The Unchanging Corporate Attitude toward Investing in Safety for Workers
Keeping workers safe from harm while on the job is so important that an entire industry has developed in this country dedicated to “safety leadership.” There’s even an official organization dedicated to supporting these “occupational safety and health professionals” called the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP). It has been working to make things safer for the American worker since 1911.
Many of these safety professionals gathered recently in Dallas for the 2019 Safety Leadership Conference. An overview of the event is covered in an article written by Dave Blanchard and published by EHS Today on December 10, 2019, entitled “You Can’t Put a Price on Safety, but Do It Anyway: Investing in Safety is The Best Financial Decision a Company Can Make.”
Reading this article reveals the reality of how worker safety is perceived by many (if not most) employers in this country. Consider the “common lament” described in the piece where “senior management constantly has to be convinced that investing in safety is a smart decision.”
Why? For the employer, it’s all a revenue analysis: spending money on safety expenses mean less profits on the company’s bottom line.
The Dollars and Cents Arguments to Budget for Worker Safety
Trying to stop preventable work accidents from happening, safety professionals try to speak the language of the employer and focus upon dollars and cents. Both safety advocates and federal safety agencies understand that companies all too often put profits over people. To that end, they try and capture the employer’s attention by trying to persuade greater worker safety from a budgetary stance.
ASSP: Safety is Good Business
Consider the ASSP’s arguments for “Why Safety is Good Business.” They point to “returns on investment” for the employer when money is spent to keep workers safe. These returns include the following (quoting ASSP):
- Positive public image: Employers want their employees, customers and the public to view them as safety minded, health conscious and sustainable.
- Compliance with regulations, laws and standards: Non-compliance can be disastrous and cost an organization financially and in public perception.
- Cost savings: Occupational safety and health (OSH) programs can reduce costly worker injuries and incidents — allowing companies to reduce expenses related to medical care, paid time off, litigation and disaster mitigation.
- Increased operational efficiency: An organization-wide focus on safety leads to higher worker productivity, which drives short-term revenue growth and supports long-term sustainability.
OSHA: Specific Industry Resources for Safety
OSHA also promotes increased workplace safety by addressing a cost-benefit analysis with the employer. Delving into the needs of individual industries, OSHA provides resources that include (quoting from the site):
Construction
- Building a Safety Culture: Improving Safety and Health Management in the Construction Industry. Dodge Data and Analytics, CPWR, and United Rentals, (2016). Includes a section on the impact of safety practices and programs on business factors, such as budget, schedule, return on investment, and injury rates.
- Workers’ Compensation Costs of Falls in Construction (PPT). OSHA, (2012). Study shows that the average workers’ compensation claim costs for falls by roofers and carpenters are more costly than other falls.
- The Price of Inaction: A Comprehensive Look at the Costs of Injuries and Fatalities in Maryland’s Construction Industry. Public Citizen, (2012). Reviews the economic burden of workplace injuries and fatalities in Maryland’s construction industry by estimating the direct, indirect, and quality of life costs resulting from fatal and nonfatal injuries. The report estimates that construction fatalities and injuries cost the Maryland economy $712.8 million from 2008 to 2010.
- The Great American Ballpark. OSHA and Abbott Case Study, (February 2005). Communicates the business value and competitive advantages of an effective safety and health program.
Steel Products
- OSHA and The Steel Group Case Study. OSHA, (December 2005). Shows how Chaparral Steel implemented its “Manager Accountable for Safety and Health” (MASH) program to educate managers, supervisors, and team leaders about OSHA compliance, safe work practices, and company-specific policies and procedures.
The Language of Money: The Largest OSHA Fines in 2019
When a worker is hurt or killed on the job, his or her employer may be found responsible for one or more violations of federal safety regulations and accordingly assessed monetary penalties or fines by OSHA.
We’ve discussed this before, see: Employers Not Fazed by Increased OSHA Fines and Indiana OSHA Report Released on State Fair Tragedy: Mid-America Sound Corp. Fined $63,000. It’s Not the End of the Story.
In an article by Kevin Druley entitled “OSHA’s Top 10 most cited violations for 2019,” and published on November 24, 2019 by Safety and Health Magazine, the highest OSHA penalties for 2019 are outlined (using OSHA press releases from 10/01/18 to 09/30/19). Included in the article’s “penalty box list” are the following:
Residential Construction
- $1.792 Million OSHA Fine for 13 willful violations, along with 3 serious violations and one repeat violation of federal safety regulations, resulting in the death of a residential construction worker who died after falling 20 feet to the ground after trying to climb off of a roof and onto scaffolding.
- $603,850 OSHA Fine for 5 willful violations, along with 5 serious violations, 6 repeat violations, and one other-than-serious violation that included employees working without any fall protection at three different work sites.
General Construction
- $687,619 OSHA Fine for 3 willful violations, along with 7 serious violations, and 3 other-than-serious violations that resulted in the death of a worker who fell 40 feet from a scaffold while working on a 1.5 million gallon above-ground storage tank at an orange juice processing facility.
Modular Homebuilder
- $687,650 OSHA Fine for 8 willful, 21 serious, and three other-than-serious violations that resulted in the amputation of a worker’s limb due to employer’s failure to use machine guarding, provide fall protection, and train workers on hazard communication and hearing conservation.
Inspections, Fines, and Worker Safety
In addition to assessing fines, OSHA reportedly has increased its number of inspections to a higher number than has occurred in the past three years. In 2019, OSHA agents performed a “record number” of inspections (33,401,401), nationwide.
However, as discussed in our previous post, workers today continue to face the same type of dangers year after year in this country. Falls are particularly risky for many workers, with 2019 being the ninth year in a row that fall protection regulations remained the number one violation among American employers.
Sadly, for many workers and their families, their employers will continue to put profits over people and employees will be forced to quit or to work in dangerous conditions. Sometimes, there’s no choice. Read, Hurt on the Job Site: Workers Afraid to Make a Safety Complaint.
For those who are hurt or killed as a result of an on-the-job work accident, justice may well come from pursuing legal claims against the employer for monetary damages resulting from the accident, including things like medical expenses, lost wages, rehabilitation costs, and the like. In cases of willful disregard of the worker’s safety, there may be the ability to obtain exemplary damages, as well, depending upon the circumstances of the particular case.
For more, read:
- OSHA’s Top Ten Serious or Willful Violations of Worker Safety Laws
- Ironworkers in Indiana and Illinois: High Risk of Serious or Fatal Injuries on the Job
- Worker Fatalities: What are the Most Dangerous Jobs in 2019?
- Fatal Rooftop Falls: Record-Breaking Number of Deadly Falls from Roof
Workers deserve to have safe working conditions, however employers all too often view worker safety as costing too much money and they are willing to risk the employee’s life in order to maximize profits. Anyone working in Indiana and Illinois needs to know that they cannot assume they work in safe conditions and should take care to protect themselves and those around them. Please be careful out there!
