Safety Culture Suggested As Answer To Cutting Construction Injury Rates; OSHA Hasn't Done It.

NEW ORLEANS. La. -- Constructor industry injury rates overall are no better today than they were 20 years ago when OSHA was enacted. Steven A. LaShier, senior vice president. Argonaut Insurance Company, told an audience of contractors and their insurance advisers attending the 12th Annual Construction Insurance Conference here. As a result, he said, workers' compensation costs continue to rise to the point where they are a principal cost of every contractor's overhead. The conference is sponsored by the International Risk Management Institute. (IRMI) of Dallas, Texas.

Mr. LaShier noted that rules and regulations will not reverse the trend of these rising workers' compensation costs, and that companies that really want to reduce them must establish a safety culture: a business culture which involves both management and labor.

Mr. LaShier is a Certified Hazard Control Manager--Master Level, a director of the National Safe Workplace Institute in Chicago, and a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers and the National Safety Management Society. He told the conference that safety and productivity go hand-in-hand. In this regard, he said he docs not consider himself a safety engineer but rather a productive production consultant.

Contractors can create a safety culture in their organization by emphasizing total quality management. LaShier said. For example, he said, all contractors emphasize the importance of production. quality of production, and scheduling. A fourth critical component, safety, is often overlooked, LaShier said, adding that superior contractors rectify that shortcoming by creating a safety culture within their organization. They make a commitment through time to establish this culture.

The first step to creating a safety culture, LaShier said, is becoming aware of the need for safety and recognizing its effect on bottom-line profitability. Top management must support the commitment to safety and everyone within the organization must support and be held accountable for safe practices, he said.

Mr. LaShier pointed out that people will do what they are held accountable for. Project managers, for example, who are held accountable only for getting the job done on schedule and are not held accountable for accidents on the job will not place as much emphasis on safety as those managers who are held responsible, he said. Likewise, he added, employees must be taught to value safety in the workplace and that safety is a...