A CASE-CONTROL STUDY OF POSSIBLE RISK-FACTORS IN THE CAUSATION OF OCCUPATIONAL INJURY

Under the occupational health and safety legislation current in most Australian States, legal responsibility is placed on management to identify and control hazards at their own worksites, and accordingly the success of the strategy must depend on effective management practice. To evaluate the role of management practices and other factors, an investigation was made of 98 worksites where severe or moderately severe injuries had recently been reported, and, where possible, of matching worksites where a similar accident had not occurred, at least for a period of 2 years. Matching worksites were identified for 78 of the accident sites. Using a case-control design, estimates were made of a number of factors, including the association of certain management practices, deemed a priori to be desirable in the interests of safety, with the risk of injury. Associations between the ''desirable'' management practices, safety training of management and operator training, and reduced risk of injury were weak and inconsistent. The risk of injury was unrelated to age of operator or experience of operator. Safety bonuses were associated with increased risk of injury, and production bonuses and written Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) with decreased risk of injury, but the associations were not statistically significant. The finding that the implementation of ''desirable'' management practices has, at best, a weak association with reducing the risk of injury puts into question the untested assumption of the Robens Committee of the need for ''personal responsiblity and voluntary, self-generating effort'', and that campaigns to increase the uptake of such measures as safety in management, training of managers and job training of operators are likely to be of great benefit. Management has largely made a commitment to safety already, but this is insufficient unless it is accompanied by valid and specific information on safety technology. It is suggested there is still an important role for prescriptive regulations aimed at specific hazards, notwithstanding the Robens view that there should not be ''too much reliance on state regulation''.