Management Obligations for Health and Safety

Book excerpt: In recent years, the safety management field has placed leadership and commitment at the center of effective workplace health and safety programs. At the same time, personal liability for workplace health and safety has increased, resulting in poor outcomes for individual managers. Discussing the minimum expectations that courts and tribunals have of managers, Management Obligations for Health and Safety examines the relationship between those expectations and effective safety performance. The book looks at safety management from the perspective of management obligations. What expectations are placed on managers at all levels of an organization to ensure that the workplace and systems of work are safe, and how are these expectations considered and analyzed by courts and public inquiries? As importantly, the book explores how management actions in relation to these obligations and expectations influence, positively or negatively, the safety performance of an organization. With examples drawn from legal and quasi-legal processes, one of the more enlightening and thought-provoking features of this book is the extensive use of cross examination taken from various proceedings. No one person reacts the same to finding him- or herself responsible for managing the aftermath of a death at work, or having to deal with the immediate pressure of being subject to interviews and investigation by safety regulators (much less the drawn-out experience of the legal process), but one of the most constant reactions is "Why didn’t anybody tell me about this?" Stressing the importance of safety culture, this book details the true nature of the expectations that are placed on managers by virtue of their obligation to provide a safe workplace.