Health, safety and environmental issues and reporting also known as: management accounting and how we measure and report occupational health and safety (OH&S) information

Over the past 250 years occupational health and safety (OH&S) has become more important because the industrial revolution and mechanisation that accompanied it are very effective at damaging and killing workers. Whilst there are many calls for more attention and investment to be given towards the issues surrounding OH&S it is often not beneficial or cost effective to invest in OH&S. A priori reasoning would indicate that if it truly was cost effective this attention would have occurred. It is possible that people are just a bunch of sissies looking for any excuse to complain about work. The obvious conclusion then is that whilst OH&S does create certain costs and other problems, these are still less than the resources required to address them effectively. On a global level, it is estimated that over 5,000 people die every day due to accidents, injury or sickness contracted at work. For each fatality there is another 1,000 injuries which lead to incapacitation (Else, 2003). At a local level, in 2001 in Victoria 31 people were killed in workplaces in the Australian state of Victoria, and another 3711 were seriously injured (Victorian WorkCover Authority 2002). Putting on your Six Sigma Blackbelt Hat for a moment, in ?quality speak? (i.e. defective parts per million) the results appear unacceptable and quite likely avoidable. With these figures it is important to answer the question of whether this is a necessary side-effect of present day society, or the result of failure to address key issues. If these costs and issues are avoidable, then a key question that must be examined is why firms are pursuing a sub-optimal strategy. This paper examines this question by looking at the role of Management Accounting and how it measures and reports OH&S information within organisations. As the role of management accounting is to support managers with relevant information it is important to examine whether OH&S costs are accurately collected, collated, and communicated to ensure that appropriate strategies are pursued. By evaluating this we are able to better evaluate the claims regarding OH&S.