Hit ‘em where it hurts? Supervisors’ salaries reduced for safety slacking
February 27, 2009 by Fred HosierPosted in: Falls, Injuries, OSHA news, Safety training, Special Report, Who Got Fined and Why?, cost of safety, enforcement, inspections
Since we started SafetyNewsAlert.com several months ago, we’ve heard from many readers that OSHA needs to hold employees as well as employers accountable for safety to reduce injuries and fatalities. Now, OSHA has taken steps with one company to do just that.
OSHA has fined 160 Broadway Corp., dba Broadway Concrete, $750,000 as part of a settlement agreement for 13 repeat violations involving fall hazards.
The amount of the fine is enough to get any company’s attention. But that’s not all Broadway agreed to.
Broadway has also agreed to reduce the salary of senior job superintendents who fail to comply with applicable OSHA and job safety practices.
So if these supervisors don’t enforce safety rules, their pay will get docked.
More costs than just a fine
Broadway will have to spend even more money as a result of this settlement. It’s also agreed to:
- Employ a full-time chief of construction operations and a corporate safety director to have authority over senior job superintendents in safety and health issues.
- Employ a full-time site safety director on each large project and have a safety director inspect smaller projects at least once a week.
- Provide safety and health management training to superintendents and supervisory personnel working on each site, and train company and subcontractor employees on each site’s safety and health plan.
Is this a good first step to make supervisors accountable for the safety of the people they manage? Should OSHA go further to dock rank-and-file workers’ pay for safety infractions? Let us know in the Comments Box below.
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Tags: employees accountable, OSHA fine, reduce injuries, reduce supervisor salaries, settlement
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March 2nd, 2009 at 1:17 pm
this is exactly the kind of ammo we need as safety professionals to get and keep employees attention
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I think it would be an excellent idea for OSHA to mandate that we hold our employees accountable. All too often we employers bare the brunt of all of it. At some point an employee must take responsibility for thier own choices and actions, and all too often they are not held responsible.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:37 pm
They need to go one step further. Make the bosses and comptrollers accountable. When they will not approve the purchase orders for safety equipment nor want to get involved in the training, they need to be docked a higher percentage than the supervisors.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Yes, it may be a small step, but it is in NO WAY a significant step! It is, and has been positively ludicrous that OSHA can beat the bejesus out of an employer, when the employees have no responsibility whatsoever. Sure they say enforcement and training, etc. But it really comes down to the responsibilty of the individual, and should be enforceable as such!
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I feel it should be handled like any unemployment case. I feel it should be the responsiblity of the employer to enforce the rules that govern safety issues. I know of a few companies that may state that they follow OSHA standards, and yet instruct their supervisors just the opposite. It would be an injustice to dock supervisors pay for something they were told to do by upper management.
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Is it legal in California to dock any employee’s salary for safety violations?
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Safety works only if everyone is on board. reducing top management pay for safety violations works on so many levels, its not funny. the “git-er done” attitude will now have fine print attached….
GIT-R-DONE-safely !
bout time someone saw that light!
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Hold all responsible parties accountable (managers, supervisors, & employees). We need some positive peer pressure at the various levels of any organization to promote and support a good safety culture.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I can envision a lawsuit from a supervisor who is docked, he could claim he tried to enforce a safety rule but was rejected by upper management. He could “create” a record of a non-existant conversation with his management, which management would have hard time disproving. Especially if he is a member of a protected class and claims discrimination. I agree that this sounds like a good idea in theory, but enforcement could get real messy. Plus, if there are not also equal incentives, like bonuses for safe behavior , it could be hard to get good employees to step up to accept supervisory positions.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I like the idea that OSHA takes the penalties further. Reagrdless of what the supervisors are told or what the employees are told, they all know what is right and wrong. They should be held accountable; especially the employees. Ever walk through an area and see someone violate a policy only to have them act perfectly when they see you? They know…and should be held accountable for more than just the employer.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Performance Appraisals are useful tools for rewarding or penalizing safety non-compliance.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:34 pm
If people are to be held responsible for safety infractions, then all parties should bear the responsibility. This is from top management down to the individual employees. As a safety manager, I provide virtually all of the safety for our small company. I also have the support of the top management when it come to safety items needed to protect the employees while they work. With the best of support and training, some employees will be tempted to cut corners and bend rules to complete tasks. This also leads to possible injuries or accidents. Somewhere along the way, the employee that decides to take the chance, and as a result gets injured, should also bear monetary responsibility as everyone else.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Any company that pays out 750K in fines and additionall leagl fees from dealing with OHSA should be looking to replace managers. I don’t think it should be OHSA place to dictate to companies how to deal with employees or managers when it comes to establishing a safety culture. If OHSA drives the program then they will continue with a SAFETY is being forced on us mentality. As a safety profesional I wouldn’t want to work for a company like that because you will be resented my management at all levels as well as employees. Senior Management has to want to drive a safety culture or it is a waste of time.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Safety managers always work under upper management and are stuck with trying to put a greased pig in a sack so to speak. When is the last time you were able to tell your boss what he has to do. It does not work. If the upper management wants safety on the job, you will have it. If they only want what is needed to get by, then thats all you will get. Leave employees pay alone and come down on top management.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:47 pm
