Page 32 - Occupational Health & Safety, June 2018

ELECTRICAL SAFETY
ing after the fatality that the role of conflicting safety messages was most apparent. The meeting was called in order to talk about the fatality and discuss the remaining projects on the calendar in light of new circumstances. Meeting notes indicated that workers were reminded of the need to take appropriate safety precautions and not to work live—but were promptly reminded in the very next agenda item that forthcoming holiday bonuses were contingent upon how well the company managed to meet existing production schedules.
In another incident, a machinery repairman, one with appar- ently limited electrical safety training, was electrocuted while troubleshooting an air conditioner. The worker touched a live wire with a finger on his left hand, and a current passed through his left arm and heart, then exited through his right arm. His employer had failed to provide him with either appropriate personal protective equipment for energized work or insulated tools, and the company’s health and safety program consisted of two pages of general guide- lines culled from state OSHA construction standards. It’s hard not to read about a tragedy like this and wonder whether the worker knew about the risks he was taking in working live, or whether he knew the employer had an obligation to provide him with appropri- ate tools and personal protective equipment—and also whether he would have felt too vulnerable to even ask for them if he was aware of that requirement.
Ensuring Organizational Support
These examples are from small companies, but research into elec-
trical injuries shows that production pressures often lead to cutting corners in safety practice, whether that involves failing to verify all potential sources of energy in pre-job planning, leaving equipment energized in order to save time or avoid inconveniencing building owners, working without personal protective equipment or electri- cally safe tools because they’re back in the truck, or some other among a myriad of possible reasons.6-8 Management may counsel workers to practice safety, but supervisors who are accountable for meeting production benchmarks may let expedience trump time- consuming safety controls if productivity is what gets rewarded.8
Similar factors may influence what happens when employees are assigned tasks that expose them to hazards for which they haven’t received adequate safety training, another common ingre- dient in workplace electrical injuries. Beyond the possibility that workers who lack appropriate training may not even be equipped to recognize when they are in hazardous situations—an issue in it- self—the prospect that a worker will turn down a novel job assign- ment must be understood from the vantage point of the worker, who has an obvious interest in demonstrating a commitment to meeting company needs.
Good safety practice requires that workers take responsibility for their own safety and that of their co-workers. But it’s also im- portant that organizations empower them to do so and ensure that enough time is allowed for work to be done properly, that workers have the requisite training and experience for the hazards they will face, that every effort is made to ensure that work is performed de-
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