“Who is responsible for their safety and health? We all are.”
Duty of Care implications at work
Lecturing employees about safety is one thing, however being able to interest and engage employees in safety can be quite another.
Experiences on site hold the key to establishing what workplace safety culture and attitudes exist, the impact of these in hindering safety progress, and highlighting room for improvement. This information can unlock potential to find new and interesting ways to communicate safety messages to employees within the Mining industry so employees can relate, understand and retain information presented to them.
One site visit inspired a series of presentations to effectively address gaps within their safety culture, specifically duty of care requirements. An investigation of a recent near miss revealed employees were not considering the tasks as a whole, only their part in it.
A presentation was written for each crew based on its particular dynamics. Initially the crew was asked who was responsible for their health and safety. All employees indicated themselves. A specific person was named and the crew asked who was responsible for their health and safety, all crews restated that person’s name. This further evidenced that crews were not aware they were responsible for each other’s health and safety at work.
Duty of care was then explained and a scenario outlined, such as a forklift colliding with a rock or a welding-electrocution incident, which resulted in serious and permanent harm.
After each scenario, the crews were asked how they felt. A long initial silent pause, looking down at the floor showed clearly they were affected. And so the simple question was asked- what could have been done to prevent the incident. Many people spoke up and offered good suggestions, which showed as soon as employees were aware of a hazard they knew the controls.
The final message to each of the crews was to remember to look after one another, consider what others are doing around you, and how your actions can affect them.
The presentations were extremely well received, with employees saying the information had a high level of impact, was easy to understand- and straight to the point. More importantly, subsequent evidence has shown that the new information is being taken on board and applied to the workplace.