The improvement of safety rules by a participatory method: a case study in a chemical company

Safety management in high-risk systems is based on safety rules that have to prescribe human action and interaction and should reduce errors and risks. The present case study want to report an organisational intervention aimed to improve a Safety Work Permits System (SWPS) in a chemical company through the employees' involvement which daily use this system. SWPS consists in a step-by-step process designed to ensure that hazardous work activities could be performed in a safely way. The organisational intervention comprised 20 focus groups (190 total participants), whose main aim was to work on the current SWPS with the final aim to improve them. Employees with the help of experts analysed the SWPS and suggested improvements on the basis of three main phases: before the SWP filling, during the work activity and after the task accomplishment. Before and after the sessions a questionnaire was administered to participants in order to collect data on their opinions and perceptions about safety procedures. The participants noted some criticism in the SWPS and proposed solutions to enhance the system therefore eliminated the met problems. As well as improving the system we have also shown that workers involvement and active participation has resulted in an increased acceptance of safety rules included in SWPS.