(Original information posted in Japanese is under translation into English. They will be gradually carried on web, posting by posting, upon completion.)
Suggested information needs for case reports or ideas concerning safety and health culture that are sought to solve safety and health problems in workplaces.
Method to intensify public interest in safety and health matters
Contents :
More people need to recognize the importance of safety and heath problems at work and actively participate in order to develop a safety and health culture.
In "Strategy for Workplace Health and Safety in Great Britain to 2010 and Beyond" issued by the Health and Safety Committee of Great Britain, the following are defined to be necessary in the future:
To gain recognition of health and safety as a cornerstone of a civilized society;
To spread the recognition that safety and health improvement benefits corporate management; and
To change the recognition that safety and health problems are only for experts and certain companies.
Since only a few people are interested in safety and health at work in Japan as well, it is very important to intensify the interest.
For example, it is shown in the implementation status report of occupational safety and health framework, http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/health_safety/publicat/com_2004_62_en.pdf, that the total loss due to occupational accidents reaches to the 2.6 to 3.8 percentages of the GNP, and that is widely recognized overseas. However, that is not well recognized in Japan.
Therefore, we need to discuss methods to generally enhance public interest, especially interest in industries.
- Dialogue to Posting No. 9 -
Posting
No. 17
Received
on 3 June 2004
Sender(s)
:
Takanobu
TERAMOTO
Subject
Keyword(s) :
General
safety and health
Title
:
The
possible contribution from Social
Responsibility Investment(SRI)
Contents
:
The
Social Responsibility Investment
(SRI) might play an important role
to raise awareness of occupational
safety and health among the industries
and the general public. It could
also help promote the reactive monitoring
of injuries and diseases (Posting
No.10)
and the numerical assessment of
occupational safety and health performance
(Posting
No.11).
SRI is an investment method to seek stable long-term gains, through assessment of various aspects of a company including compliance of laws, employment, human rights, consumer relations and social and community contributions, in addition to financial assessment. Various such investment funds have been established, assisted with corporate surveys on the above aspects. For example, "Social Responsibility Survey" is conducted by the Center for Public Resources Development, a non-profit think tank and consulting firm, to help develop SRI funds and SRI stock price index. You can see details of this survey in Japanese on the following website:
This survey assesses five aspects of a company: governance/accountability, market, employment, social contribution and environment. With regard to employment, it sets two items for assessment: "good place to work" and "work environment and health management." And it takes the view that a company wishing to co-exist with the society is required to maintain safety and health and good living conditions so that employees can work with a sense of security. In its questionnaire, there are three questions concerning work environment and health management, which ask the attainment level of standards set in laws and regulations, the measures and actions taken, and the incidence of occupational injuries and diseases during recent three years.
There are SRI funds and a SRI stock price index, which have been developed and operated on the basis of this survey results. The SRI stock price index is aimed at promoting SRI and CRS (cooperate social responsibility), hopefully through demonstrating a better performance of socially responsible companies in comparison to those covered by the usual type of stock price index.
I think it one of the most important management principles that a company ensures occupational safety and health so that their employees work to their spirit and ability. This
is one of the company's requirements for sustainable development. While we should promote international labour standards, compliance of national laws and corporate social responsibilities in general, the SRI may be a key to the new civil society. Whether this may be realized or not, depends on the support of people who seek social justice, as well as on the real profits from SRI assisted with development of reliable corporate surveys and good SRI funds. I am hopeful of positive results.
- Dialogue to Postings Nos. 1-25 -
Posting
No. 26
Received
on 18 June 2004
Sender(s)
:
Takanobu
TERAMOTO
Subject
Keyword(s) :
General
safety and health
Title
:
State
of Japanese safety and health culture
at work
According to "Successful health and safety management HSG65" and the simplified version "Successful health and safety management INDG275" (http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg275.pdf) by the Health and Safety Executive of Great Britain, Active Monitoring, preventive measures before accidents occur, and Reactive Monitoring, measures after accidents occur, should be both used for monitoring performance, and the guideline for investigating root causes of accidents is attached.
Since there are always management defects when accidents occur or injuries and fatal accidents are avoided by a hair's breadth, if root causes are investigated and management defects are found and improved, we can prevent accidents with similar causes in larger areas based on the above-mentioned measures.
Various guidelines in workplace for investigating root causes in connection with management have been made, and the following is examples.
Ron C. Mckinnon, Cause, Effect, and Control of Accidental Loss With Accident
Investigation Kit, LEWIS PUBLISHERS, 2000, ISBN: 1566705231
Ted S. Ferry, Modern Accident Investigation and Analysis, John Wiley & Sons; 2nd edition (February 1988), ISBN: 0471624810
It seems that measures for occupational safety and health problems depends on only active monitoring and reactive monitoring are less interesting in Japan.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide cases of actions and ideas about measures to surely implement reactive monitoring in workplace.
- Dialogue to Postings Nos. 1-25 -
Posting
No. 26
Received
on 18 June 2004
Sender(s)
:
Takanobu
TERAMOTO
Subject
Keyword(s) :
General
safety and health
Title
:
State
of Japanese safety and health culture
at work
Numerical evaluation of safety and health performance
Contents :
It is very difficult to numerically evaluate safety and health performance at work and, thus only qualitative evaluation has been considered to be available.
However, as shown in the following examples, approaches for numerical evaluation seem to be gradually developing abroad. It is hoped that cases of actions and ideas to implement such approaches are provided in Japan as well.
1.
According to the recent research report about the methods of general safety and health issued by Health and Safety Executive of Great Britain, "RR217 - The development of a health and safety management index for use by business, investors, employees, the regulator and other stakeholders", numerical evaluation will be put into its practical use (http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr217.htm).
2.
The management evaluation tool developed in DuPont is provided in "Managing for World Class Safety" by J. M. Stewart, Wiley-Inter science, 2002 (ISBN 0-471-44386-7). Numerical evaluation can be obtained from results of responses to 24 items of questions based on the tool, and practical results investigated in many companies are also attached in the book.
3.
In the health and safety climate survey tool of HSE which has been available in the market since 1998, each individual answers in the forms of "Completely agree", "Almost agree" and so on to 71 items of questions as follows:
The company really cares about the health and safety of the people who work here.
I am strongly encouraged to report unsafe conditions.
Then the results are organized, compared by position and workplace and used to understand the level of the establishment of a safety culture. The evaluation report was on the website, http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr042.pdf, and it has been well received by companies which purchased.
- Dialogue to Postings Nos. 1-25 -
Posting
No. 26
Received
on 18 June 2004
Sender(s)
:
Takanobu
TERAMOTO
Subject
Keyword(s) :
General
safety and health
Title
:
State
of Japanese safety and health culture
at work
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