Training and corporate culture
by Miki SaxonSome of you may have read that ‘Siemens Power Generation Inc. has been fined more than $10,000 for safety violations in a wind turbine tower collapse that killed one worker and injured another.’
Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Division investigated and found that ‘…workers were not properly instructed and supervised in safe operations, the technicians each had less than two months’ work experience and there was no supervisor on site. The agency says the workers were unaware of the potential for such a failure. Other safety violations included improper company procedures and failure to train employees in emergency rescue procedures.’
Not surprising, since companies constantly shortchange and skimp on all forms of training from safety to customer service.
Siemens says it has ‘made some changes, is reviewing the report and will make additional changes as needed…has brought in experts inside and outside the company to review the case.’
Typically, training, or the lack of it, is driven by cost factors and senior management myopia across industries and around the world.
But I really wonder if it the same attitudes will prevail in the UK post April 6 when The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 goes into effect.
‘The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is a landmark in law. For the first time, companies and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care.
The Act, which will come into force on 6 April 2008, clarifies the criminal liabilities of companies including large organisations where serious failures in the management of health and safety result in a fatality.’
Should management should be held accountable for endemic practices that lead to employee deaths?
