This 1938 film, Safety on the Job, was made for the US Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the US Department of Agriculture. The film focuses on careless mistakes which lead to injury made by a Civilian Conservation Corps unit at work clearing a forest trail. As shown in this film, many employers in the past (and some still today) blame workplace accidents on workers rather than look at hazardous job conditions. In the past, based on this attitude, workers were often openly called stupid, careless and accident-prone and blamed as the cause of their injuries. With this approach, the result of most accident investigations is to blame the injured worker and the solution is to tell the worker to be more careful. This approach ignores the role of managers and employers in making key decisions in the workplace they control. However these days, this older harsh language is replaced by so called behavior-based safety programs based on the claim that 80 to 96 percent of job injuries and illnesses are caused by workers own unsafe acts. This number has been discredited by many other studies which identify the key role of the work environment in safety and health. Behavior-based safety programs focus attention on worker carelessness and conscious or unconscious unsafe behaviors, and place the onus for a safe workplace on workers themselves. The unsafe worker statistics espoused by behavior-based safety consultants and repeated by employers purchasing or developing behavioral safety programs were derived from the work of insurance investigator H.W. Heinrich in the 1930s. Heinrichs research into injury causation consisted of his review of supervisors accident reports, which critics pointed out naturally blame workers for accidents and injuries. He arrived at the statistic that 88 percent of workplace accidents and worker injuries were caused by workers unsafe acts, numbers echoed by todays behavioral safety programs. For more information on these programs and ways to oppose them, go to the Hazards magazine website at hazards.org/bs/.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 09:57:33 +0000
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