116 Introduction to Safety Accountability

Appropriate Discipline

1. Standards of performance: Gloria responded to Joe's hazard report by merely telling him to be careful. As an agent of the employer, she actually "re-wrote" and reversed a very important safety policy prohibiting the use of defective equipment. Thus, operating a forklift with defective brakes was allowed if Joe "just used common sense." Improvement: Education on OSHA supervisor responsibilities.
2. Physical resources: Gloria's decision to allow Joe to continue use of a defective forklift. Improvement: Develop and implement preventive maintenance policy and inspection procedures.
3. Lack of adequate education and training: Gloria may have not received adequate education and training on the company's safety accountability system and disciplinary procedures. Improvement: Design and conduct management education and training on concepts of accountability policies and procedures.
4. Failure to detect and correct: The prior shift supervisor and employee did not detect or correct the defective forklift prior to the incident. Improvement: Design and conduct management training on safety oversight and reporting responsibilities.
5. Lack of analysis: Gloria administered discipline too soon; before the facts uncovered in the follow-up incident analysis were completed. Improvement: Design and conduct management training on disciplinary procedures.
6. Discipline based on subjective data: Gloria did not have the facts before disciplining. Discipline was the result of an emotional reaction and based on assumptions. In this case, had she waited, she would have realized that discipline was not justified because some rather obvious safety management system weaknesses existed. Why did she react prior to having the facts? Improvement: Design and conduct management and employee training on safety accountability criteria.

These were not all of the system failures: just a few examples. Given more background information and analysis, other important system failures would also be discovered throughout various levels of staff and line management. These and other failures support the position that employee discipline was not justified in this scenario. Remember, if the system has somehow failed the employee, discipline is NOT justified. In fact, the appropriate response, one that demonstrates real leadership, is to apologize to the employee and make a commitment to fix the system.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.