Posted By Paul L Williams Dear all, For the last couple of years I have had responsibility for a site in South Korea, which has a Korean management team and interaction between UK representatives as required. I usually visit twice a year to undertake a compliance audit based on UK and Korean legislation. During the time I have had responsibilities for the site I have established a safety committee, who meet monthly and forward the minutes from their meeting to me for review. There has been a lot of investment in plant safety by upgrading guarding, signage etc. I have explained about the principles of safety management "HS(G)65" and the importance of accident reporting and a non blame culture. However they won't report accidents, it seems to be a cultural thing which, comes from the top. On paper they look like the safest operation in the world, but I know statistically that they are having accidents and not reporting them. I have now set up a reporting system with forms placed on notice boards for the reporting of accidents, near misses and environmental incidents. But still nothing is being reported. I am revisiting the site in November with the company director with overall responsibility for H&S. This visit is to re-enforce the message about reporting accidents so action can be taken to reduce the risk of re-occurrence. I was wondering if any of you guys and gals have has a similar experience with lack of reporting from an overseas operation and what did you do to over come this? Many thanks Paul Williams

Posted By Adam Jackson I used to have a site in Indonesia and had a similar problem. We introduced an incentive scheme which had the proviso in it that if safety issues were reported and an accident subsequently happened the bonus was not affected. An unintended side-effect of that was a huge increase in reporting of unsafe conditions and even a lot more requests for advice on how to manage work. Doesn't help your reporting of accidents though, I never did settle that one. If someone in Indonesia injured themselves so severely that they would be unable to travel to work the following day they simply stayed at the site all night to make sure they were there for work the next day! Wasn't exactly a mind-set my initial work in Skelmersdale and Warrington prepared me for..!

Posted By Paul L Williams Jenny, I have tried that. I have even gone though HS(G)96 "cost of accidents at work" with them, to raise awareness. I think that the only way that they will ever change is if the Korean company president changes his concept of accident reporting. This will be something myself and the senior director will be saying to him on our visit in October. Out of interest in the last 4 years they have only reported one accident at work and this was a fractured ankle, the reason it was reported is that the employee took long sickness absence and under Korean legislation to enable the employee to receive sick pay the accident needs to be notified to the ministry of labour. Thanks Paul

Posted By Rakesh Maharaj Paul, All suggestions regarding the lever for effective reporting are based on the assumption that like the UK and some of Western Europe, that the co. President/Senior Manager is actually the leader. Whilst the suggestion that follows may appear to be totally ludicrous at face value, well published guru's in the field of international business culture such as Geert Hofstede (Cultures and Consequences) and Fons Tropenaars claim that through years of research that Asians (particularly Eastern and South East) DO NOT see their co. president or senior manager as their immediate gatekeeper and leader. From an operational standpoint, the senior supervisor, or oldest member of the workforce, rightly or wrongly, is often recognised as the 'bona fide' leader. (Those readers working with German or Italian industries may also identify a similar phenomenon - in different guises) The theory behind this claim is based on two standard 'culture' type proxies or indicators namely Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) and Power Distance Index (PDI). At the highest level of abstraction, these were used to qualify and compare business cultures worldwide. Therefore, consider identifying that person(s) recognised by the workforce as their 'gatekeeper' or true leader, identify his (it is most often a male figure) views on reporting, and levers that will convince him to 'sell' the idea to the workforce. Should you require any further information on international business culture, business strategy and operational effectiveness (including health and safety) please do not hesitate to contact me. I hope this helps Kind regards Rakesh