Better Strategies needed to eliminate workplace fatalities

"It is time they focused on the things that kill," said Mr Carter who is now chairman of leading Melbourne-based occupational health and safety consultants ZEAL Consulting.

Mr Carter said most companies’ safety thinking was geared toward reducing lost time injury frequency rates (LTIFRs) and associated costs. However a good LTIFR record does not necessarily mean a workplace is free of life-threatening safety risks.

"What these companies don’t realise is that there is no connection between their LTIFR performance and the likelihood of employees getting killed or disabled in workplace accidents. You can have a good LTIFR record in a potential death trap.

"The fact is that common incidents and serious, life-threatening accidents are two totally different things because they have different causes. Consequently they must be seen and dealt with in different ways.

"Unfortunately most companies still do not understand this. As a result, they fail to properly assess the serious safety risks inherent in the nature and design of their work places, let alone take the necessary preventive actions."

Mr Carter said this situation was further exacerbated by the fact that a good LTIFR record often gave companies a false sense of security with respect to the potential for high impact accidents. This also contributed to many new projects still being designed and developed without sufficient attention being given to the elimination of inherent safety risks.

Mr Carter said company policies that focused almost solely on reducing incidents which cause lost time were short-sighted and flawed.

"Companies need to take a long, hard look at what fatalities and disabling accidents do to employees’ morale and their attitude toward management, not to mention the human tragedy involved.

They have a devestating and lasting effect, particularly if it turns out that the accident was readily preventable."

Mr Carter said the introduction of a two-tiered approach to workplace safety – that is, where minor damage and high impact damage, including fatalities, are subject to separate strategies – must be driven from the top.

"Senior management must accept responsibility for, and become more directly involved in, occupational health and safety because it profoundly affects workforce morale.

"Employees see the company’s performance in this area as a fundamental indicator of management’s attitude toward its workforce. This reaction spills over into every facet of the organisation and thus impacts directly on its ability to implement change, as well as its performance, the bottom line and, of course, shareholder value," said Mr Carter.