re

e Noranda's Michel Perusse told delegates that discipline for safety

infractions is an ineffective way of learning.

Noranda safety rep
talks on attitudes

Another key speaker, Dr. Michel
Perusse, director of safety for the
Noranda corporation, gave a
presentation on influencing attitudes
and behavior towards safety. Mr.
Perusse produced a 63- page report
on the topic for the Canadian Centre
for Occupational Health and Safety,
which was sponsored in part by
the New Brunswick Workplace
Health, Safety and Compensation
Commission.

He reviewed tons of literature on
the topic and said the big concern
is “how do we get it into the minds
of society that accidents are
preventable?”

The CCOHS is working with all
worker’s compensation boards
across Canada to introduce safety
at universities, high schools and
junior high. A good part of Perusse’s
study deals with related aspects of
safety — at home, on the farm, on
the road, etc.

But the larger part of the study
envelopes safety at work and the

management of safety.

Perusse said “it’s easy to say a
person’s attitude to health and
safety was bad!” He pointed out
that behavior is conditioned
by many other factors besides
attitudes.

He said approaching safety from
a psychological/people mode is not
easy. People are not programmable
robots and they don’t react the same
way all the time.

Perusse said the complexity of
humans has been overlooked to
the point where there’s a number
of myths.

The major myth that Perusse
wants to destroy is the key to success
in safety is that there must be 100
per cent compliance to rules,
regulations, and appropriate work
methods, etc.

“We devise a whole series of
standards and try to get people,
unwilling or not, to comply to
those standards.”

Just as all drivers break the speed
limit, so too will working people not
adhere to regulated activity all
the time.

He also took a shot at the myth
that the threat of discipline will
affect behavior.

“The psychology of learning has
taught us, more than 50 years ago,
that learning through negative
reinforcement is the most ineffective
way of learning,” said Perusse,
adding that positive reinforcement
is the way to go and that “if you put
people in the right conditions they
behave in the right way.”

“If you give people half a chance
and give them the appropriate
means to look after their safety,
generally they do.”

Working people know when their
at risk. “An unsafe act usually starts
from a good and well-intended
purpose,” he added.

Perusse said a “zero tolerance”
accident policy infers “implicitly or
explicitly that an unsafe act is a
crime.”

“Thave never seen a willful, crime-
type, unsafe act,” he told the
audience.

The speaker said 50 per cent of
what people learn is from pure and
simple imitation.

“If we are lucky, we will happen
to imitate the guys who have got
the right tricks of the trade,” he
said.

Therefore it’s important to get
the right workers using safe work
practices to teach others. .

On the issue of safety incentives
and contests, Perusse said to beware
of companies who say they have a

zero accident record because
“chances are it’s a load of under-
reporting.

Although he has seen a chronic
under-reporting of accidents over
the years, Perusse did say that
positive reinforcement for doing the
job the right and safe way can have
a positive value.

But the best methods for in-
fluencing attitudes and behaviors
are empowering workers and
utilizing their expertise working
alongside safety experts.

He said morale will improve,
labour relations get better and
product quality increases as a result.

At the same time, Perusse said
that middle managers have to
be left in the loop as the culture
of the company changes to
empowering workers. It’s a process
that takes time.

Perusse has observed that workers _
want and expect some important
activities. They want workplace
inspections, preventive main-
tenance done on time, and the
following-up of corrective measures.

Those things, he said, will let
workers see if the company “puts its
money where its mouth is.”

He said it is important for
empowered workers to set a group
standard which can shape people’s
behavior.

Education and training and “not
just a little sprinkle — you need a lot
of it,” are essential.

Along with persistence and
perseverance, great gains in safety

and health can be made, added
Perusse. @

e Workshop participants included Tembec Hearst ’s HR manager
Guylaine Coulombe, Local 324's Mike Kotz and Local 1-417's John Silano.

with disability to the delegates.

¢ CIWA representative Stephen Mantis related his personal experiences

CIWA representative
continued from page twenty-five

On Ontario survey revealed that
union members have a 90% chance
of getting back to work. If not ina
union they have only a 25% chance.

The CIWA was founded in 1990.
It was the first time that injured
workers and supporters got together
to talk about the situation for the
Canadian disabled.

Back then he met the I.W.A.’s
Neil Menard who informed him
efforts to form a task force on injured
workers in cooperation with
MacMillan Bloedel.

In the spring of 1994 the I.W.A.
Local 1-85 and MacBlo launched
the first-ever disabled workers pilot
project at the company’s Somass
cedar mill in Port Alberni. The
program quickly became a success.

Today CIWA’s main goals,
consisting of two staff and a part-
time bookkeeper, are to “gather and
share information, to do trainin;
and research and support the wor!
of local and provincial groups and
to build links with the labour

movement and others that share
common causes,” said Mantic.

In 1992 the CIWA came out with
a booklet on what workers and
labour can do to build on a local or
provincial level.

In 1994 they conducted a survey
and found that: up to 74% of disabled
are chronically unemployed, 60%
lived in poverty, Beet 60% were
consuming heavy painkillers, and
over 50% of disabled were
dissatisfied with WCB assistance.

In 1996 and ‘97 they developed a
video and guide to help workers
recover following their injuries.

The CIWA material deals with
how to handle bureacracy, the
emotional and economic impacts of
injury and how to assist the Gsabled
with living on a budget.

Mantis gave an example of how a
union can support workers. At a
paper mill in Dryden, Ontario, union
reps DOC ara Nieie to see their
doctors so the physician wil]
understand how the compensation
system treats workers. The union
also supports the worker in front of
the compensation adjudicator. It
also makes contact with family
members, lending support where it
can.

26/LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 2001