What I see happening all too often is that because a company offers safety bonuses, they get into this tug of war on loss time accidents, etc. There are too many times when they down play the significance of an incident simply because the higher ups won’t get their bonus otherwise. What happens if OSHA gets involved to this level in all companies? I foresee more and more trying to find loopholes. Even though you might have more attention on safety, it won’t be the right KIND of attention.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:48 pm
What about the people that were injured? It seems to me that many times employees simply take risks regardless of all safe practices, procdures and ppe, training etc, provided by supervisors.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:53 pm
As a Safety Professional in the Construction Industry I come across this issue frequently. The moment the Safety director leaves the site it is back to business as usual. A site supervisor talks safety but does not follow it putting employees at risk. The supervisor should be held responsible for what happens on his site. I understand that docking pay may create problems for upper management as Vince said but if the company makes it a written policy I believe it can make a difference.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:55 pm
This is a good idea in theory, but will not hold up. In the short term tehre will be law suits from supervisors for discriminatory practices. Some employers will use thios to categorically reduce wages for certain employees etc. Further, if this is extended to the employee themself who gets injured, good luck with the law suit from teh state workers compensation boards who claim retaliation! I agree something needs to be done affecting all persons involved, but this is a knee jerk reaction that will not benefit the employer, the employee or the overall issue of workplace safety.
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Just what we need…More government involvment in how businesses are run. The bottom line is that Safety is determined by the expectations and VALUES of the organization as set by upper management. Is safety a “priority” or a core VALUE? There is a big difference! Beyond that, elimination of at-risk behavior and reducton of exposure to injury should be the focus at the ground level. You do this through whats often calld behavior-based safety (we call it values-based safety), whereby the employees participate in and feel ownership of the Safety process. There is no other way to truly improve Safety performance on a sustained basis. As W. Edwards Deming often stated, “The role of the workforce is to work within the sytem. Therole of management is continuous improvement of the system with the aid of an empowered workforce.” Also, “Every system is perfectly designed to achieve the results it gets.”
[email protected]
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Safety like morals cannot be legislated, only policed. It all comes down to “You-Gotta-Wanna”. Maybe, it would be more effective to concentrate on removing the legislative, regulatory, and corporation “red-tape” and barriers that allow people who promote unsafe cultures in companies to remain employed?
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:55 pm
My opinion.. It may get some non-safety minded managers and supervisors on board with the program. Safety managers work hard to train, retrain, inform, instruct and record keep only to be undermined by SOME (not all) supervisors who are willing to take risks with other peoples lives.
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Good concept, but doesn’t fix “stupid”. Secondly, good luck trying to dock an employees’ pay in a company with a labor union. Third, until the Work Comp system is fixed we will all struggle. Last, if something is truly wrong, and Management does not want to fix it, and they know about it and willfully do not fix the problem, then they have bigger worries, because then it becomes criminal, and a precedence has already been set for these cases by OSHA.
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:57 pm
What kind of company does this? The safety program of any company starts with the owner/CEO, you fix safety from the top down, not the bottom up. Hold all employees accountable, not through their payroll but through a bonus program. If you are unable to develop the safety culture of an employee GET THEM GONE! If they have repetitive safety infractions GET THEM GONE! They are a liability to themselves and others. I would not want to see anyone get hurt or cause hurt to someone else. If I can not develop them through verbal couseling, formal counseling or suspension GET THEM GONE! I will not be responsible for having an employee get hurt or even worse, dead, because I did not do my job and GET THEM GONE! If I did not have 100% support of upper management I would seek employment else where, do not be managements scapegoat, DO YOUR JOB!
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:10 pm
I agree with Keith. If OSHA was truly interested in a safe work place then they would take one additional step. They would hold employees (not just supervisors but all employees) responsible for safety violations. Until employees are identified as violators of safety rules they will continue to be allowed to avoid taking responsibility for their actions. In the roofing industry habitual safety scoffers float from one company to another never changing but causing fines to be levied against the employer. Even if they were not personally fined it should be a part of their record. I’ve been a safety professional for over 17 years and I have found that accepting personal responsibility at all levels is needed to get the best result.
