Decreased job security without change in safety during hydrocarbon industry recession

Abstract

Economic recessions may decrease an organization’s investment in maintenance, training and safety management, and may thus have a negative impact on safety. The present study examines how job security and safety changed during and after a major recession in the Norwegian hydrocarbon industry. Interviews with HSEQ officers in ship-owning companies informed our hypotheses about what effects the recession may have had on safety perception among crew members. Three cross-sectional surveys of maritime hydrocarbon workers were conducted in 2013 (N = 829), 2015 (N = 444), and 2017 (N = 555). The results showed that although the crew’s perceptions of job security decreased from 2013 to 2017, their perceptions of safety climate did not change. Attitudes to safety and to reporting declined from 2013 to 2015, then improved from 2015 to 2017, indicating that the recession had a temporary effect on the crew’s motivation and intention to comply with the safety regulations. Potential organizational and individual explanations are discussed.

Organizational and Individual Safety Factors in Work on Chemical Tanker Vessels

“…This suggests that the current measures may be used to monitor changes over time, or to identify organizational units with safety indicators that deviates from the average. Comparing the current results with those from vessels in the more heavily regulated hydrocarbon production industry (as seen in Saetrevik, Ørbeck, Helland, & Eid, 2019) did not indicate any particular differences. The chemical tanker vessels had higher average scores on all the variables, except for "Safety management systems".…”

“…We will describe average responses and distributions for the variables in the survey below. In some cases, the current average values may be compared to a Norwegian maritime sample of 1,828 crew members working on offshore hydrocarbon production support vessels (Saetrevik, Ørbeck, Helland & Eid, 2019).…”

Higher unemployment and higher work-related traumatic fatality: trends and associations from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, 2007–2018

“…A study of young Canadian workers indicated that despite knowing of this right, workers (from a sample including non-unionized, parttime, and precarious employment) expressed reluctance to exercise it (48). Indeed, perceived job insecurity has been shown to decrease worker safety motivation and compliance among food processing workers (49), and economic recession had a temporary effect on maritime crew's motivation and intention to comply with the safety regulations (50). Such decreased motivation would be expected to include decreased hazard reporting.…”