What is the ZERO-Injuries concept?
The simplest "definition" of the ZERO-injury concept is when a company or organization experiences no workplace injuries - specifically those tracked as lost-time or disabling injuries (Canada) or lost workday cases (U.S.) - over a given period of time.
Where did ZERO come from?
Although the ZERO-injury concept, or “zero” is not owned by a single person or entity, there is no doubt that the DuPont Company comes to mind among many employers and OH&S professionals when the topic arises. The company has made a name for itself - from an employer's point of view - as perhaps the world's leading advocate of the “zero” concept.
In 1993, the U.S. Construction Industry Institute (CII) published Zero Injury Techniques. This publication was notable because it outlined OH & S management practices common to companies that had achieved “safety excellence.” In this case, “safety excellence” was defined by a CII Zero Accident Task Force as having a lost-workday case (LWC) rate of less than 1.0.
In Alberta, and across Canada and North America, a growing number of companies are tracking their zero-injury achievements and sharing their success stories with others. HATSCAN’s Zero Injuries Handbook includes some of these stories.
Zero-injury logic
Emmit J. Nelson of Nelson Consulting Inc. in Houston, Texas, is a safety consultant and the principal author of the CII's Zero Injury Techniques.
Nelson offers his take on the potential scope or application of the "ZERO-injury" concept:
"The essence of the Zero injury concept is for a company or organization to adopt the notion that employee injury is not a desirable nor an acceptable result of work execution. Thus, these devotees wish to experience Zero injury for as long a period or for as many work hours as they can. They first strive for zero lost workday cases, then - when successful - for zero recordables, and then for zero first-aids."
Where can I learn about ZERO injuries?
ZERO-injury resources: