Human Factor and Disasters: Possible Equations

Abstract

Introduction:

This research starts from the assumption that work accidents, in addition to fortuitous or individual phenomena, imply social and organizational factors, and highlights the social character of the production of the accident at work. For this reason, this study investigates the living conditions and the ways of workers in the oil and gas industry in Brazil.

Aim:

To analyze the human factors in the relationship with work accidents on oil platforms from the social dimensions.

Methods:

It is qualitative research and it has as instruments of collection the focal group and individual interviews with workers and managers of the platforms, participant observation, and documentary analysis.

Results:

The research is still being carried out, but some reflections are possible so far: accidents at work depend on the direct or indirect relationship of workers with the work process itself, the modalities of production of work, and management of work. Possible causes underlying the accident are the quality of life and the conceptions of health and safety. Associated with it are social constructs and the multifactorial causes of occupational accidents including the relations between acts and unsafe conditions.

Discussion:

The increase in outsourcing and the decrease in training quality, as well as the prioritization of production, targets the detriment of meeting safety criteria. There is a need to reassess labor management, safety policies, and outsourcing processes. Lack of awareness of the proper use of safety equipment and the organization of the work environment are major causes of work-related accidents. The human factor focuses on the individual, group, organizational, and social dimensions in complex interactions. The identification of social processes between working groups in empirical reality, the influence of elements of culture, organizational management, and their impacts on relations and on safe work performance allows an understanding of social risks.