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Are Workplace Fatalities Inevitable?
When I first read Tony’s article, I was reminded of a Public Relations course I took a few years ago. We had a guest speaker whose attitude towards workplace safety outright shocked me. She explained that in preparing a communications plan for a major construction project, all contingencies had to be considered including the inevitable death of a worker. I was shocked and so was the rest of the class. She actually smiled at our “naïveté”; I actually gasped at her attitude.
I’m not naïve. I understand the importance of preparing for every imaginable disaster. But to have the attitude that a workplace death is inevitable is, to me, just wrong. And it made me wonder about the role that corporate attitude played in the “inevitable” death of the young male worker that actually did occur during the construction project.
What do you think? Are all workplace fatalities preventable or are some inevitable?
Take the poll on the left-hand side of the SafetyXChange homepage.
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I am shocked that someone would even consider that workplace deaths are inevitable. I wonder how many spouses would let their loved ones even apply for a job that had in the job description, "Workplace deaths are inevitable in this position"?
I think you are asking the wrong question. If your question is "Is it possible to identify and control (eliminate or mitigate) those workplace hazards that would cause an injury (or fatality)?"; then the answer is Yes, it is POSSIBLE.
However, I recall the sign that says "You can have it fast, you can have it safe, you can have it cheap: pick any two." As a practical matter we understand two realities: that we have to assess risk and address hazards systematically; and we have to realize that certain workplaces are inherently dangerous and some of those dangers cannot be eliminated. We control them the best we can, but a completely separate factor then comes into play: human error.
If the question you are asking in the poll is "Can we eliminate human factors as a risk factor in injury/death?" then the answer is No: as long as humans are involved, errors will occur and human frailties will impact circumstances.
"Are workplace fatalities inevitable" is the wrong question because it addresses an issue beyond our purview: absolute control of all factors in the workplace. The appropriate question is "Are workplace injuries (NOT just fatalities) acceptable?"
The answer to THAT question is a resounding "NO". In 25 years, I've investigated a total of three accidents that we could not figure a way to prevent.
Greetings. I fully agree with Mr. Hank Roberts on his comments regarding the issue. If the question is "could we eliminate or treat workplace hazards to to make the risks ALARP, then the answer will be YES. With the present question you have now, I will honestly answer YES to the inevitable...and that would be talking like a person who does not care about safety. As safety practitioners we do care a lot about safety but we, alone. can not control the situation on site.
Sad to say, the resource speaker was right in treating worker's death as a disaster because Death in a Workplace is a disaster. It means that a major system failure occurs and loss of life resulted. If we will be able to put control measures for this system failure in order prevent this "disaster" from happening, it will be a safety achievement for all.