'I got your back, Mate!' - true blue comradery in our approach to safety.

Last week on LinkedIn I saw a photograph of a worker in a trench under a sheet of 18mm marine ply that had an excavator parked on top of it. Now, I'm all for a dialogue about safety - but you have to wonder what the photographer was thinking, stopping to take a photograph before intervening - if they intervened at all!

Things have changed in our industry worldwide, for sure since the famous Lunch Atop a Skyscraper photograph was taken in 1932, and back then safety was measured by  how well you could hang on.

These days every single worker has a legislated duty of care (in Australia at least) to take reasonable care that their actions (or inactions) don't adversely affect the safety of themselves or others.

So if I see a worker in a trench under a sheet of ply with an excavator parked on it, and I have enough presence of mind to stop and take a photograph for the social media value, what happens if thirty seconds or a minute or an hour later that ply gives way and the worker is killed?

I can't argue that I wasn't aware of the hazard - I saw it and I stopped to take a photo!

And heaven forbid my LinkedIn post turns up as evidence against me in Court, because I was negligent enough to stand around and post the bloody thing while the guy gets crushed to death. 

There are two problems with photographs like this - and neither of them have anything to do with the guy in the photo.

The first is the priorities of the photographer, for the reasons I've already mentioned.

The second is the way that we post these photographs on social media with headings like 'see any problems?' - because it makes people feel stupid!

On a separate occasion this week in a similar type of post, I read more than fifty comments made by top shelf industry people who weren't really sure what the safety issue was, but they had humble guesses, and some joked.

I myself felt stupid for not immediately being able to pick what the hazard was, and after sharing it with my safety manager he pointed out that nobody could actually draw any conclusions from that particular photograph, and that my reaction was similar to that which he has seen on site when a worker notices something and thinks it might not be quite right - but is too embarrassed to say anything!

And so that worker says nothing, and so does the next one, and the next one...

Now, I commend safety professionals for opening a dialogue about safety, but this type of dialogue is not conducive to the collaborative and open dialogue that we must adopt to change our industry culture.

It doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that if I approach someone on a construction site and make them feel stupid for an oversight in their own safety that I'm not going to be well received. In fact, I've even seen safety officers hide ladders from tradespeople because it didn't have a permit sticker.

These types of antics just peeve people right off - and rightly so!

But what if we all approached construction safety with an 'I got your back, Mate' approach, where I'm genuinely only concerned with making sure you're going home ok that day?  Shock horror - right?!!

Australia has created this problem for itself, with the allocation of legal liability and the use of fear and reprimand for non-compliance - although I readily acknowledge that arbitrary action is a natural result of an on mass failure to take responsibility. But it has got so bad that challenging the status-quo when it comes to safety isn't even politically correct, and any form of enquiry is met with accusation that those asking the questions have ulterior motives.

This prevents workers from genuinely looking out for one-another, and adversely has prompted a 'look after yourself' attitude, where the identification of unsafe work practices results in assignment of blame and shame.

A lot of my clients are experiencing a severe rise in photographs taken of unsafe work practices that are turning up on social media, or are being sent to them by their staff with messages like, 'this is not good enough'. When they make contact they often find that the text message sent to their boss was the ONLY action taken by their staff member, and that the unsafe work practice is ongoing.

On some occasions, there is even less courtesy involved when those staff send photos to union officials without even reporting the hazard to their Supervisor, discussing the issue with their Safety Rep or even (if neither of those options are available to them), going to the Principal Contractor.

Some workers don't tell anybody at all and then six months later use those photographs to lodge and substantiate a WorkCover claim.

Arguably, in these examples, the workers themselves could be found guilty of reckless conduct under our safety legislation for failing omitting to act or report - not a wise practice to get into if the foreshadowed industrial manslaughter charge is brought in.

In reality, these characters aren't likely to ever be motivated by a genuine safety outcome. But there is merit in changing the culture so substantially in this area that said characters no longer fit in.

The change in culture needs to start with an end to these 'see any problems?' type photographs by safety professionals, and a movement forward with an 'I've got your back, Mate' dialogue.