risks to employees, customers, partners and any other people who could be affected by their activities;
• arrange for the effective planning, organization, control, monitoring and review of preventive and protective measures;
• ensure they have access to competent health and safety advice;
• Consult employees about their risks at work and current preventive and protective measures.

Failure to comply with these requirements can have serious consequences – for both organizations and individuals. Sanctions include fines, imprisonment and disqualification.

• Health and safety should appear regularly on the agenda of their meetings.
• One of the board members should be named as the health and safety ‘champion’.
• The presence on the board of a health and safety director can be a strong signal that the HSSE is of strategic importance.

• Be existent and seen on the ‘shop floor’, following all safety measures yourself and addressing any breaches immediately.

• Consider health and safety when deciding senior management appointments and / or promotions.
• Enforce procurement standards for goods, equipment and services to help prevent the introduction of expensive health and safety hazards.
• Assess the health and safety arrangements of partners, key suppliers and contractors – a safety week may serve as an apt reminder.

• Identify and address the key issues and guard against time and effort being wasted on trivial risks and unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Provide health and safety training to some or all of the top management to promote understanding and knowledge of the key issues in your organization.
• Support worker involvement in health and safety.

• Effectively monitor sickness absence and workplace health as a tool to ascertain underlying problems that could seriously damage performance or result in accidents and long-term illness.
• The collection of workplace health and safety data can allow the boss to benchmark the organization’s performance against others in its sector.

• Appraisals of senior managers can include an assessment of their contribution to health and safety performance.

• As a boss ask for regular reports on the health and safety performance and actions of contractors.

• Win greater support for health and safety by involving workers in monitoring.

• Join the bandwagon of reputed organizations in which performance on health and safety is increasingly being recorded in annual reports to stakeholders.
• Increase ‘shop floor’ visits to gather information for the formal review.
• Celebrate, recognize and reward (R&R) good health and safety performance.

• In Sri Lanka, following the fatal injury of an employee maintaining machinery at a recycling firm employing approximately 30 people, a company director received a 12-month custodial sentence for manslaughter. LOTO was not followed. ‘Evidence showed that the director chose not to follow the advice of his health and safety advisor and instead adopted a complacent attitude, allowing the standards in his business to fall.’
• In Bangladesh, the managing director of a manufacturing company with around 100 workers was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment for manslaughter following the death of an employee who became caught in unguarded machinery. The judge made clear that whether the managing director was aware of the situation was not the issue: he should have known as this has always been known potential hazard.
• In India, a company employed ten, mostly young, temporary workers; they were not trained or equipped to safely remove the asbestos, nor warned of its risk. Its officers were fined a fortune, disqualified from holding any directorship for two years and ordered to pay hefty costs of prosecuting Court.

It can happen in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It happens in Pakistan too day-in-and-day-out. Bosses beware!!

SHELL, SKM, JCI AND LCSC CALLS YOUR ATTENTION TO WAKE UP BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.