The dirty secret.

I have held several types of jobs over a multitude of industries. Machining,oil and gas, aircraft, electronics, environmental, hazardous materials, you name it, at some point I have probably done it.

It's a dirty secret held by all of these industries that safety is NOT number one. What ever anyone tells you, what ever anyone claims, and no matter what their safety record indicates, if they are a large corporation especially, their "commitment to safety is a fabrication.

Well than how does it actually work? How do companies get away with it if that is true?

1.) Passing blame.

This is the number one go to for industries across the board. In the event an injury occurs, what will be evident is that it was the injured parties fault according to the company. The first thing that will happen is, you will receive a drug and alcohol test post accident. Never mind current drug laws allowing some individuals to use certain drugs, if found in your system, in even the most minute amounts, it will be viewed as a factor.

I agree, a drug and alcohol test after a work related accident is a good idea. What I do not agree with is when it is used improperly against an employee to free the company from liability.

So, you passed the drug test! Good for you! But, it's still your fault... Remember when you were in OSHA safety training and you were explicitly told not to do something and did it anyway because your supervisor told you?

Well, even though you did your job like you were instructed, you broke the rules! You may be saying to yourself "Wait a minute! I did what I was instructed to do, and if I didn't do it production would suffer over the time needed to do it the safe way, my supervisor would have fired me!" That is exactly right! Your supervisor probably would fire you for bringing up safety, because production makes him/her look good, and when you get injured it is always the employee's fault, so why would he care?

2.) Settlements.

O.k., lets suppose you were a lucky one, and the company you worked for couldn't find any dirt, or misconduct on your part to pin on you. They know you don't make enough money for you to be a huge threat taking them to court (by design), so when your back is broken, or you lose your eyesight, or some other tragic situation occurs the next thing that will happen after number 1 is a meeting with the company's attorney to get you to settle out of court. You may have a family, and struggle living paycheck to paycheck with ZERO savings like most of blue collar America, you cannot afford to say no, and your company knows that. So what would likely be a few million dollar pay out if you could afford a good attorney is now a check for $30,000 and a "thank you for your years of service." followed by a gag order, never to say anything about the matter ever again.And guess what else? That accident is never on that company safety record, it will never make the news, it probably won't even effect the rate of insurance the company pays! How's that for fair?

3).OSHA bureaucracy.

While the administration IS a friend of the working class, it is NOT without corruption, stupidity and insanity.

One thing you won't hear much is about OSHA safety videos. According to a fellow safety professional I worked with long ago, is that those videos are filmed on company property where a wrongful death occurred, as part of the reparation of damages. They kill you, OSHA forces your company to make a little video on safety. Seems fair!

4.) Desk jockey decision makers.

Many of your white collar, desk jockey types are the ones implementing new safety procedures when things like this happen.Guess how much they know about your job? Nothing! I was working on a western ND oilfield drilling rig when a 19 year old kid fell out the sky and smashed his head so hard he didn't know his own name. He was using a squeegee to clean windows of invert and mud so the driller could see and perform his job, which is very important. But they had him climb a ladder slick with oil to do the job, resulting in his fall. The desk jockies came to the "rescue" they made everyone wear a fall protection harness unless they had both feet firmly on the ground.

Sounds great, right? What part of a ladder do you safely tie off from? HA! These idiots could of suggested squeegees with longer handles, but the problem is, they had never stepped foot in the oilfield, mommy and daddy sent them to school, and the closest thing they can identify to work related injury is a paper cut! These fools don't know about the things they force others to do.

To be continued....