Closing Address by Mr. Tom Kitt T.D., Minister for Labour, Trade and Consumer Affairs at the NISO Annual Conference New Issues...New Approaches in the Corrib Great Southern Hotel, Galway on the 9th October 1998

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very pleased to be here to-day to once again address a NISO Conference. As we have come to expect from NISO, this Conference has provided an excellent forum for informative exchange and debate on the most pertinent and important health and safety issues.

Looking at your Conference Programme here to-day, I have to repeat what I said in my message in the Conference brochure. The title "New Issues - New Approaches" captures, for me, precisely what should be our attitude to occupational health and safety as we approach the next millennium. Health and safety is not a stalemate situation. As an intricate part of our economic activity it is an ever-evolving concern - a changing economy requires a changing and adaptable workforce which in turn requires an appropriate initiative and response from both the legislator and the business practitioner.

So what do we mean by "new issues" and what are the "new approaches". Essentially the "new issues" are the issues which arise out of constantly changing work patterns and practices and "new approaches" represent our ability to acknowledge these changes, to adapt to them and, most importantly, to manage them.

Work patterns and processes have always been subject to constant change in both a revolutionary and an evolutionary manner as we have moved from carbon paper to photocopiers, manual scripts to typewriters and from typewriters to computers. We now have entire tele-sales and tele-marketing industries built around computers. The "tools of the trade" have changed enormously down through the years - this applies to all trades, including even the most traditionally labour intensive ones such as farming and construction which now have a huge emphasis on using and working with sophisticated machinery. As these tools and work patterns change and evolve the concern for occupational health and safety must remain consistent, but the method of managing those concerns must adapt as appropriate. The traditional concept of health and safety may be changing, but the relevance of dealing with and managing it effectively remains the same.

The work environment today can no longer be merely defined in terms of the actual physical operation or the process being undertaken. If you look at the list of topics which you have covered here today it is evident that the concept of health and safety in the workplace is now a diverse one - you have covered topics such as personal protective equipment, chemical safety and bullying. These topics represent both the traditional and modern work concerns and incorporate the three basic elements of health, safety and welfare as enshrined in our legislation.

The concept of "Welfare" is one that has probably been somewhat less emphasised over the years. Welfare is often a broad concept and difficult to define, but I think most of us have come to regard welfare in the context of the workplace as relating to the psychological and mental effect which work, work practices and the work environment have on an individual. A workplace accident will have a definite and an obvious physical effect on an individual. But workplace stress, bullying and harassment can also have devastating effects on the welfare of an individual in both a physical and psychological sense and these effects will permeate through both their working and personal lives. We have, at this stage, become used to the idea of putting in place practical solutions to deal with the physical safety of employees but what about the psychological welfare of our employees. This is surely the next logical stage to which we must move.

For example, the medical effects of stress on the individual have been well documented. Stress in the workplace has also been given increasing attention, both in terms of the negative effect it has on the person and the overall negative effect it has on a business in financial terms due to poor work performance, increased absenteeism and reduced productivity.

But, in actual fact, work is not solely about the end product - it is also about the human interaction which takes place in the process of producing that end product. Where that human interaction leads to situations of bullying and harassment it undoubtedly affects the long-term welfare of the individual. How much of a person's lifetime is spent in the workplace. The answer is too much of your lifetime if you are a victim of bullying or harassment and too much of your lifetime for the situation to be left unchecked.

I know that the issue of bullying has been dealt with in some detail already, but I want to mark down here to-day that workplace bullying is one area on which I certainly want to see "new approaches" developed - not so much on the basis that this is a "new issue", but rather as a newly recognised issue. The Health and Safety Authority is finalising a preliminary information leaflet on the issue which I expect to be available shortly. An awareness-raising exercise is the first step to be taken. Workplace bullying should not be seen as the latest "fad", but as a genuine employment issue which is only now getting the attention it deserves. Throughout the eighties and early nineties certain management styles concentrated solely on the achievement of better and faster results - these results were often exacted at a high price where practices such as harassment and bullying, whether they were done consciously or sub-consciously, went unchallenged. People are now quite rightly questioning and re-examining these methods.

The workplace is, of course, a microcosm of life itself - the concerns, the fears, the inadequacies and the prejudices which dominate our lives outside of work do not disappear when we go into work. We bring them with us and they can interfere in our dealings with our work colleagues and can manifest themselves in incidences of bullying and harassment. This does not however make it acceptable behaviour. We are not obliged to like everyone that we work with, but we are obliged to treat everyone fairly and with dignity. What is important is how we manage the fears and concerns which lead us to trample on others. One person's prejudices or inadequacies must not be allowed to become the bane of another person's life.

As with all health and safety matters proper management is the key. I would like to take this opportunity to ask all employers and employees to take a detached look at your work environment - does it encourage or tolerate any factors which adversely affect the welfare of any member of staff or management. I would encourage all employers to re-examine their concept of occupational health and safety - how do you address the safety, health and welfare of all your employees in its broadest sense - does your safety statement have any references to stress, bullying or harassment; does the ethos and culture of your business encourage these practices; and do you have any policies and mechanisms in place for dealing with them. It should be remembered that "new approaches" still operate best on the existing basic principles of assessment, planning, preparation and prevention.

Of course we must not confuse normal and legitimate work organisation and reporting relationships with the more systematic anti-personal behaviour and practices which constitute bullying. Problems arising from such legitimate organisational and interpersonal difficulties should be managed and resolved through existing management and industrial relations arrangements.

While we are concentrating here to-day on "New Issues" let us not forget that the old or traditional health and safety issues have not gone away. Unfortunately, as the fatalities so far for 1998 in sectors such as agriculture and construction show us, there is no room for complacency. The challenge facing us is how to deal with the traditional problems of health and safety management, while still being ready and able to take on board new challenges and new approaches. There is no aspect of a business or economic activity which remains static - health and safety management is as much an intricate part of running a business as budgetary management or personnel management and therefore needs to be kept under the same type of review and examination.

The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989 is the principal legislation dealing with occupational health and safety and, as we know, this Act is supplemented by a series of Regulations dealing with specific aspects of working activity such as the use of work equipment, manual handling of loads and work with display screen equipment and so on. It is an impressive and comprehensive set of legislation. Yet I think it is important to remember that the 1989 Act extended legislative protection from approximately 20% of the workforce in traditional sectors such as manufacturing, mines and quarries and construction to 100% of the workforce thereby including all employers, employees and the self-employed. In addition, the new sectors covered included particularly high-risk areas such as agriculture and fishing.

From this point of view, I feel that it should be acknowledged that the Act has served us well in its first ten years of existence. It has firmly established occupational health and safety management as an essential and compulsory element of the management of one's business. This does not mean it cannot or should not be reviewed or improved upon where necessary - and I have asked the Health and Safety Authority to initiate such a Review - or that any of us can afford to be complacent about the accidents and fatalities that continue to occur.

What it does mean is that all of us - legislator, practitioner and worker - have learnt a great deal over the last ten years and our collective experiences can be put to good effect as we tackle both the ongoing health and safety issues and the new and divergent issues. Change and adaptation is the essence of both business and human life, but the main challenge facing all of us who are committed to the effective management of occupational health and safety is to ensure that human life is not endangered by change or by our inability to find new approaches to deal with new and changing circumstances.