Workplace health and safety is about saving lives, enhancing productivity, and creating environments where employees feel valued. Safer workplaces require more than platitudes about "safety pays". Andrew Hopkins' "Making Safety Work" challenges the view that markets alone can guarantee workplace safety. Instead, Hopkins advocates strong enforcement mechanisms, linking safety performance to executive compensation, and ensuring legal consequences for negligence. Governments, businesses, and workers alike must commit to creating safer workplaces—not because safety pays, but because it’s the right thing to do.

The argument that “safety pays” suggests that good practices reduce costs and enhance productivity. But employers often prioritize claims management—like reducing injury durations or discouraging claims—over meaningful safety improvements. In industries like construction, subcontracting systems shield principal contractors from financial accountability. Long-term health issues (e.g., occupational cancers) often go unaddressed because their impacts don’t immediately affect compensation costs. Financial incentives must be paired with regulatory enforcement and structural change. Regulation addresses systemic failures and long-term hazards. Inspections and penalties effectively capture managerial attention. High-profile prosecutions and targeted campaigns in high-risk industries influence compliance and show vulnerabilities before accidents occur. Legislative reforms to make directors personally liable for safety failures support structural organizational change.

Hopkins writes there has to be a safety leader, as top-down commitment supports safety performance. When senior executives review every serious injury, it reinforces the significance of safety across all levels. He notes that the fear of catastrophic disasters often underpins top management commitments to safety. For industries without such risks, regulatory and legal pressures are therfore indispensable.

Unions historically used strikes, legal leverage, and bargaining to enforce safer work environments. Safety officers and managers influence leadership by calling attention to legal risks and benchmarking performance. Empowering these actors—through training and legal protections—ensures grassroots safety issues are addressed effectively.

Source:

Hopkins, A. (1995), Making Safety Work – Getting Management Commitment to Occupational Health, and Safety, Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd.