Contractor Laing O’Rourke has dismissed criticisms by construction union UCATT of its new approach to safety.
Laing O’Rourke’s “safety differently” initiative, introduced in 2015, focuses on preventing fatalities rather than a zero harm approach in order to concentrate resources on severe risks.
But UCATT said the concept, which comes from Australia, could “erode the very foundations of the UK’s health and safety culture”.
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Shaun Lee, UCATT Midlands regional secretary, said: “Small injuries are not small concerns for workers. By neglecting basic safety, we put workers’ health and futures at risk. Small injuries can mean significant loss of pay and significant psychological stress for the worker and their family.
“If we don’t have zero tolerance in the work place, then standards will slip and the number of injuries will increase.”
However, in a statement a Laing O’Rourke spokesperson said: “UCATT has not approached us with any concerns regarding ‘safety differently’ and today’s press release is the first time we’ve heard of them.
“The group’s health and safety director John Green returned to the UK last year from Australia having worked with the operations and management there to transform it from the poorest performing part of the business, in terms of accident frequency rate (AFR), to the best-performing.”
The best-selling book
Sydney Dekker is a professor at Griffith University in Brisbane, and founder of its Safety Innovation lab. Safety Differently, published in 2014, argues that the current bureaucracy-heavy safety management approach overlooks the “human factor”, our ability to manage risk collaboratively in teams.
His book also argues that safety as a bureaucratic activity has relegated ethical responsibility to the back seat, and that an emphasis on “fixing” people’s behaviours and decision-making with controls, training and interventions has proved ineffective. The book also addresses how technological changes are impacting on safety.
He will be joined next month by Andy Sneddon from vinci who will become, head of health safety and environment for construction operations in Europe reporting into John Green.
The spokesperson added: “Andy Sneddon is joining the business in September to head up safety for construction illustrating our further commitment to investing in this critical area of our business.”
Speaking to Construction Manager in April, Green said that the zero harm model is based on a logical fallacy, as research hasn’t found a correlation between eliminating minor accidents and preventing fatalities or major incidents.
“Safety is seen as the absence of accidents – but you can’t say you’ve got safety based on the absence of something else. Binary logic doesn’t apply here,” he said.
