One in three bosses place production efficiency ahead of safety or don’t care about work standards, according to a new survey commissioned by WorkSafe Victoria.
The survey also finds another 9% of work supervisors are in “denial” about safety standards and do not profess an interest in the subject. The survey results are compiled from the questionnaires of 1160 Victorian supervisors.
Workplace support and education division manager Jill McCabe says the results will help create new WorkSafe strategies for the future.
“The research has given us food for thought in terms of what we as an organisation need to do in future to shape attitudes of not just supervisors but upper management. It also gives food for thought for particular organisations and the way that they operate. “
McCabe says 33% of supervisors were categorised as “disconnected” or “disgruntled”, arguing “…workplaces where upper management really don’t seem to care about health and safety”.
“The disconnected supervisor personally cares about health and safety but their senior management doesn’t., so they find it very difficult to raise issues and get them dealt with in the workplace.
“The other group, the disgruntled, say ‘If senior management don’t care, why should we?’ and then there’s a very small group that …think …the worst that could happen in this workplace is that someone would get a paper cut.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
