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Dips toe into water.................

Posted by Andrew Ottaway , 30 June 2012 · 1,009 views

whistleblowing human factors confidential reporting
..........and in we go.

I guess there must be many thousands of people who've thought to themselves, "That's a good idea, let's see if it'll run." I did, a little while ago, after an incident at work that could have had a very different outcome had circumstances changed ever so slightly. OK, nobody got hurt, and the issue was quickly resolved, but what really struck me was the threats made by the manager to keep it quiet. Since twenty or more guys witnessed what happened and not a word was said, I guess the threat achieved its aim. But that's a feature of the offshore game - sometimes it just isn't worth rocking the boat if it puts your job in jeopardy. Fifteen years on, and not much has changed. Bullying and harassment still takes place, and good blokes are run off on the whim of the boss. Perhaps because this takes place over the horizon, nobody cares.

Before I came into the offshore industry, I was in military aviation, where rules are rules, from both the military's perspective as well as the aviation side. Certainly some stupid stuff happened, but we were encouraged to bring our transgressions to the attention of our peers so that we could share our experiences, in the hope that we could prevent someone creating a smoking hole in the ground somewhere. These days the study of our activities is called 'human factors' and is a major industry in its own right.

Coming into an industry where silence was bought at the threat of unemployment was a bit of a shock, as you can imagine. So it set me thinking about how I could apply what I’d experienced in the Army to my new career. It’s been a long, hard slog against indifference, but two years ago at a safety seminar I got a hint that things might be changing. The Health and Safety Executive were beginning to take an interest in human factors, and although the concept seemed beyond some managers, the HSE were serious.

So, dear reader, last year I took the first tentative steps towards self-employment and registered CHAINS, the Confidential Human factors Accident and Incident Notification Service, as a Community Interest Company as the first step in helping change the way managers and employees discuss the issues that cause conflict at the workplace.

The result? Well, the HSE, while encouraging companies to take-up confidential occurrence report can’t actually force them to take it up, have at least been helpful in pointing us in their desired direction. The industry trade organizations have said how great and idea it is, but they’re too busy, and the two Trades Unions in the game have stopped answering my calls. All the employees I talk to seem keen, naturally, but we’re just not getting through.

A short while ago, I was asked if CHAINS could help ‘whistleblowers’ in getting their concerns across without them suffering retribution as a result. It would appear that our procedures would indeed be suitable for enabling dialogue between ‘concerned-employees’ and their managers. Further research shows that a number of Charities are hard at work trying to encourage organisations to put in place procedures to assist in the passage of sensitive information, through an accredited third-party, like CHAINS. I’ve also been invited to join a pan-European network with a view to enabling research into whistleblowing issues on the Continent.

So here I am, possibly on the verge of my ambition coming true. If it does, I’ll let you know.

Bye for just now.




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