In answer to Maria: Some states allow employees to be fined as long as their pay is not reduced below minimum wage and other rules are followed (as is the case in Washington State).
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:09 am
Why have a government agency extend their regulations to employees?
It would seem to me that is the business of the employer to make employees follow all rules and regulations including safety. We do not tolerate supervisors hampering production by hap hazard supervision so why allow them to run a laissez-faire program when it comes to safety. Belly up to the bar boys and take responsibility for the things you should and let OSHA do their thing with employers only.
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:57 am
I agree with Keith but as safety professionals we must remember that “ignorance can be fixed, Stupid is forever.” We must still keep trying our best to keep our workers informed and practicing safety. There are alternate methods for dealing with “stupid”.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:21 am
Skip, I appreciate your comments! Safety, like anything else (quality, productivity) is indeed from the top down. A great illustration of this is Deming’s famous Red Bead experiment. Now for the “GET THEM GONE” part. Fear (see Deming’s 8th Point For Management) is a great hinderance to the cooperation needed from the workforce o improve safety performance. We must separate discipline from safety except for cases where employees imply cannot or will not meet expectations for safety. You have to be very careful with discipline - it causes issues to be hidden instead of bein resolved.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:57 am
I used to work for a company described by Skip and it was wonderful! We unfortunatly closed our locations and those jobs went to mexico and china, respectivly.
My current employer talks the talk, and is left to me to get employees to walk the walk. We are making progress though I think we would be so much ahead if upper mgt took ownership.
One of our supers left because he did not agree, in part, with us getting tougher on safety. Sometimes a self-purging will occur if they cannot stand the heat!
Once documented training is completed, and supers performance evals are tied with safety then is becomes a performance issue.
Therefore, if a super looses pay of their job due to poor safety performance it should not come as a surprise.
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:00 am
The use of using monetary incentives to ensure safety as part of the job process should not be considered any different than meeting quality specs or any other metrics. The employer has every right to “blame” the employee and take punitive action right up to the point the employee is injured. After that they bought it. Supervisory management should be making safety part of the job.
The concept of stupid employee is a valid one. The key is to have the stupid employee working somewhere else. Disciplinary action does not make an unsafe employee work safe; it makes the workplace safer by weeding out the problems. Just my thoughts.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Thanks Steve. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a hammer slammer, I will do everything in my power to develop an employee, but for a lot of employees they are just working outside of their element and have to be cut loose. I agree a lot with what Safety Mike states, you can’t fix stupid, stupid should have been weeded out during the hiring interview or the probationary period. Remeber that there are three levels of ignorance. 1. Normal ignorance which all new hires have which should be solved with training. 2. Negative ignorance which can be fixed by instilling confidence. 3. Not-gonna-do-it ignorance which is totally unacceptable. This is usually the older employees set in their ways and have always done it that way. These employees are the hardest to develop and usually can only be transformed through disipline. You need these guys to set the example for the newly hired to prevent accidents. I believe OSHA should set the standards but not govern how the safety professional fixes the problem. OSHA most of the time has no idea how certain industries operate.
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
It has always been my belief, that employees already do have a monetary reason to follow safety rules. If they violate them, they are disciplined to the point of termination. If that does not occur then it is a management issue, and by allowing them to violate safety rules is giving the message that those rules do not mean anything.
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Some other thoughts around discipline at the worker level: First, the union (if you have one) makes this a difficult road to travel. They fight like hell, even if they KNOW the employee is no good - they have to. Consequences to behavior have the most power if they are soon, certain, and positive. Soon, certain, and negative (discipline) is second. The problem is, discipline is rarely soon and certain. A large majority of infractions are not discovered, so the certainty is not there to begin with. The disciplinary process in a union environment is often long and drawn out, so there goes “soon” out the window. The union also makes the discipline uncertain and also works to reduce the penalty, so the level of negativity is reduced. When a union employee does get disciplined, guess what!!! He tells EVERYbody about it and his “brothers and sisters” rally around him and give him plenty of support (positive consequences) - again, even if they know he is no good. So what is the answer on the employee level? EXPECT people to do their jobs correctly and safety and STOP trying to convince, beg, coax, etc. them to do their jobs correctly and safely. This is simply ACCOUNTABILITY! Tell people what the expectations of the job are and apply consequences when they DO as well as when they don’t meet expectations. Primarily, catch people doing the right things right and give them supportive feedback. Those behaviors will then increase.
