Dealing With Boss On Safety Issues

This issue has now become a qualms of all HSEQ practitioners to deal with employers and clients who deliberately did not cooperate and committed in addressing occupational safety and health at workplace.

Example of Situation

Employers or clients have no intention to hire competent person to conduct periodical inspections and supervise every time the installation or dismantling the scaffold structure. They feel that is not practical to implement because of the scaffold structure is less than 15 meters in height. Besides that, the danger is also less risky.

Employer or client does not approve the proposal of occupational safety and health program, such as external training courses, penalty system, certification of OHSAS 18001/MS 1722 or ISO 14001, campaigns, reward safety, personal protective equipment, warning signs, posters, and so on.

What should I do To Deal With My Employer or Client On Safety and Health Issue?

1. Organize and conduct the in-house training to the top management levels from time to time. The training is one of the effective method to deal with employer or client even workers. Among of the topic that you can conduct by yourself are Safety and Health Awareness, Responsibility of Everyone and etc .
2. Prepare the findings report and submit to the concern persons including engineers, client, immediate superior and related personnel. You shall indicate the impact of these findings and the legal requirements in the report. Reports can be submitted via e-mail or hard copy as long as that you have recorded in any register. You are also have to indicate the time frame for them to comply the Safety and Health issue. If the time frame is over, you have to keep sending the reminder or open new report to them.
3. Raise up the findings report in the meeting such as Safety & Health Committee Meeting, Project Management Meeting, Progress Meeting and etc.
4. Keep telling and remind the concern persons or Person-In-Charge about legal requirements in meeting, training, briefing and even during tea-time. Legal Requirement is a strong point to deal with employer and client. Example: 'Mr. Big Boss, we have to employ or hire the competent person for conducting the inspection. If not, you as the PIC will be subject to legal action such as fines and imprisonment in the event of an accident at work. I just want to advise you that I do not want you to go to jail or fined because of this. Furthermore, I can not override the legal requirements. If you do not want too, you shall fully responsible in the event of anything untoward.'
5. You may also show the legal requirements from books Act to the employer or client so that they are confident and believe what had you tell to them.
6. You as Safety and Health Personnel shall have a good listen and understand their situation first before we come out the solution. If you are not to do that, you will not get the solutions at all.
7. As a a last resort, you can ask DOSH for an sudden inspection or audit at your workplace. Most of employers or clients will start to realize the importance of occupational safety and health when legal action is taken or a warning notice is issued.

The most important in HSEQ career is communication and motivation. Bare in your mind that always listen what is their problem only then you can find out the root cause and solution.