TO_ REGIONAL CONVENTION

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

“SAFETY DIRECTOR'S REPORT’

By ANDY SMITH
Regional Safety Director

In submitting this report to
the 31st Annual Convention
of the IWA Regional Council
I would like to pay tribute to
all the members of this union
who actively engage in the
safety program, with one com-
* mon desire—to complete our
lives and the lives of our fel-
low workers in happiness,
usefulness, and safety. Some
of us know we will never see
the fulfillment of our dreams
because of accidents, some of
us will see only part of our
hopes completed because of
carelessness, none of us will
escape completely the claws
of negligence. Yet, with the
enthusiasm for more safety,
our hopes remain undimmed
for a world in which’ safety
is indeed a way of life and
carelessness is a reference to
the past, and some of us can
even say we owe our very ex-
istence to the work of organ-
ized safety. The record is
commendable. It is good to
reflect on the past, and to de-
light in the record of the pres-
ent, but it is far more im-
portant to anticipate the fu-
ture.

Solid Foundation

We must build on the solid
foundation of years gone by.
We need everyone to join in
the task. Our challenge is
great, but it can be met. It is
a task of teamwork. The chal-
lenge for us in safety today is
great, but the challenge of to-
morrow is even greater. With
our mounting population, vast
changes will be wrought in
technology, in our work and
family lives. In fact, in all
phases an unprecedented leis-
ure time will bring new safety
challenges. As our society
climbs to new levels, safety
must climb alongside, pro-
viding the rungs for our lad-
der of success. :

Yes, the challenge of tomor-
- row will be met by the edu-
cation and preparation of our
people today. If safety is to
become a way of life in our
ever-growing, ever more
knowledgeable world, we
must continue to educate
workers to know the rules
and regulations and abide by
them.

Safety Requirements

The WCB regulations are
minimum safety requirements
set up by a co-operative effort
of union, management and
government to control the
hazards of the various indus-
tries. These regulations are
widely distributed and should
be well known.

Violations of regulations
which result in injury means
that workmen are disregard-
ing some of the fundamental
accident prevention controls
set up for their protection.
When this happens, it must
reflect on supervision of the
department. Occasionally
these violations may be com-
mitted without a supervisor’s
knowledge, but it seems un-
likely that they can be re-
peated many times without
his becoming aware. If he
kn ws ~sulations are being

violated, the supervisor places
himself in the position of con-
doning this disregard, and in
the eyes of the law is as guilty
as the worker who breaks the
regulation. Furthermore, he
has shown very clearly to his
crew that he does not con-
sider accident prevention im-
portant. There can be no de-
fense of a supervisor who is
aware of the regulations being
broken in his department and
ignores this until injuries oc-
cur.

Company Rules

Company rules must be re-
garded the same way. They
are drawn up to cover more
adequately the hazards and
conditions peculiar to the
company or the job’s require-
ments. They are not as gen-
eral as the WCB regulations,
and therefore should be of
even greater assistance to a
supervisor because they re-
late directly to his work. If
company rules are not neces-
sary nor completely practical,
they should be rewritten or
discarded. If they are good,
practical rules based on a
definite need, they should be
enforced.

Perhaps some inexperi-
enced supervisors look upon
enforcement of accident pre-
vention. regulations as an
added and not too pleasant
chore. This reasoning stands
up until we consider the prob-
lems arising from non-en-
forcement and then it is clear
that ithe only way a super-
visor can do his job properly
is by making certain that all
rules are followed. This is
done as a matter of course in
other areas of supervisory re-
sponsibility. For example,
work orders are being closely
supervised and workmen are
not permitted to be consist-
ently late for work. If the
same attention is paid to en-
forcing WCB and company
accident prevention regula-
lations, the supervisor will
find that he has taken a big
step toward overcoming situa-
tions which produce acci-
dents. Only when a _ super-
visor is certain that all rules
pertaining to his department
are understood and are being
followed by his crew, can he
feel confident of their safety.
A good accident prevention
record cannot be built on
broken rules.