[email protected]
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Our supervisors forgo their quarterly bonuses if they have a recordable accident during that quarter. It seems to work for us. But, it’s a combination of safety measures: we are very much into prevention through safety training, learning from accident investigations, after accident training, after accident meetings, sharing to all departments through safety alerts, etc., etc. and having various incentive programs for the employees (free lunches, raffles, cakes, etc.) - This year we reduce the # of accidents by almost 50% compared to last year - Company size: 550 employees.
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Angela, I absolutely cringe at the thought of what you are saying. My fear is that your company is incenting people to HIDE injuries!!! Why wouldn’t they? This is known as the “bloody pocket syndrome”. People hide injuries, near hits, etc. for the sake of the incentives. This is one area where I fully agree with Unions (the USW, in particular). I can tell you several horror stories regarding incentive programs gone wrong. Recognition programs can be fine, but incentives cause too many problems. Incentives do not change people’s at-risk behaviors and do not reduce exposure to injury. Incentives are an act of desperation by management. Yes, the numbers come down, but you better ask yourself WHY. How can you get a 50% reduction in one year? Management has “tampered” with the system, not changed it for long-term safety performance improvement. I hope you don’t take thisthe wrong way - I am not being critical -I just want people to work safely. Please look up the work of people like E. Scott Geller, Thomas R Krause, Donald R. Groover, and other experts on the psychology of safety and Behavior-Based Safety.
Best regards,
[email protected]
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:11 pm
A statement from one of my powerpoint presentations on Values-Based Safety:
“Safety incentives and zero tolerance policies are nothing more than signs of desperate management.”
- Unnamed “senior industry executive” in Pulp&Paper Magazine, March 2007
March 4th, 2009 at 10:01 am
I, too, must agree that incentive programs are less than ideal. My former employer tried a well-known one with what Steve described, people ‘taking one for the company’. Instead, we have to show value of health and safety in a caring state. Not coddling, but genuine concern for the worker and their out-of-work safety as well.
I really like the presentation “The Courage to Actively Care” by E. Scott Geller. We have to care in order to change a culture.
Unfortunatly, with that comes some disciplinary action. As it states in our matrix, ‘This tool helps to show the workforce that we are serious about their personal safety, and that we care enough to provide for disciplinary action for inappropriate behavior’.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:51 am
You have to see the forest through the trees. Safety incentive programs do work if properly utilized by management. I work in the steel industry with four facilitites and 600 employees. I realize that I can not prevent every accident but I can reduce the severity and frequency. My near miss and incident rates are sky high because the employees report the smallest incident (they report if they stubbed their to or got a sliver). This gives me the opportunity to look at repetative incidents and take corrective action such as different ppe before it becomes major. My DART and TRC are way below the national average and insurance profile is low. I would not be able to accomplish this without a well placed incentive program to go along with development/disciplinary actions. I also consider myself a blue collar worked and having worked in their environment has helped me gain their trust. To get respect you have to first give respect. Once again, incentive programs do work if used properly.
March 4th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Thank you for the input! Very informative! What works is not only one thing but a combination of things. Our incentive program is only one part of our safety prevention plan. It took us over a year to develop safety training programs, policies and procedures before we experienced a reduction in the number of accidents. Also, there is something very important that I left out and that is HR visibility. Our HR Mgr interacts with supervisors, leaders, and employees through monthly training sessions, and coaching constantly on employee issues, and delivering safety tailgate meetings to every employees periodically (in addition to the supervisors’ weekly meetings.) Visibility creates trust and an opportunity to learn what is going on in each area. We also have newsletters with a joke contest and a safety trivia game. We have implemented a suggestion box system and a hazard identification program. Again, through many interesting safety programs you get to improve communication and that is the key to make everything work.
March 4th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
I feel it would be the right thing to do. To hold the employee accountable is a big step. That might just get there attention. Were i work we have saftey awards and a year bonus that works very well. However there are those who do well in this sittuation there are others who just don’t care. If we hold them accountable for there actions then we all might have a chance. As for the supervisor getting docked it would make that person find new ways to keep there employees safe by trying new thing such as saftey programs, meetings, as well as classes that are geared for there type of work.
March 4th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Skip, I agree that incentive programs can work IF USED PROPERLY. Unfortunately, they seldom are used properly and actually give people an incentive people to hide injuries when they can. This is well documented in the literature. Geller outlines the characteristics of incentive programs that work in his book “Working Safe”.
