Just because one desires zero injuries doesn’t justify unethical practice.

The outcome of safety and a duty towards safety are always undone when persons are dehumanised (harmed) in the process. How absurd the proposal for zero harm when people are harmed in the process of seeking zero!!!

The fact that Ethics is not foundational to the study of safety opens up the floodgates for unethical practice.

At the heart of understanding ethics is understanding the use and misuse of power (never mentioned in the AIHS BoK Chapter on ethics). The misuse of power always harms others. This is why a study of ethics should be foundational to safety (https://cllr.com.au/product/an-ethic-of-risk-workshop-unit-17-elearning/). This is why a focus by traditional safety on outcomes such as performance (eg. HOP) enable Safety to dismiss process in favour of a focus on outcomes. The end is used to justify the means.

But, expertise in ethics is not important to Safety where people with no expertise in Ethics deliver programs on Ethics (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-the-expert-in-everything-and-the-art-of-learning-nothing/). This is the safety way, where engineers are historians and Safety preaches theology.

Those who know about ethics know that surveillance is unethical. Surveillance is always justified by some ‘good’ such as the reduction of risk and harm (https://safetyrisk.net/surveillance-doesnt-work/) but in the process, persons are dehumanised.

I was in Woolworths yesterday and noticed that assistants now wear body cams. Of course, the best way to justify any practice is to invoke ‘safety’. So these cams are now called ‘safety cams’ (https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/au/en/our-newsroom/latest-news/2024/woolworths-new-zealand-rolls-out-team-safety-cameras-to-all-stor.html). Cameras don’t deter behaviour, they only record it. and, this creates a new ethical problem of what happens to the recorded data and how it will be used. We have already seen other retailers get ‘hammered’ for unethical conduct using surveillance (https://theconversation.com/bunnings-breached-privacy-law-by-scanning-customers-faces-but-this-loophole-lets-other-shops-keep-doing-it-244031).

Surveillance controls (that don’t control) are increasing in the workplace under the myth that they ‘control’ behaviour (https://theconversation.com/being-monitored-at-work-a-new-report-calls-for-tougher-workplace-surveillance-controls-257352). Unfortunately, surveillance is often proposed as an easy solution for a lack of situational awareness (https://safetyrisk.net/situational-awareness-what-are-your-filters/). The use of cameras may help with follow up prosecution but in themselves don’t ‘control’ bad behaviour. And, as we see in the article by Tham, Blackham and Goldenfein, there are many methods of undertaking surveillance.

The first problem with surveillance is the problem of permission and consent. Recording and using data of another person is unethical without consent.

The second problem is interpretation. Without considerable expertise in situational awareness and behavioural psychology, no monitoring of behaviour guarantees certainty in interpreting a behavioural process. Indeed, a lack of expertise is situational awareness usually creates further harm.

A third problem is that those with power to use technology and create surveillance technology also have no expertise in ethics (https://technative.io/can-surveillance-technology-really-be-ethical/). Again, the focus is on outcomes NOT process. Furthermore, the use of AI in surveillance is even more problematic.

A fourth problem is the unintended by-products and trade-off in using surveillance technologies. This is again complex because a focus on outcomes clouds the hidden harm in process.

You can research more on the ethics of surveillance here:

The idea that the outcome of safety can justify any action is naïve and fuels unethical practice.

If you want to study, be coached or mentored in the Ethics of Safety you can contact here: admin@spor.com.au or register here: https://cllr.com.au/product/an-ethic-of-risk-workshop-unit-17-elearning/