Longford: Corporate leaders must stand up to be counted

"Better training and supervision, as recommended by the royal commission, are very important. But ultimately it’s the company’s work culture that determines the real level of workplace safety, and that can only flourish if it is driven from the top," said Carl Luttig, managing director of leading OHS advisors ZEAL Consulting.

"Engineering controls and safety management systems are essential to ensure safe operations. But these are less than effective if the organisational culture is not aligned to the same goals," he said.

"Ultimately it is the behavior of employees that determines the long term effectiveness of systems.

"This behavior is impacted by a range of complex factors including the conduct and rhetoric of management. All too often the messages about safety are in conflict with those of other business imperatives and in these cases it is inevitably the bottom line focus which drives behavior."

He said senior management’s unambiguous commitment was as critical to the success of workplace safety programs, as it was to any other aspect of corporate endeavor.

"Unfortunately the Longford experience has been so adversarial as to promote a climate in which it may be even more difficult to introduce genuine cultural change. There is a danger that companies will become more defensive instead of proactive in improving workplace safety," he said.

"Already we have seen many workplace safety audits conducted purely for the purpose of securing a legal defence, rather than actually providing a safer workplace.

"Many such audits are little more than cynical attempts to secure a ticket-out-of-jail. But the truth of the matter is that, on their own, audits don’t constitute a legal defence, and most of them are totally inadequate because they do not properly identify safety risks," said Mr Luttig.

For more information please contact Carl Luttig on +613 9614 3599.