The RSSB report – delivered to Network Rail chairman Rick Haythornthwaite - estimates that between 500 and 600 RIDDOR reportable accidents were not reported between 2005 and 2010. Some of the under-reporting relates to misinterpretation of the RIDDOR requirements, but the majority is explained by staff and contractors choosing not to report accident events. This was caused by both real and perceived pressure, and in some cases fear, felt by Network Rail staff and contractors if they reported accidents.
Pressure not to report has arisen from the implementation of an overall strategy for safety based upon the use of safety targets, league tables and contractual requirements linked to the number of reported lost time injuries. Also other management actions, such as the frequent company re-organisations and procurement practices leading to job insecurities, and financial disincentives such as loss of overtime have also contributed.
Part of the investigation involved confidential interviews with managers and staff, during which many expressed the view that Network Rail was not a company where an open and active dialogue can be held about incidents or safety concerns without fear of reprisals. There was also some evidence that local managers were under pressure to get the job done, which in some cases could have led to safety and safety reporting being compromised.
A culture of fear was also found within the Network Rail’s contractor community, which employs around 65,000 staff on various aspects of railway infrastructure work, increasingly on a temporary or casual basis. Among both managers and employees, there was a strong belief they would be less likely to be selected for work if they reported a lost time injury. The workers also had the added disincentive of being stood off without pay during the course of any related investigations into the accident.
The report puts forward a number of suggested actions that Network Rail could take to promote a better safety and reporting culture.
Anson Jack, RSSB’s director of policy, research and risk, who directed the review, said: “This review highlights the unintended consequences of management initiatives intended to improve safety. It is the combination of Network Rail’s internal and contracting culture together with quantitative targets, rather than just the targets themselves which created the under-reporting issue.
“Network Rail has already taken a number of actions to address the under reporting and we have recommended it considers further steps to improve the working relationship between all levels of its staff and between the company and its contractors with a view to working towards a more open and ‘just’ safety and reporting culture.”
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Responding to the review findings Network Rail chairman Rick Haythornthwaite said: “I'm grateful to RSSB for its work and to the Office of Rail Regulation and Unite for bringing this issue to our attention. While we can take some comfort from the report’s clear conclusion that there was no link between under-reporting and executive bonuses, Network Rail needs to heed the lessons in this report if it is to achieve its ambition of a world class safety culture.‟
Unions were swift to comment on the reporting, seeing it as official confirmation of what they have been saying for years.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “This important report confirms what RMT have been warning of for a number of years – that the commercialisation of our rail infrastructure has created a climate where business-led targets have overridden safety reporting leading to up to 40% of injuries not being reported.
“The report is a wake-up call for the Government who are under pressure from within their own ranks to re-privatise Network Rail creating the nightmare prospect of Railtrack 2 – dragging the organisation even further away from the ethos of public service and setting us on course for a return to the dark days of Hatfield and Potters Bar. The last thing we need now is another poisonous dose of privatisation.
“The report also makes clear than in the kind of cuts led environment that has dogged Network Rail in recent years bullying and corner cutting are rife with potentially dire consequences. Now is the time to pull back from the brink, protect and increase the investment in Network Rail and rebuild the organisation as the crucial public infrastructure service that we need to take our railways into the future.”
Unite's national officer, Bob Rixham, said: "The review exposes a rotten safety culture where rail staff and contractors were under pressure not to report accidents - in some cases staff were even fearful of reporting accidents. It's scandalous that directors shared £2.7m in bonuses in 2010.
"Behind the statistics are real people who have been injured at work. Network Rail and the industry must now admit to themselves how bad the situation had become, and only then can the industry move forward and encourage and nurture a just safety culture. Unite is confident that this will be the case and will assist the industry and Network Rail to achieve a culture that the industry can be proud of. "
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