A Dark Secret of Safety.
Bart Vanraes
Freelance preventieadviseur en Safety Maverick die Safety aan het fixen is en tippexongevallen bespreekbaar maakt
Even most safety professionals don't know about... Tippex Accidents.
If you're wondering what Tippex Accidents actually are, allow me to provide a quick definition. Tippex Accidents are work accidents or work injuries that are not correctly reported by the victim or by the company to hide the accident.
And no idea what tippex is? Tippex is the same as correction or white-out fluid. So, feel free to speak of 'white-out accidents' if that makes more sense in your country. I think the most important is that we finally give this a name.
Underreporting vs Tippex
Does that mean that it is the same as underreporting? Do you know that in the literature, they talk about underreporting? Of course, I'm well aware of that term in the literature, I have read a lot of those scientific papers. And by studying those papers, I also found a lot of different kinds of underreporting. Violence, snake bites, environmental spills, abuse, and recently also underreporting of covid deaths. Google it, and you'll see what I mean. It is at this point that I realized that the word 'underreporting' is perhaps not the best word. You could speak about 'the underreporting of X, Y, or Z'. But why not use one specific word instead of a longer description,?you might object. Well,?we use the term 'forest' instead of' a location with a collection of trees', right?
Reporting vs Accident.
Perhaps the most important reason for using the term Tippex Accident is that the term 'Tippex Accident' makes clear what we are talking about. Everyone who knows tippex, correction, or white-out fluid, knows that we use it to remove spelling errors and mistakes. Handy for errors in writing, but not smart for work accidents. And through speaking about accidents, it is made clear that it means someone suffered and had a painful experience, and nobody wants painful accidents. There is a big difference when speaking about underreporting. 'Underreporting' doesn't make me immediately think of the human behind the missing numbers. Perhaps only bureaucrats and statisticians would mind not having every item in the report.
And when I started digging into the problem, I was horrified to find so many stories, such severe cases, and such high numbers of unreported accidents. Tippex Accidents are an enormous global problem. And the most worrying part, most professionals are not aware this is happening on this scale, and also with severe accidents.
How Big is This Problem?
As I mentioned, I have read a lot of scientific papers (*1) about underreporting of work injuries. Here are the numbers of unreported injuries in these papers. Different locations, different ways of investigating, and different sectors, from cities to construction sites, from hospitals to more general research.
It’s not only science that is talking about this. The Dutch labor inspection made in 2017 an educated guess, between 30% and more than even 50% of serious accidents are not reported (*2). In the report for 2021, after a scan, they 'upgraded' the number to 50%. (*3) Meaning not the small ones, but the injuries where the victim has to go to the hospital, cannot work the day(s) after, etc... The so-called LTI/LTA (lost time incident/accident).
And what do you think about this quote from Dr. Cameron Mustard? "Based on work that the Institute has done over more than two decades, we are comfortable with that estimate, he added. Somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of potentially compensable conditions are typically not reported to provincial compensation authorities in Canada. (*4) The discrepancy represents about 50,000 cases a year of work-related injuries and illnesses treated in Ontario’s emergency departments that do not correspond to a claim in Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) records.
And the International Labour Organization (ILO), part of the WHO, thinks that in India, more than 99% of fatal incidents are not reported. Or, in numbers, the ILO is talking about 39,000 people who died on the job, but are not reported. 'The report said such statistics suggested that only a fraction of the real toll of work-related death and disease is covered in a number of developing countries.' (*5)
Counting Accidents?
Some of these Tippex Accidents are just numbers games, where the victim gets the best treatment but officially, nothing 'bad' happened. Is everybody happy? Although it looks like a smart move, I'm wondering what the impact is in the long run. Will it make the workplace and the world safer??How can we get smarter, better, and safer if we don't know what's happening in the first place? And how are the workers looking at safety and looking at the leaders if they know the truth? Another year accident-free? Yeah, right…
Personally, I think counting accidents is not the best metric to see how safe you are working. I guess you don't want to get into?a car with a drunk, speeding, or texting driver, even if he can show you his record of 7 years accident-free. And how is it possible that we don’t count serious injuries as an LTI/LTA if the worker immediately gets another, lighter duty? This doesn’t make any sense.?Let’s put it in another perspective. If your car window is broken, and your insurance immediately replaces it, can we say that your window wasn't broken, simply because, in 24h, everything looks fine? Great service, but the initial problem still happened.
Victims are Suffering Unnecessarily.
