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Older, larger companies benefit from not investing in worker safety, study finds:
When it's cheaper to pay nominal fines for violating workplace regulations than to provide safe workplaces, that indicates current safety regulations are not enough to protect workers, researchers say.
Oregon State University Public Health and Human Sciences associate professor Anthony Veltri was one of several authors on the study, an international collaboration between Mark Pagell, Mary Parkinson, Michalis Louis and Brian Fynes of University College Dublin in Ireland; John Gray of the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio; and Frank Wiengarten of Universitat Ramon Llull in Spain.
"Organizations that do not provide a safe workplace gain an economic advantage over those that do," said Veltri, who studies occupational safety and health. "The goal of improving the longevity of a business conflicts with the goal of protecting the workforce."
The study, published last week in the journal Management Science, looked at both short- and long-term survival of more than 100,000 Oregon-based organizations over a 25-year period. In this study, "survival" was defined as ongoing operations, even in the face of an ownership change.
[...] Although there are businesses that provide safe workplaces and also improve their competitiveness, such businesses are not the norm, the study says. And while organizations seeking to maximize their survival are unlikely to harm workers on purpose, they are correct in calculating that the costs of preventing all harm to workers is higher than the cost of not doing so.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 14 2020, @11:44AM (8 children)
Perfect lead-in to a truck driving story.
New Jersey, close to the Holland Tunnel, I think it was in Secaucus. I needed to make a right turn from one busy street, onto another. There was a brand new Mercedes parked on the corner, in front of a fire hydrant, illegally parked twice over. I gave the turn my best effort, but it wasn't quite good enough - I had to stop because my trailer tandems were going to take out the Mercedes' fender.
Cop comes along, asks me what the problem is. I explain. He informs me that he doesn't see an illegally parked car on the corner, and I had two choices. A: get my truck out of his intersection or B: be arrested for obstructing traffic, have my truck impounded, and sit in jail for at least a day and a half to see the judge.
I got back in the truck, put it in gear, and tore the fender off that brand new Mercedes, and got the hell out of Secaucus.
As you say, the rich man looked at that corner parking spot, and thought that it would cost him $xxx to park there. I came along, and increased that $xxx to $X,XXX, and possibly $XX,XXX.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @12:53PM (3 children)
> I needed to make a right turn from one busy street, onto another.
Sorry to spoil your story, but you never *need* to make a turn. The road system (except for some dead ends) is all connected and what anyone sane would do was find another route that didn't involve a turn that resulted in property damage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @03:13PM
Does stupidity hurt?
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 14 2020, @04:43PM
You're kinda sorta on target. But, Secaucus, New Jersey. Close to the Holland Tunnel. I should add, I was pointed east. That should be enough to realize that, yes, the street I was on would end soon. Thanks to the proliferation of one-way streets, road restrictions, and other road blockages, I did, indeed, need to make that right turn. I'm not sure how deep the river is in that area, but I assume it's deeper than any snorkel I might find for an 18-wheeler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @09:58PM
Look buddy, when you're in Secaucus, NJ, you do whatever the hell it takes to get out of there.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by meustrus on Thursday May 14 2020, @03:55PM (1 child)
LOL, "I don't see an illegally parked car there." Cop probably knew exactly whose car it was, too. Bet he was laughing his ass off the rest of the day.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Friday May 15 2020, @01:17AM
Bet the entire station was.
I hope there wasn't any damage to the truck from the instructions given though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2020, @11:06PM (1 child)
So YOU are the bastard that destroyed my brand new car! Prepare for a server. To serve you summons. See you in court.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 15 2020, @02:30AM
Statute of limitations, Bubba. And, I hope you learned your lesson about illegal parking. ;^)