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QUESTIONING THE BOSSES

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Nancy Lessin is the top US expert on union responses to behavioural safety. She has this advice for union reps.

Health and safety approaches that focus on workers' behaviour condemn workers as the problem. Unions see workers as the solution.

There is no one better to identify the hazards on a job, or come up with ideas to eliminate or reduce those hazards, than the worker doing that job. If a job is being done "unsafely," a good rule of thumb is to "ask 'why?' five times." For example:

Andrea got something in her eye at work.
But why?
Because she wasn't wearing her safety glasses.
But why?
Because they were all scratched up and she couldn't see out of them.
But why?
Because her employer bought the really cheap glasses that get scratched all the time.
But why?
Because her employer wanted to save money.
But why?
Because profits are more important to her employer than worker safety and health.

Asking "why" questions allows an inquiry to get to root causes - the source of the problem that will need to change in order to bring about a safer workplace.

Unions can then strategise about what it would take to get an employer to purchase adequate personal protective equipment, or use engineering controls to eliminate the need for workers to wear personal protective equipment, or in some other way make the workplace safer.

An approach that blames workers for their "bad behaviour" thwarts real prevention efforts. It's management behaviour that is putting workers' health and lives at risk, and management behaviour that must change in order to achieve safe and healthy workplaces.

HAZARDS MAGAZINE   •  WORKERS' HEALTH INTERNATIONAL NEWS