Topic: Zero Accidents Achieving A New Safety Culture

Presenter: Eric Kipps, Manager, Jaric Environment Safety and Health Services

Moderator: Raul Villaneauv, Superintendent, Health and the Environment, Belize Electricity Services Ltd.

The notion of safety culture has grown in recent times in several industries as more safety practitioners see the impact that workers’ attitudes and behaviors have on the causes and effects of workplace incidents and accidents. These attitudes and behaviors are fashioned largely by the organizations’ workplace safety culture and its existing safety procedures. According to Stephen Covey “If you put good people in bad systems, you get bad results”. Likewise, OSHA makes the point that “Safety cultures consist of shared beliefs, practices, and attitudes that exist at an establishment. Culture is the atmosphere created by those beliefs, attitudes, etc., which shape our behavior.”

In the Caribbean we share very similar cultural experiences. Our culture has strong influences on our work ethic as was highlighted in a paper titled “a Comparative Study of Safety Culture the Construction Industry of Britain And the Caribbean” by Steven Peckitt. The results of his analysis of the attitudinal data provided by construction workers in Britain and the Caribbean indicates that there is broad correspondence on the key dimensions of each safety climate.

This presentation looks at the concept of Zero Accidents and the development of a positive safety culture in Caribbean organizations.