Source: Discussion on Linkedin Group – EHS Professionals

“Safety officer stopped a job after observing unsafe condition, but line supervisor ordered the job to continue citing high priority, and the project manager agreed with line supervisor's decision.

There was one lost-time injury during the job. The management already formed its opinion about the safety officer because the job belongs to one of their favorite customers, but later called for full investigation. Whose job should be saved?

Michael:  “Safety Officer needs to communicate this up the chain of command immediately when the Project Manager agreed with line management. If the safety officer did not do this, then s/he is not fulfilling their responsibilities.

“And you continue up the chain of command until you reach the upper level. If all the way to the top overrides your authority, then it’s time to re-evaluate either your point-of-view on this matter, or your choice of employers.”

Lisa: “There is much to this situation we do not know, but this does touch on some very valid points.

“First of all, the Safety Officer must ensure he/she is correct and must be able to back up the judgment call. I do not believe in pulling the plug and walking away from the problem (this may have not been the case here). Rather, if the job is unsafe, then we, as professionals, need to help assist in finding a safe alternative to perform the task. Do not make a habit of crying wolf. Production, after all does pay for us.

“On the flip side of the coin, anyone who has been in this profession long enough realizes that sadly there are companies who merely want a safety fairy.

“They want someone who can wave a wand and make everything good without interfering with production.(I've never met this fairy)

“For a professional who goes with the flow, there can be a lot of personal liability. (See the discussion on the safety officer who was sentenced to 6 ½ years) Swimming up-stream against management can get pretty ugly.

“The best lesson to learn - make sure you know who you are working for and make sure your authority balances your responsibility.”

Stephan:  “Under OSHA's RULE AN employee has THE RIGHT to stop work if they feel the situation is unsafe because, after all, under 5(A)1 "The general Duty Clause"

“Each employer --

“(1) shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees;

“The safety manager was right and the offender should be charged. Safety officer will keep his job. The safety officer should have called OSHA to file a complaint before this happened. Then he would have been protected under 11c... Employers cannot retaliate against the employee for complaints.”

Frank:  “Wow there is a business doomed for success.

“I had a unique role in safety. I could stop any job anytime and my views were never questioned. Wasn't just a small site, company employees around 4,500 and 4,000 contractors every day (chemical complex broken into many specialty chemicals dept.'s).

“I have stopped jobs without having to consult with my bosses, and told them, you may work today but it won't be here. There trusted me in making sure safety was first. Then when I notified them, they got the contract superintendent in for a debriefing and a sharing of expectations.

“During our block orientation, I stressed what the expectations are as they were guest in the house. I also conveyed up front that if I have reason to stand down a job, I will.

“Supervision trusted me, and if it meant time and money they would put the cause on the guilty party not me.”

Steve:  “It is a question of our humanity and what we are prepared to stand up for.

“All of this goes to culture and leadership. If you give safety any sort of priority, you will always end up compromising it.

“I would counsel that we should give safety zero priority! If, instead, you build it into the values of the company as a precondition for work then we might achieve something... and you know what, in my experience if you focus on pre-planning with an eye on safety... then projects tend to run more efficiently and smoothly, without add-on costs and delays for things we identify late in the program!... You can only build it in to you company's values with the support of your senior leadership team.”

Tom:  “The issue is one of who is in charge.

“If the Safety Officer reports to the Project Mgr and is over ridden then higher management has made a decision and the Safety Mgr needs to cover his backside and make sure responsibility resides with the PM. The easiest way to do this is by email confirming the PM has over ridden Safety's decision being sure to send a BCC to your personal email account.

“Safety's job is to identify problems and come up with solutions. When we do that we have done our job. We have to always realize that there are higher ups with priorities and pressures that may not coincide with ours and that we will not always get our way no matter how right we are.”

Christina:  “Our positions as Safety Officers must be built on trust. Employees must trust us to protect them and management must trust our knowledge and decisions.

“We have to sell safety to the employees and to management. Once we sell it, we have to continue working to build (and keep) trust. Until that foundation of trust is built, management will always question our decisions; it is costing them money!

“If I were in this situation and I felt strongly about my decision (and I would to feel it necessary to shut the job down), I would move up the chain of command. If that doesn't get me anywhere, I would start looking for employment elsewhere. I don't want to work for a company that doesn't put their employees' safety first.”

Michael: ”I couldn't say I have worked for safe or unsafe companies. But I have determined that within companies there are many sub-cultures, some consisting of many members, some being a sub-culture of one.

“You might get one entire branch of an org chart being members of this sub-culture and if safety is not one of their values, a safety professional will have difficulties in managing their operations.

“Luckily in my case, I have been able to find and use safety champions that have been placed within the org chart to prevent an entire branch being an issue.

“My advice to all safety pros is to find those champions and know who they are, because you will one day have to rely upon them.

“It is easy to grow disenchanted with a company and blame them for not being safety conscious, when in reality, it may be just a chosen few who act as the "log jam" of communication or improvement. I am guilty of this myself. And I have been surprised that when I bypassed that log-jam, my perceptions were wrong.

“So what can you do? Push on that wall and see if it moves. If it moves a little then push more. If it doesn't move, then go around it and seek help.”

Frank:  “At the risk of tooting my own horn, and apologize for it. I just want to illustrate what it can be.

“I loved my job in safety, didn't care much for the environmental aspect as it tied me to my office too much and I was most effective with people.

“Having come from working as an operator before getting into EH&S. I had the luxury of seeing how people followed safety rules and used procedures to do tasks. How they blow smoke up the backside of supervision.

“I used to write many, many permits for craftsman and contractors. I knew the processes for magnesium operations, light hydrocarbon, polyethylene, environmental operations.

“After I got into EH&S other departments would ask for safety observers for their shutdowns. I would evaluate them from orientation to the block to intervening in the field, because of my experience you can't get much past me. I would roll up my findings with the superintendent, and his own people were not catching them because they didn't want to make waves. I also got a reputation for auditing Safe Work Permits. This because I was a part of a Six Sigma effort to reduce defects in the safe work permitting process.

“I would go to another dept. and ask them how they were doing on permits. Their own EH&S rep said they were in good shape. So I went out and got the week’s worth of permits and looked them over. Each permit had 126 opportunities for a defect from date to sign off. In doing the Six Sigma exercise I personally looked at 12,765 Safe Work Permits. This is powerful data to track and give weekly or daily if these is a shut down. You can see who needs more watching, and if your permit writers are failing the permit process, someone has to get their attention.

“I don't like Root Cause as it works well if you are trying to see why a cabinet door fell off, but if you are Root Causing a person it is very frustrating as they always want to move the blame to something else. Despite what they taught you about Root Cause it can seem like the whole Root Cause team will avoid placing the blame where it belongs. The person responsible for conducting the investigation of the facts and conducting the table top almost is wasting their time.

“I could write a book.”