Some of the media, over the weekend, was critical of BP for not applying a Safety Case to the BP/Deepwater horizon oil rig. The Safety Case is an established method of assessing risk in high-hazard organisations and should have been applied. Whether such a technique would have made any difference is debatable as it is … Continue reading “Safety Cases must become a reality in the US”
Guest author, Yossi Berger writes: “What’s the point of tellin’ them the same thing over and over when nothin’ changes? I open my mouth about safety again I could lose me job” he said, “Why would I bother?”[a] Introduction Words and names can be used as sneaky accomplices to construct popular or inaccurate narratives. When … Continue reading “OHS Canaries and Apathy”
In Matt Peacock’s book, “Killer Company“, an entire chapter is devoted to the legacy of the James Hardie chairman, John B Reid. In Peacock’s talk at Trades Hall in October 2009, he mentioned that Reid had once published a book called “Commonsense Corporate Governance”. The apparent hypocrisy of an executive of a company that knowingly … Continue reading “Good corporate advice tainted by poisonous product”
Only a few days ago, SafetyAtWorkBlog questioned the usefulness of vision statements. A leaked internal memorandum from the structural mechanical process division of John Holland reported in the Australian media on 27 April 2009 shows just how tenuous such statements can be. According to an article in the Australian Financial Review (not available online, page … Continue reading “The tenuousness of safety culture”
Advocates of safety culture regularly profess that it must be lead from the top of the corporate structure down. This applies a false definition of leadership. Leadership is innovation, understanding and support regardless of one’s position on the corporate ladder. It is true that professing leadership and corporate goals should be supported by the appropriate … Continue reading “Leading from the top on impairment”
Safety At Work magazine has been reporting on the seemingly endless deaths in the Chinese mining industry for many years. Many of the mine fatalities are of multiples that would generate huge investigations in the west. Many deaths are compounded by the attempts of mine managers to minimise the scale of the disasters by delaying … Continue reading “Why are many of China’s coalmines closed?”
In today’s Age newspaper Dr Mirko Bagaric takes the Australian Prime Minister to task on the matter of hypocrisy and how his actions now are beginning to reveal his character. However Bagaric, makes some comments about public servant workloads that are relevant. “Rudd has an important project. It is to run the country in a manner that … Continue reading “Public Servant Workload – Part 2”