Duty of Care – Page 82 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

“We will trust but we will verify” – upcoming lessons from the Gulf of Mexico

The mass media is full of reports on legal action being taken on behalf of shareholders in BP over the continuing oil spill from the former Deepwater oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

An Australian video report was broadcast on 25 May 2010 and a composite article has appeared in The Australian on 26 May 2010 as well as elsewhere. Many outlets are mentioning the law suit (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and Robert Freedman v Anthony B Hayward et al, Court of Chancery for the state of Delaware, No. 5511) but no details of the suit are publicly available at the moment.

Although safety is mentioned as one of the bases for the suit, it is likely that environmental impact will get prominence over occupational safety and that impact on stock value will be of the most concern. The shareholder outrage mentioned in some of the articles seems to focus mostly on the financial impact on BP share value rather than any moral outrage on environmental impact or dead and injured workers.

BP CEO Anthony Hayward has acknowledged the substantial “reputational risk” but his comments are almost always reported surrounded by financial bad news. Continue reading ““We will trust but we will verify” – upcoming lessons from the Gulf of Mexico”

Eliminate the safety risk – sack the worker

A curious workplace safety and industrial relations issue has appeared in the Golden Circle factory in Queensland as reported in the Courier-Mail. 57-year-old forklift driver, Lance Pedersen has been sacked because he was found to be morbidly obese and with osteoarthritis in his knees.

The newspaper article raises many personnel management issues and there are sure to be more issues that have not been reported but a remarkable quote is reported from a company spokesperson:

“Golden Circle has an obligation to ensure the health and safety of all our employees,” the spokesman said. “We are therefore unable to continue to employ Mr Pedersen.” Continue reading “Eliminate the safety risk – sack the worker”

Where’s the Sarbanes-Oxley for workplace safety?

In 2002, after several corporate collapses, the United States government signed in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act which was intended to establish business practices on accounting and auditing among other aims. The Western world watched the introduction of this legislation and echoed many of the requirements in their own legislation and corporate oversight agencies.

It is likely in the wake of the global financial crisis that the United States (and Europe to a lesser extent) is entering another wave of corporate regulation or interference, depending on one’s politics.

These laws introduced substantial change to the management of businesses, the disclosure of information and the role of corporate executives. When will this type of change include occupational safety and health?

Firstly, the United States’ safety professionals and regulators need to accept that their system of OHS legislation and enforcement is not “world’s best practice”. There are major deficiencies in high-risk organisations and a misunderstanding of safety obligations at the shopfloor level. These problems exist partly because of the structure and population of the country itself and also because there is so much baggage in its legal system that new perspectives in law are difficult to imagine.

A significant change in OHS law outside the United States is the issue of personal accountability for safety-related decisions. There are few who complain about the jailing of CEOs and executives for the loss of money (their own and that of others) but there is a real barrier to jailing those same people when their management decisions led to a loss of life. Continue reading “Where’s the Sarbanes-Oxley for workplace safety?”

Post-Disaster PR/Risk Management – Upper Big Branch

A regular SafetyAtWorkBlog reader emailed in a comment this morning that we believe is justified as including it as a post itself. The Upper Big Branch Mine disaster is out of the news outside of the United States but as the Australian reader shows below, there are important lessons from how this disaster occurred and its aftermath as there is in most disasters. What needs to occur is for the issues to continue to be discussed and lessons applied. Some links in the post below have been added.

“I’ve been following the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster West Virginia, in which 29 miners died from an explosion that occurred on 5 April 2010. It appears that the explosion occurred due to a build up of methane and coal dust in the mine. Records show that, in the weeks leading up to the explosion, some miners had expressed fears for their lives to their families. One left a note for his family. To my thinking it reads like a suicide note. Continue reading “Post-Disaster PR/Risk Management – Upper Big Branch”

BP oil rig explosion – lawyer video

The explosion of the BP oil rig raises a huge number of issues in a variety of safety and environmental disciplines. In much of the media reportage, the plight of the workers on the rig has been given much less attention.

One media report has described BP as

“a London-based multinational oil giant with the worst safety record of any major oil company operating refineries in the United States.”

The oil rig, Deepwater horizon, was leased by BP through Transocean.

On 3 May 2010 a maritime injury lawyer with Gordon, Ellias, and Seely, Jeff Seely, reportedly acting on behalf of the a family of one of the (presumed) dead workers from rig, Karl Kleppinger, released a Youtube video, produced by the World Socialist Web Site, in support of his legal action against BP and others claiming negligence.

Shift work research findings are grounds for big concern

A scientific symposium held in Canada in April 2010 has raised some serious concerns about the health impacts of shift work. Some of the evidence has existed for a while but collecting it all together makes one wonder how companies can justify shift work in the face of such high risks to workers’ health.

From the evidence presented at the symposium, workers will be tired at work when working shift work and are more likely to be injured than those on day shift. Some workers have an increased risk of breast cancer. Foetal growth in some pregnant women may be impeded. Circadian disruption may encourage the growth of tumours and an international agency is convinced sufficiently of the risks to determine that shift work itself is probably carcinogenic.

The Occupational Cancer Research Centre and the Institute for Work & Health should be applauded for making the evidence presented at the symposium publicly accessible. Continue reading “Shift work research findings are grounds for big concern”

Workplace safety still missing from British election and political radar

Several weeks after UK Prime Minister called a general election and several months since David Cameron spoke volubly about the importance of occupational safety and health, workplace safety is yet to get a mention in the British election campaigns.

Croner and LabourNet reports that Mick Holder of the Hazards Campaign, said:

“While there isn’t anything positive for workplace health and safety activists in either the Labour or Tory manifestos, there is the worrying commitment to reduce regulation in the Tory one…..Given the Tory’s persistent and corrupt attacks on health and safety laws, including those in recent weeks, this must be an issue for those considering which way to vote in the forthcoming election.” Continue reading “Workplace safety still missing from British election and political radar”

Category: Duty of Care

“We will trust but we will verify” – upcoming lessons from the Gulf of Mexico

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Eliminate the safety risk – sack the worker

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Where’s the Sarbanes-Oxley for workplace safety?

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Post-Disaster PR/Risk Management – Upper Big Branch

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BP oil rig explosion – lawyer video

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Shift work research findings are grounds for big concern

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Workplace safety still missing from British election and political radar

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