Commentary: Why do workplace accidents keep repeating themselves in Singapore?

Commentary: Why do workplace accidents keep repeating themselves in Singapore?

Whenever there is an office fatality, the WSH Council will notify the industry, providing timely information about the mishaps so other companies can learn from the particular accident and prevent the recurrence.

However , sharing info does not equate to learning. Sharing of incident cases can increase workers’ awareness within the short run, but it is frequently not sustainable, as well as the awareness depletes after some time especially with pressure from manpower shortages and tighter deadlines .

An organisation learns from any sort of accident only if they go by means of these stages: Obtaining the accident details, highlighting on the accident, sketching lessons from the representation, and implementing the lessons learned at work.

This requires organisations to adopt “double-loop learning” instead of “single-loop learning”. The latter is targeted on the specifics of a situation whereas in the former, the company reflects on the ideals, assumptions and insurance policies that influenced those things that led to the outcome.

As an example of single-loop learning, following a worker falls from the defective ladder, the employer removes the defective ladder and briefs workers on the safe use of ladders. Right here, the improvement produced is superficial.

In double-loop understanding, the employer examines deeper causes of the step ladder defect, such as ladder procurement, maintenance and inspection. They assess safety training performance, workers’ perception associated with management’s commitment to workplace safety and whether work stress is excessive.

Once the fundamental causes of the incident are exposed, more efficient measures can then be identified and implemented to prevent a recurrence.