FIFO: RISKY BUSINESS
On a more serious note it’s worth a look at a report published by Safe Work Australia that looks at the attitudes towards risk taking and rule breaking in Australian workplaces. It found that 24% of workers considered minor accidents as a normal part of their daily working activities. In addition, 22% agreed that they should not be overly worried about being injured at work. When it came to risk taking behaviour, “workers were far more likely to accept risk taking than their bosses”.
Two of the top industries that most accept risk taking are transport and construction. The report noted that construction and mining labourers and factory workers were generally more accepting of risk taking and rule breaking than other workers.
It was found that labourers are more likely to accept workplace injury as a normal part of the job. Such acceptance is worrying and the study called for urgent action in the area of leadership to improve attitudes to work and safety.
Calculated adventure risk taking, for example, if you want to ski to the North Pole is another thing altogether. Frostbite, polar bears and hunger are risks that are pretty big dangers that are carefully planned for (or enjoyed watching on video!).
The trouble with risk taking in your workplace is when it becomes part of what is considered normal. There aren’t polar bears but there is something wrong when a quarter of workers would not be surprised to be injured at work.
Work Safe have said that this report has shown why we need to improve safety leadership and to discourage risk taking and rule breaking. There is still much work to do to improve safety culture in some industry sectors and occupations and that this report will help bring attention to this issue.
“Safety is not an intellectual exercise to keep us in work. It is a matter of life and death. It is the sum of our contributions to safety management that determines whether the people we work with live or die”,
Sir Brian Appleton (Safety Assessor Piper Alpha)