Posted By Ross Afternoon All, I am currently living working in a Middle Eastern country where the HSE culture is pretty non-exsistant. I am trying to put together a 4 hour training session on the importance of why we need to manage HSE to present to senior managers here. Obviously we will base it around the Moral, legal and ecominic reasons, however I want them to leave this session really thinking about what they have been told. I therefore want this to be a shocking & moving as possible. I want to show pictures, videos, case studies, statistics etc. to really drive the point home. Does anyone have any ideas, or material they could share? Thanks! P.s. Please note when I say shocking I do not mean showing horrific injuries or things which are insensitive.

Posted By Bob Youel where life is cheap and there are little repercussions it is very hard to change minds and hearts - best of luck

Posted By Jim Walker Bob, I take it the person bragging was a Brit? Without wishing to tar "them overseas" all with the same brush (good /bad), which would be racist. Because of likelihood that a much higher proportion (than here in the UK) are practicing members of their religion (whichever it might be). I think you will find the moral argument easier to sell than in "dog eat dog" UK.

Posted By Mike Herbert Hello there. I did a short stint in the area last year and was a bit taken aback by the conditions for the average worker. As others have said..life is cheap but the economics is not necessarily as straightforward as lost time costs. From what i heard of accidents at some sites the injured were simply swept up and work carried on. New workers would arrive the next day. Some states insist on 'blood money' being paid to the relatives of deceased workers. This can mount up i would imagine. Fortunately we did not find out the hard way. It may be possible to approach local embassies or consulates to determine figures of killed and injured workers from their nations. India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philipines, Sri Lanka all supply huge numbers of labourers for sites in the middle east and may be able to help with some statistics to put it all in perspective for your managers. I think India reported 170 deaths last year. Not all were work related however. The precise break down may be politically sensitive and not even be available but it is worth a thought. In the situation i was in managers and other westerners took it upon themselves to make friends with the workers, bought them a football or cricket bat, took photos and pinned them up on staff boards and generally made a fuss of them to the extent that they took on board the H&S info we were giving them and we made a big effort to show that they mattered and wanted them to get back to their families safe and sound. The main part of the battle is getting the labour on side by being seen to care and the management will see fruits in terms of better productivity and a safer worksite. Incentive schemes, as long as cash isn't involved, may work well. A lot of them suffer from bullying by supervisors and depression from being away from their families and commit suicide. What i have said above can help prevent that and you end up with a team that will support itself, work hard for you and importantly....listen to what you tell them. They will be keen to plese you and will report near misses or problems so you take action in time to prevent the worst happening. If you have any influence over their living conditions which can be pretty basic, by getting aircon in where it doesn't exist or similar welfare issues then you will win them over further. It doesn't cost much and i'm not going to tell you how to do all those other things that are your job and that you know well, but i found it worked successfully for us. Probably not much help in terms of your presentation but social responsibility is difficult to price i think. I trust your organisation is enlightened in this respect. I hope this helps a bit and wish you luck. cheers mike

Posted By Rakesh Maharaj Ross, In my experience, playing the 'reputation' card often works in the Middle East. The Emaratis are a proud nation who are working hard to develop a good commercial reputation in order to encourage investment and tourism from the West. When I present to companies in the ME, I usually focus on corporate social responsibility. It is also important to highlight the legacy left by those companies that have ignored the principal .. e.g. Cape plc (a UK company) and the effects of its asbestos mines on the South African local economics and social systems. My advice is to tread carefully through this as you rightly point out, this is a sensitive subject. Good luck Rakesh