Guanajuato Silver Company Ltd V.GSVR

Wisdom From Lex

[ErinBrockovich]

actually having formal job plans on paper and checklists to follow to ensure safe and proscribed work practices were followed. And yet, every once in a while someone was fatally injured on the job. In my 30+ years at that company I can recall at least 4 or 5 fatalities that happened company-wide. Yes, things do go seriously wrong but it DOES NOT show that the company is not in control. In every case it was not a lack of policy, or protective equipment or safeguards--in each case it was attributable to employee error--either the person impacted did not follow the safeguards or actively bypassed the safety rules/systems---or another person did something in error that caused another person to be impacted. Yes, its a bad situation---but to imply that the company is at fault or lacks controls or safeguards before any details are provided is misguided IMO.

6

14 Aug 2023, 13:33

 

@lexcon And just like in the US where OSHA would take the lead as an impartial party in any investigation (supported and assisted by the company) I suspect that is a similar situation that was referenced in the NR---the company is not abdicating responsibility for investigating and finding out what happened and how to mitigate the potential it can recur---but they are letting the govt body lead the investigation (to avoid the potential appearance of any cover up or whatever). There is a thing called the swiss-cheese model of risk management. What that means is that the company can take all the steps to reduce risk, to manage compliance with procedures, etc and yet under some unusual conditions any "holes" in a risk management system can line up across multiple systems (like stacking multiple slices of swiss cheese side by side) the odds are low but not zero that the holes in the systems can line up and allow an accident to happen.