Making Companies Safe - what works? (CCA ... - Unite the Union

For instance, when BP Grangemouth received a European-wide award for its management of
psychsocial risks, the company was publicly praised by HSC through press releases and on its
website. However, BP Grangemouth had only recently been roundly criticised by the
HSE and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency for a series of management failures
resulting in life-threatening accidents at the Grangemouth complex. Such contradictions
create cynicism and undermine the validity of awards, particularly where the breaches have
caused death, serious injury or ill-health. For instance, the Piper Alpha Families and Survivors
Association were shocked and distressed when they learnt that Occidental Caledonia had
‘earned a special pat on the back’ by RoSPA. The company had received a ‘silver sword
for making the working environment safer for employees’. 77 Schemes that award good
performance should attempt to ensure that companies’ performance is genuinely and
consistently good in relation to the full range of health, safety and environmental issues.
80
1 Health and Safety Commission (2004a: 8).
2 Health and Safety Commission (2004a: 16).
3 Wright (1998).
4 Hillage et al. (2001: 40).
5 Wright et al. (2000: 104).
6 Wright (1998: iv).
7 Wright (1998: 17-18), and Davies and Teasdale (1994) who demonstrate that firms incur no more than 15% of the cost of
workplace injuries and ill-health in the UK.
8 Note though that Cutler and James (1996: 759) argue that the HSE’s 1993 research report The Costs of Accidents at Work
actually fails to establish the cost-effectiveness of avoiding the case study accidents since no data were gathered on the
expenditure required to avoid them!
9 See for instance Hopkins (1995); Cutler and James (1996) and references therein; Gunningham (1999a) and references therein.
10 Wright (1998: 32).
10 Johnson and Kaplan (1987).
12 Rappaport and Flaherty (1991) discussed in Gunningham (1999a: 19).
13 Hopkins (1999: 148).
14 Wright et al. (2004: 14).
15 Wright (1998: 10).
16 Hopkins (1999: 150).
17 Hopkins (1999: 151).
18 Cutler and James (1996: 758).
19 O’Dea and Flin (2003: 14).
20 Cutler and James (1996: 758).
21 O’Dea and Flin (2004: 11); Wright et al. (2004: 29-33).
22 Wright (1998).
23 OECD (2000: 70-71).
24 OECD (2000: 71).
25 Wright et al. (2000). See also Brazabon et al. (2000).
26 Smallman and John (2001).
27 Wright et al. (1993).
28 Wright (1998: 12).
29 Gunningham (1999a: 17).
30 Smallman and John (2001: 237).
31 Wright (1998: 20).
32 Wright (1998: 104).
33 Wright (1998: 13).
34 Wright et al. (2000: 104).
35 Brazabon et al. (2000: 54). See also Wright et al. (2003: 51).
36 Knight and Pretty (1998: 5.) Emphasis added.
37 Knight and Pretty (1998: 6).
38 Wright et al. (2000: 104).
39 Brazabon et al. (2000: 62).
40 Smallman and John (2001: 235).
41 For example the No Sweat campaign.