Editorial Re-defining `Accident’

The reason is attributed to a cultural evolution at the company’s No 12 mine in Bathurst, N.B., which employs 1,455.

Instead of treating accidents as “any unplanned event that may or may not cause an injury,” Brunswick has redefined accident to mean “any event that causes an unplanned cost.”

“Everyone (both company and union) agrees that injuries are not acceptable,” says James Hocquard, superintendent of safety. “But it is only recently that Brunswick has been taking personal responsibility for an accident.” That means supervisors have been calling up employees at home after an on-the-job accident to find out whether or not they’ll be coming into work in the morning. That’s something you’d take for granted in a small company, but in a big company like Brunswick, it represents radical change.

The company has begun to take a “pro-active” rather than a “re-active” approach to safety. “We’re more interested now in what is going to happen this month rather than what happened last month,” Hacquard says. Safety meetings are held monthly in all work areas.

Lost time due to back injuries is the number-one compensable injury at the No 12 mine, accounting for 32% of all claims in 1985. To combat the situation, the company hired a physiotherapist to train each employee in proper back care and write an article in the company’s monthly publication to employees. The program was followed up with training courses to help supervisors spot possible workplace hazards. Employees were encouraged to suggest changes to various pieces of equipment, and badges and buckles were handed out as rewards.

The result has been a dramatic reduction in compensable injuries, which dropped to 24.3 per one million man-hours worked in January, 1989 from 60 in January, 1988. As of August, 1988, only 17% of all claims were related to back injuries, costing the company about $124,000. The change might be called, “getting back to basics.”

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