So Bart, is it just a matter of numbers games, or are there other cases where the victim doesn't get the best treatment? Sadly, I have seen many examples where the aid didn't come first, or not at all. I personally know?some workers who didn't report a broken finger or chemical burn wound but took a painkiller and waited until they finished work to go and see their own personal doctor. Officially, it happened at home, and no questions were asked. But it can get worse, way worse. Last year I spoke to a survivor of a severe accident on a Belgian construction site. He fell more than 20 meters (65 feet!), and that's just the beginning of the nightmare for this person. The owner of the company was doing illegal things on site. Calling the ambulance would raise annoying questions, and if the police would come, it could even get worse. So, no call for medical assistance, but instead he put the bleeding worker in a truck and drove off. Not to a hospital, but to an abandoned street, leaving him for dead. Luckily, he didn't die. Someone found him and did what every human being should do, called 911. After surgery, a few months in a coma, and 1 year in the hospital, he could start a new life in a wheelchair. The changes, the rehabilitation, and the legal struggle were enormous.
Is this an exception? Luckily, these kinds of criminal and inhumane events doesn't happen that much in Belgium, although they should never happen, never at all. But do you know what's happening in preparation for 'our FIFA2022'? The ITUC estimates at least 4,000 more workers will die before the start of the World Cup in 2022. The estimation of deaths in Qatar is conservative and based on the tragic statistics collected by two embassies only – Nepal and India – together accounting for around 50% of the total migrant workforce. (*6)
"More than 6500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup 10 years ago, the Guardian can reveal." (*7)
And why we don’t hear about it? Perhaps this explains it. (*6, page 14)
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The Other Big Misconception
If people think accidents are not reported, they look surprised when they realize also that severe injuries are not reported. The second big misconception is that if it happens, it is only happening in these notorious companies or sectors that don't take safety too seriously. Sadly, also this isn't true. Here are two examples. What do you think about the?nuclear sector ?in the US or the?British railway ? And the examples I personally know are from chemical plants. How is it possible this is happening? Just some bad apples in an almost flawless system? I don't think so. The real question is, why are we not speaking openly about the reality? How can we make the world safer if we don't see the big picture? And if there is no psychological safety to talking about injuries, what are we not telling each other?
Why Is This Happening?
There are many reasons to not report accidents. The victim and/or the company can have different reasons. I will give more insights into this in the next article. But feel free to share your ideas or experience.
Not reporting, or Report 'creative'?
The high number of not reporting is already explained above, but what about hiding some 'details'? Listen to this sad story, of how a worker who broke his back (and miraculously can walk again) was pressured to lie about the accident. It's already hard to get an idea about the not reported. Assessing the reality and magnitude of this phenomenon seems even more difficult to me. How to recognize if everything is shared. How to discover these lies or censorship.
To Summarize the Problem of Tippex Accidents.
What Can We Do?
Bart Vanraes, Sept 2020.
P.S. Do you want to share your experience? Don’t hesitate to?contact me , discretion is guaranteed.?
Sources:
*1 Here are a few scientific papers about 'underreporting'
*8 Severe Under-reporting of Work Injuries in Many Countries of the Baltic Sea Region. Kari Kurppa, MD, PhD Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
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1 年This article links well to a conversation we were having on site about the construction industry, and how different safety expectations are to the offshore environment. I did find this very emotive, how do we stop these kinds of behaviours, fears, dehumanising working environments? A colleague shared this video link today, sadly we don’t have little creatures that can fix the broken people to start again the next day… https://fb.watch/lajlartOXb/
Human factor and system safety specialist
2 年Interesting, and it's true. I like the idea of changing how we talk about failure to report accidents. Underreporting, in this word, there is not only a term that talks about a lack of reporting. There is also an unspoken assumption about the person that does not report, that be the person who is exposed to the accident. The person (in this context, management) who is supposed to handle safety is "released" from his responsibility... It is not reported (from the employee), then it is not possible to do anything, the management can breathe a sigh of relief. By putting "new words" such as tippex accitens, the focus shifts from the one or those who should, should, could have reported to the accident itself. As you say, the accident has happened, although it is never spoken of...
Safety isn't expensive, its priceless. Director - Anzen Safety & Compliance Ltd. Health & Safety Advice & Training Providers
2 年Interesting article Bart, an issue well raised and championed. It takes me back to my school days - my tutor banned the use of Tippex, saying it was dis-honest and you should always put a line through a mistake and then write the correction rather that hide it with Tippex. A philosophy that meant everyone could see your mistake and learn from it.