Hi Sir G,

I would recommend that you do a softly softly approach with regard to H&S. Some 'stuck in their way' types could cause you grief.
I believe if youre full on you will lose out. You want to create a positive H&S culture with these people.
Good luck.

Emsie

Sir G
Looks like you have big challenges ahead of you you will need to get by in from the workforce to succeed I would suggest holding a weekly or monthly workforce H&S Meeting and get the workforce to nominate people to attend ,make sure the workforce know this is a non blame meeting and any issues raised will be in confidence then you could hold a Managers Meeting to discuss these issues raised and how to close them out its important that the workforce see issues been closed out in a reasonable time scale to get their by in another good meeting to have is a weekly/Monthly meeting with the directors one to keep them updated with ongoing issues they may also help to close out issues by applying pressure to their managers , minutes of the meeting can be displayed on all notice boards one good trick I do is have actions not closed out printed in a different colour so peoples reading them and directors as well know what is outstanding
Good luck and all the best

So the "siege perilous" beckons to Sir Galahad once more?
Take your time to check what is actually going on. Things are often not what they seem on first look. It would be unusual not to find any reasonable practices in there somewhere. I would focus on finding those and encourage their continued use before focusing on what you want to see improved.
You say it is a large company and imply that H&S is better managed elsewhere in the group. If so why not get some of the line managers from the new acquisition to visit a good location to hear from the local management why they do H&S the way they do and task them to identify one measure that they will implement back at their factory. Talking with shop-floor employees is important but needs care in such circumstances. If the culture is where you think it is then what do you think you would get from such an early approach? It can be better to wait a little until you have an outline improvement plan agreed and then share that in an open manner.
I wouldn't worry about the perceptions of the acquisition, you just have to prove yourself in the same way as any new employee. Find yourself some like minded individuals as soon as you can and use them informally to start with and then........

good luck.it is great fun and very rewarding when it works and it usually does more often than not in such situations, at least in the shorter term performance monitors!