Ben, I think you’re right and that is why we need to be careful. Part of the economic definition is multi-factorial productivity and labour productivity. Both are measured different and come from different motivations.

The GDP calculation of productivity may be useful to government policymakers but means next to nothing to business owners.

In my experience organisations that take safety seriously are better run, better planned and are likely to be better performers in terms of typical business measures of success (safety can be hard to do well – if you can get that right as an organisation it is likely that you are getting many other things right). I am sure that there are exceptions to this generalisation but safety need not be painted a drag on the ticket so to speak.