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Behavior-Based Programs For Safety Ignore Job Hazards

Posted on Jul 15, 2011

Employers in New York are working on making work environments safer for their employees by working to eliminate costly mistakes and injuries on the job. Their efforts are focused on the behavior of employees on a job site in an effort to stop accidents and accidental deaths during work hours. The AFL-CIO reports that in 2009 4,340 workers were killed around the country with 184 of those workers being from New York. OSHA inspectors conducted 40 fatalities on the job site in New York in 2010.

While employers focus on workplace safety and how employee behavior affects the statistics, labor advocates feel that employees already are burdened by responsibility towards a safer workplace. Workers do play a part in the overall safety of a job site, employers should hold the majority of responsibility for keeping their workers and their sites safe.

Blaming the employee's mistakes for causing injuries and fatalities is not the solution employers need to use when something goes wrong. There should be a thorough evaluation of safety training and policies and an analysis of the issues that contribute to on the job accidents and injuries.

There are a multitude of factors that contribute the injuries on the job including employers being short of staff, lack of proper safety gear, and improper or insufficient training on safety guidelines and protocols. Experts say that employees, especially those in construction, should not have to walk off their jobs to protect inadequate safety issues.