The fact that your employees are reporting every little thing is a very good sign! There are two reasons why employees should report every injury, not matter how minor: 1.) To prevent the injury from becoming more serious. Very often, first aid treatment prevents problems later. From past experience, I had an employee get something in his eye just before his days off. He did not stop by the nurse’s office on his way out of the mill because he was in a hurry to get home. That week-end the particle irritated his eye and became infected. He nearly lost the eye and was out of work for 2 weeks. 2.) Almost any injury could have been worse. Think about any injury you have had in the past, and I’ll bet it almost always could have been worse than it was. Reporting minor injuries helps to prevent others from doing the same thing with a worse outcome. In the same mill mentioned above, an employee had his hand “de-gloved” in a nip on a paper coating machine. This was a very serious injury that left the employee with a life-changing debilitation. When doing the incident analysis, several employees noted that they had pinched their fingers in the nip while doing the same task. One employee even had lost a finger nail. NONE of them reported those relatively minor injuries. They just accepted the nip as part of doing the job. The really sad, sad part of this story is that the solution to the hazard was very easily implemented with a simple procedure change. The “de-gloved” hand could have been prevented had other employees reported the minor injuries.
As for the discipline piece, I am not saying never discipline for safety. Ultimately, discipline may be needed in some cases, but there are many other steps in the accountability process. The punitive aspects of discipline undermine the cooperation from the workforce needed to truly improve safety on a sustained basis.
Kayakjim is right. The people have to believe we truly care about them as human beings. Telling them “safety is good business” just doesn’t cut it because: “THEY DON’T CARE HOW MUCH YOU KNOW, UNTIL THEY KNOW HOW MUCH YOU CARE.” Safety is management’s greatest opportunity to either gain or lose credibility with the workforce.
(Hey, I am enjoying this exchange!!! I hope you don’t mind my comments.)
Best regards,
sjm
PS: Would be glad to TALK to anyone at your convenience – (715) 369-4429
March 20th, 2009 at 7:43 am
I feel supervisors who fail to supervise, should be held accountable for employees who they are responsible for managing. Infractions and injuries occur, because supervisors let little things slide, which escalate to bigger things.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Is anyone (other than me) having trouble getting supervisors to comply with rules? They enforce the rules on the workers but it is “Do as I say, not as I do” syndrome. I am talking about small but important things like wearing footwear properly (I mean keeping their boots laced and tied properly). Small in the overall scheme of things but an important safety point.
Steve: I am enjoying the exchange. thanks for the feedback.
April 6th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
The frontline supervisors are absolutely critical to the success of your safety efforts. They MUST be good role models on the floor at all times because, to the workforce, they ARE the company. I have developed a 3-4 hour workshop on safety role modeling which I have been delivering to all salaried personnel in the three paper mills that comprise the Specialty Products group of our company. The feedback has been very positive. The frontline people need training and support and they like it when they receive it.
April 21st, 2009 at 10:06 am
I personally think it’s a small step. We’re a small company (25 employees) and most of our injuries (approx. 75%) are the result of employee negligence, stupidity or in a hurry. Our comp rates are high due to this. Where is the employer protection from the employees. It’s always the other way around at the employers expense. We need as much protection as the employee does. Comp rates are out of control all across the country and employers need protection as well!
May 11th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Is very simple…no one suppose to get hurt or guilty as a supervisor or employee. To minimize accidents or even near misses in the place of work, only follow up the Job Safety Analizes (JSA) to prevent any injuriy or even violation to the rule. Is done many times during the week or maybe during the project, no matter how big or small is, no matter how long is, or even dangerous could be. With good senses as a manager or supervisor, help your company out of any violation or monies out of your pockets, doing JSA all the time, belive me WORKS!!!
May 11th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Nestor,
I am sure that you are very sincere, but you have a great deal to learn, my friend! Safety performance is an output of the SYSTEM like any other output or result. All systems are perfectly designed to achieve the results that they achieve. To change any output beyond the natural variability of the output, the system must be changed. MANAGEMENT is responsible for system changes, not the employees.
“The role of the workforce is to work within the system. The role of management is continuous improvement of the system with the aid of the workforce (and the system includes people).” W. Edwards Deming
July 20th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
The safety director/manager/super can protect himself by documenting everything safety at every site including if the project managers/supers or higher ups impede safety in any way. They usually won’t as lax safety costs them more than aggressively getting with the program. At a company I worked for everyone was extra safe. Why? Forget your PPE or after the first verbal (and every warning is fully documneted) warning for a safety violation it’s off the site you go for the day, or longer. Repeat offenders can be terminated after so many instances even with a CBA. Remember, a bad or unsafe worker makes the Union look bad too. Construction is no work-no pay if you’re suspended for violating company policy you lose pay. It’s up to the entire management team to enforce all the company rules, strictly and fairly across the board.