Regulations Broken

Occasionally, regulations
may be broken because they
are not known or understood.
Here again, a supervisor must
accept fhe responsibility to
makes copies of the regula-
tions available and to ensure
that each workman under-
stands what the regulation is
intended to do.

One common reason for
non-compliance with accident
prevention regulations is be-
cause the supervisor himself
does not consistently follow
them. The competent super-
visor will always follow regu-
lations for his own protection
and as an example to all who
work under his direction.

Injuries. will continue as
long as accident prevention
regulations are broken. A

~

tendency exists to shrug off
responsibility by -pointing a
finger at someone else after
an accident has happened. By
so doing, little progress is be-
ing made, and the conditions
which cause the accident re-
main to cause a recurrence.
In other instances, numerous
safe practices are put into
force immediately after an ac-
cident and the matter is then
considered closed. Without
follow-up, conditions soon re-
vert to their original form and

the stage is set for another
accident.

Responsibility Passed

In some operations, respon-
sibility is frequently either
passed on to someone else, or
accepted temporarily. In any
case, no constructive effort is
made to prevent a recurrence.
The necessary remedial action
is to fix responsibility and
then hold accountable who-
ever has been given that re-
sponsibility. This, of course,
applies to more than one level
of authority. Generally, as re-
gards accident prevention, a
senior company official passes
the responsibility down to his
subordinates. If this responsi-
bility is not accompanied by
the knowledge that they will
be held accountable and sub-
sequent action taken by their
superiors to demonstrate this,
very little will be accom-
plished. When accountability
is demanded, an immediate
reaction is to pass the re-
sponsibility on down the line,
at the same time making cer-
tain that the necessary pre-
ventive steps are being taken.
A supervisor, because of his
position in the line of author-
ity, must accept the responsi-
bility and be prepared to ac-
count for accidents in his de-
partment. This should not dif-
fer from any other phase of
his production routine except
that in the past he has not
been held accountable in the
same way. One reason for this
is that mistakes involving ma-
chines or materials are more
easily recognized, whereas
those involving people are
often hidden. For example, it
is quite simple to blame an
accident on a workman’s
carelessness’ when it should
rightfully be termed ‘lack of
training’. These excuses dis-
appear with a strict system
of accountability and when
carelessness is not accepted as
an answer, but the reason be-
hind the carelessness is
brought out.

- Prevention Program

Any worthwhile accident
prevention program must
start in this way. It is readily
apparent that accident pre-
vention must be a co-opera-
tive effort which can make
little real progress unless
everyone is interested. To this
end the supervisor must pass
on to each individual in his
crew the responsibility for his
own protection. This in no
way limits the responsibility
of the company nor the super-
visor to ensure that safety
precautions are taken in such
matters as complying with ac-
cident prevention regulations,
proper training and super-

3 ee

vision of the crew, and all
other facets of management
control. It should, however,
bring to the individual the
need to follow regulations
necessary for his own protec-
tion. Again, the worker must
know that he will be held ac-
countable for any breach of
safety. A supervisor who has
accepted the responsibility of
preventing injuries to his
crew can do no better than to
instill in each and every one
the very real need to protect
himself. More and more com-
panies are beginning to recog-
nize the fact that when a
minor injury causes a slow-
down of the department; and
depending upon the serious-
ness of an accident, the time
spent in treating the injured
workman, investigating the
accident, filling out the re-
quired reports and the slow-

+
=i

ANDY SMITH

down in the efficiency of the
department, it is a serious
cost item and there is in addi-
tion the possibility of losing
completely the services of the
workman and the necessity to
retrain his replacement to the
same degree of efficiency.

. Small Operations

In small operations it is
more easy to see the effects
because they are noticeable
almost immediately, Although
changes made in machinery,
production procedure and
methods certainly are con-
tributing factors, probably
the most important area is the
training, control, and develop-
ment of people working on
the job.

It is well known that acci-
dents seldom happen in an

See “SAFETY” Page 6

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