EEVA | Conscious violation

By intentionally committing or allowing a violation to occur, one very clearly indicates that there is no value for respecting the rule.

However, this can lead to very serious or deadly consequences and therefore should not be allowed.

At Evonik, it is assumed that there is no one present at the company who consciously wants to endanger people’s lives. After all this is criminal behaviour and should be dealt with in a criminal court.

The objective of this EEVA is to create awareness that intentionally violating the agreed rule can lead to a serious accident.

An example is refusing to stop at a pedestrian crossing the moment somebody wants to use it.

Another example is instructing people to work on a tube bridge without providing fall protection.

Another example is the release of toxic or corrosive products (running down) when there are people standing underneath.

If the job cannot be done in a safe manner, solutions that are feasible and within the agreements must be found.

Reasons why people generally do not apply or circumvent the rules are:

• Expectation: the idea that the rules will have to be bent to get the work done.
• Powerfulness: the feeling that one has the ability and experience to do the job without slavishly following the procedures.
• Seeing opportunities: for short cuts or to do things ‘better’ and not being held accountable for this.
• Inadequate work planning and advance preparation leading to working on the fly and solving problems as they arise.

These reasons are sometimes understandable but will not be tolerated.