TUC Behavioural Safety A Briefing for Workplace Reps

[brothermagrew]

The TUC is warning union reps to be on the lookout for behavioural safety (BS) schemes that pin the blame for injuries and illness at work on 'unsafe acts' by workers. The union body says the schemes - which also go by the name of 'behavioural modification' or 'behaviour based safety' - require that 'management should target specific behaviours and aim to change these based on observing and monitoring workers.' TUC's new online guide adds: 'Many behavioural safety programmes also are linked to punishing 'bad' behaviour, such as if a worker has an injury or rewarding 'good behaviour' such as an 'accident free' period.' TUC says a claim by firms selling behavioural safety programmes that almost all injuries result from unsafe acts by workers 'is disputed by almost all other health and safety practitioners who say that the main cause of injuries is failings in the management of health and safety, and that you cannot simply classify an injury as being caused by one single cause, as normally it will be caused by multiple factors that result from a failure to implement a safe system of working.' The TUC guide adds: 'According to the HSE, 70 per cent of workplace deaths and injuries are caused by management failures.' The guide concludes: 'As behavioural safety focuses on the end point of a chain of events that lead to a worker doing something, it does not address the question of who makes the decisions about work speeds, productivity levels, shift patterns and how they relate to safety. For unions, the decisions made at boardroom level can have much more effect on injury rates than what individual workers do... It is not worker behaviour that should be the focus of action to improve safety but management behaviour, because management are in control of work and the workplace.'

Behavioural Safety A Briefing for Workplace Reps.pdf

[brothermagrew]

Major credit to brother POSTMAN http://www.cupw.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/12281/la_id/1.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If the above ain't a form of behavioural safety then I don't know what is and is this what we can expect in the future?