Learning Safety from a 'Crazy Hippie'

This week Sanford and fish processing company Pelco were ordered to pay $65,000 for an accident in which an employee had the skin ripped off her hand after catching it in a winch.  New Zealand workplaces have an appalling safety record. In a recent 12 month period, 102 employees died at work, 378 more suffered serious injuries, and the cost of work related injuries and disease was $3.5 billion.

Safety is like happiness, many employers think they can save money by disregarding the well being of employees. The human cost doesn’t figure. Google and other companies have shown that an increase in employee happiness is actually good for the bottom line. It is the same with safety. Not only does a lack of safety have tangible economic costs, the example of Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) shows that a safe workplace is a more profitable workplace. In 1987 a new chief executive at Alcoa made safety his sole focus. Investors were horrified and denounced O’Neill as a “crazy hippie.” Within a year Alcoa’s profits hit a record high. By the time O’Neill retired, the market value of Alco had increased by $27 billion. We have a message for New Zealand employers: Safety pays!