The foundation for professionalism is Ethics. The misuse and abuse of power in the risk and safety industry is evidence that it has yet to engage in or articulate an ethic of risk. This is evidenced in Rosa Carrillo’s book Voices From the Resistance: https://safetyrisk.net/ohs-voices-from-the-resistance-rosa-carrillo/

What we do to others in the name of safety is a demonstration of what we believe is morally right. However, knowing what is right and wrong is neither innate or given.

The idea that safety is automatically a ‘profession’ and that safety work is automatically ‘professional’ is nonsense. Being professional is contingent on how people are treated in an activity.

• If injury rates are prioritised over the well-being of people, then it won’t be professional.
• If safety is defined by the control of hazards, then it won’t be professional.
• If zero is the priority, then it won’t be professional.

The key to acting professionally is understanding an ethic of risk, respect persons, understanding power and enacting ethical principles in practice.

 The method we use to tackle risk is a moral process.

It is very clear that for safety, Ethics is an afterthought. This is similar to the priority given to ‘Health’ in the Work Health and Safety (WHS) name. Health is an afterthought and of low priority in the industry. Indeed, all that is being done now in psychosocial health, demonstrates that a focus on Health is way down the list of priorities for Safety. When you treat psychosocial health as a ‘hazard’ to ‘control’, you have no idea about mental health or ethical practice.

When we see traditional safety groups like HOP peddle slogans as ‘principles’ and the AIHS push out amateurish nonsense like the BoK Chapter on Ethics, you know that Safety has a long way to go before it can ever understand what it means to be professional. If you brutalise people in the name of safety, you are NOT professional. The Chapter on Ethics in the AIHS BoK that claims that Ethics is the beginning of professionalism and is located at Chapter 38.3.

As a start, the safety industry needs to ensure that Ethics is foundational in the safety curriculum. It is not. Next it would handy for Safety to know a little bit about the linguistics of ethics. Morals and ethics are not the same thing. Values are not things we value. Slogans are not principles and, a methodology is NOT a method. Language has to make sense, we can’t just amalgamate words and just make them what we want. Speaking ignorance to people or getting engineers to teach ethics is absurd (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-the-expert-in-everything-and-the-art-of-learning-nothing/). Yet, this is what safety culture is about.

What is important to safety when thinking about ethics is obviously how many safety post-nominals one has after one’s name, not having any expertise in ethics! The same applies for understanding culture. The latest publication by EHS Insight ‘Safety Maturity Model’ is a demonstration that Safety has no idea what culture is or that zero is unethical.

This is all beginner stuff. Ye, this is the culture of safety.

In order to help understand the critical aspects that help form an ethic of risk, SPoR uses the following map (Figure 1. Mapping an Ethic of Risk).

Figure 1. Mapping an Ethic of Risk

 

 

If you don’t know what each aspect of the map is, it is most likely you don’t have an ethic of risk.

When you confuse a bunch of slogans and name them as ‘principles’, you clearly have little idea of an ethic of risk.

Without an ethic of risk, one’s default position will most likely be Utilitarian or Deontological (AIHS).  Neither of these views has respect for persons or considers the use of power over others.

For those who want to understand ethics in a practical, positive way and learn how to articulate an ethic of risk, you can study here: https://cllr.com.au/product/an-ethic-of-risk-workshop-unit-17-elearning/

And there is also good research:

• Douglas, M., (1994) Risk and Blame, Essays in Cultural Theory. London. (https://monoskop.org/images/1/1d/Douglas_Mary_Risk_and_Blame_Essays_in_Cultural_Theory_1994.pdf)
• Ericson, R., and Doyle, A., (Eds.,) (2003) Risk and Morality. University of Toronto Press. Toronto.
• Munthe, C., (2011) The Price of Precaution and The Ethics of Risk.  New York.
• Welch, S., (2000) A Feminist Ethic of Risk. Fortress Press.

Or, simply download a good foundation text on ethics and start reading:

• Macintyre, A., A Short History of Ethics

https://archive.org/details/a_short_history_of_ethics

• Lillie, W., An Introduction to Ethics

http://web.kpi.kharkov.ua/ethics/wp-content/uploads/sites/131/2024/04/An-Introduction-to-Ethics.pdf

• Blackburn, S., Ethics, A Very Short Introduction.

https://etica.uazuay.edu.ec/sites/etica.uazuay.edu.ec/files/public/uazuay-etica-ethics-a-very-short-introduction-simon-blackburn.pdf

But whatever you do, don’t expect to learn about an ethic of risk from Safety.

Don’t go to HOP and think you are learning about ‘principles’. There is no articulated methodology, method, ethic of risk or worldview articulated in HOP, it’s all hidden (which is unethical). HOP is a fad within traditional safety, which is why it is so easily adopted by organisations. Without a methodology, there can be no method. Without an ethic of risk, one is most likely to be accidental in ethical practice.

When you have taken the effort to articulate an ethic of risk, you will know why zero is an immoral goal (https://safetyrisk.net/zero-is-an-immoral-goal/). You won’t need to turn to the Safety Science Lab to teach you about what it doesn’t know. Any suggestion that zero is a moral goal demonstrates that the speaker knows nothing about ethics (https://safetyrisk.net/zero-is-not-noble-moral-or-sense-able/).

Any suggestion that fallible mortal people can attain perfection is an unethical proposition. Any suggestion that perfection ought to guide an ethic of risk is morally absurd. Zero is the foundation for the adoration of power and the abuse of persons.

SPoR will be offering the module on An Ethic of Risk in February 2025. The module will run for 5 session and be conducted on Zoom by Dr Long and will cost $250. If you wish to be a participant you can register by email here: admin@spor.com.au