Changing attitudes towards health and safety – HSENI conference
2010
17 March 2010
In theory, the rules and regulations that
relate to safety in the workplace are set to highlight the benefits
of a safer environment and offer clear guidance in attaining this
to both employers and employees. In practical terms, however, these
do not always meet a steadfast culture that embraces health and
safety processes at work.
Harmful health and safety cultures in the
workplace are becoming the object of increased scrutiny in a bid to
improve attitudes among the workforce. Whilst in a recent report
funded by the Health and Safety Executive it emerged that a safe
workplace makes “sound commercial sense”, the phrase ‘health and
safety’ is still seen as too generic and therefore misunderstood to
the point of negligence. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, perceived rates
for accidents at work are lower than actual rates, where workers
believe 3,000 people were badly injured or killed in 2009 while the
true figure, we are told, reaches 137,000.
Even more worryingly, Rob Strange,
Chief Executive of the Institution
of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), recently wrote in the
Independent to warn of the dangers of treating health and safety as
a joke, one that has been created, and often made up, by the
“myth-making formulas” of some press. Such attacks, he fears, will
encourage the public to see health and safety as more a nuisance
than a requirement to protect life, becoming “something ‘done to’
them, rather than owned by them, requiring their input and
responsibility to make it work”.
In a bid to improve workplace attitudes, the
Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland (HSENI) is organising
a Conference on the perception of health and safety issues in the
workplace. The Conference, called “Changing Attitudes – Changing
Cultures”, will take place on Wednesday 21 April 2010 and will
cover such topics as the measures you can take to help change
attitudes to health and safety in the workplace, behavioural safety
and health and wellbeing at work. Distinguished speakers will
review key issues by demonstrating through case studies and
presentations how it is possible to manage culture shift
effectively and showing how to apply the correct risk management
techniques to your own working environment.
This Conference is organised through a
partnership of the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland
(HSENI), the Northern Ireland Safety Group (NISG), the Institution
of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), the Northern Ireland
Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (NIC/ICTU) and
Castlereagh Borough Council representing the District Councils of
Northern Ireland.
Tickets cost £100 and include lunch,
refreshments and free parking at the venue, the Ramada Hotel,
Shaw’s Bridge, Belfast. For more information, please refer to the
HSENI Invitation,
which includes a programme and location of the venue or visit the
HSENI website.
The Northern Ireland Branch is giving away
two free tickets to attend the
HSENI Conference on 21 April 2010 at the Ramada Hotel in
Belfast.
To enter, you must be an IOSH member.
Please email your name and membership number to Sue Phillips at
IOSH.
Good luck!