Abstract
It is estimated that workers worldwide suffer 250 million accidents each year, with 330 000 fatalities. This is despite the implementation of traditional safety interventions like safety engineering. Little emphasis has thus far been placed on behavioural interventions to improve safety culture and performance in the workplace. The aim of this study was to determine to what extent the safety culture and safety performance in an iron ore mine were affected by the implementation of a behaviour-based safety intervention. A longitudinal design was used. The sample consisted of 562 employees of an iron ore mine. The results showed that the implementation of the safety intervention brought about an improvement in the safety culture at the mine, and positively impacted on the number of lost-time injuries.
Highlights
It is estimated that workers worldwide suffer 250 million accidents every year, with 330 000 fatalities and 160 million cases of occupational disease
The aim of this study was to determine to what extent the safety culture and safety performance in an iron ore mine were affected by the implementation of a behaviour-based safety intervention
Safety metrics fall into two basic areas, namely leading indicators, and trailing or lagging indicators, which are measurements linked to the outcome of an accident
Summary
It is estimated that workers worldwide suffer 250 million accidents every year, with 330 000 fatalities and 160 million cases of occupational disease. An even higher number of threats to employees’ physical and mental well-being cause further suffering. The consequent economic losses are equivalent to four percent of the world’s gross national product (International Labour Organisation, 1999). In terms of shattered families and communities, the damage is certainly incalculable. In South Africa the situation is not at all any better. During the period 1999–2001, an average annual number of 426 fatalities was recorded (Department of Labour, 2002). These fatalities occurred despite safety interventions which were implemented, including safety design, ergonomics, management audits, poster campaigns, near-miss reporting and root cause analysis
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