A Bonus for Killing
April 4, 2011 by admncc
After working for all of these years in Risk Management and seeing just about every workplace situation, it’s often difficult to find something that truly shocks me. Ah, who am I kidding, I still get surprised at least once a day. And this story is no example.
On Saturday, the Associated Press reported that Transocean gave its top executives bonuses for achieving the “best year in safety performance” in their “company’s history.” That sounds like an amazing and well-deserved reward…until I tell you that Transocean’s oil rig is the one that exploded, “killed 11 people and spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.”
Now, let me get this straight… They had the “best year in safety performance” in their “company’s history,” but 11 people died in an explosion and they polluted the environment with 200 millions gallons of oil? That’s pretty interesting… Actually, if that’s the case, I’d hate to see the list of their previous years of work-related accidents.
The report also said that “Transocean noted “the tragic loss of life” in the Gulf when the rig operated by BP PLC exploded last April. But it said the company still had an “exemplary” safety record because it met or exceeded certain internal safety targets concerning the frequency and severity of its accidents.”
The above-paragraph is my whole point. What year is a good one when someone dies? Or when several people die? I believe it is fair to say that an exemplary record would not be the case if someone died. Yet, in this case, 11 people died, they’re still saying their record is exemplary and on top of that, it’s the “best year in safety” ever. Additionally, I find it hard to believe that their internal goals were such that even taking into account the devastation that happened; that they still “met or exceeded” safety targets and/or reduced the severity of other incident. How more severe can you get than death?
And if you’re questioning who was at fault in the accident, look no further. “A commission appointed by President Barack Obama earlier this year said the explosion was caused by a series of time and money-saving decisions by Transocean, BP and oil services company Halliburton Inc. that created an unacceptable amount of risk.” But hey, I guess that shouldn’t stop CEO Steve Newman from getting close to $100,000 in safety bonuses. Nothing for nothing, but I think he should donate it to the families of the victims.
All Posts / Business / Family/Lifestyle / General Moaning / Law and Order / Safety BP / Deaths / Executive Compensation / Gulf of Mexico / Halliburton / Oil Spills / Risk Management / Steve Newman / The Associated Press / Transocean / Work-Related Injuries /
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Let’s just hope Tempco doesn’t do the same with their employee’s! It must be an interesting environment to work in.. is it high stress? And about the time and money saving-decisions.. I wonder if that’s what happened to the Southwest Airline the other day? I know bottom line is important, but not at the risk of human life, so be it if it takes things slower…safer is better.
Completely ridiculous. There’s nothing like gloating about $hit and pretty much rubbing how badly you truly do suck in everyone’s face. I can hear the laughter now, except from the 11 families, hundreds of thousands of businesses and everyone else effected by their amazing safety record.
The first thing I would say to this is “Who cares?” What business is it of ours when a business spends it’s own money in the way it thinks it ought to spend it.
Second, this sounds like a perfect example of the media not knowing what it’s talking about, and you fell for it…AGAIN…!!! Blaming Transocean for the explosion and subsequent incompetent behavior of BP and the Obama Administration is the same as blaming Boeing for the Sept. 11, 2001 deaths because it was their planes that flew into buildings, or blaming a computer keyboard for typos…
We have a President that has at least a half dozen impeachable offenses and radical violent communists joining forces with our naive teachers, and you’re concerned about corporate bonuses…???
I researched it a bit and it seems that oil rig workers have a really high mortality rate in general. A bunch of inexperienced workers work in extreme conditions for extremely long shifts – apparently, they have a really high meth addiction rate too. Probably a pretty big contributor to the mortality rates.
I’m guessing they probably give a bonus as an incentive for the workers to be safe on the job and boost moral.
Overall, I’d say that the 11 deaths lie on the shoulders of the company that operated the rig…BP.
I have to agree with NCD. I don’t care how these idiots make their money. I say good for them. They walk away with a lot of money, while others suffer loss. It’s just typical of today’s world. Now, NCD is still an *******. I don’t think it is fair or honest that he blames the liberal media for all of his kind’s moral failures!
Capitalism doing what capitalism does…………
NCD and Zig, I think a lot more people care about this than you realize. You just can’t blame everything on the media. That argument is way old.
Anyway, a lot of people have been putting pressure on Transocean the last few days. And the CC was on to something here. Yesterday, Transocean announced that they would be donating about $250,000 of the bonuses to the victims’ families. They said that was about 25%. Not nearly enough in my mind.
I always find it interesting how people like titfortat blame capitalism for the cruelty of liberalism and progressivism. If capitalism had its way, this rig explosion and subsequent environmental disaster never would have happened. The environmentalist kooks have 100% of the blame for this incident, and the unfortunate deaths on this rig.
The blame I put on the media is for not reporting the truth…something they have a huge habit of doing so they can cover up the ineptness of their anti-American progressive agenda.
NCD
Its a broken system, both conservative and liberal. You know it and I know it, its just a matter of time. Every empire has its day in the sun. I think we may be seeing the beginning of the end of this one.
I’ve given up trying to explain corporate bonuses. It just seems that corporations always have money for their execs but not for anyone else.
Sigh.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by. I’ve just been busy with the normal “stuff” you call life. I have a triathlon Sunday. That’s great news about your marathon training. Maybe one of these days I’ll be brave enough to talk my body into a running a full marathon.
I agree Titfortat that things are collapsing. I don’t agree that it’s conservative, since conservatism hasn’t been tried since before Theordore Roosevelt. The few notable exceptions would be Harding, Coolidge, and Reagan. The problems we face today are specifically tied to the results of liberals, progressives, socialists, and communists in both parties. Conservativism would be a nice change of pace since it has worked every single time it’s tried.
NCD
Since the beginning of your country the debt has risen. Sure it may have gone faster during certain times but each party has incurred their own amount. If you follow history just in the slightest you know that your time is waning. It happens to all the powers. Tick, tick, tick.
I think you’re correct TFT, although the premise you use to get there is terribly flawed. The certain collapse of the U.S. will only bring about a return to it’s pre-WWI Conservative exceptionalism.
Our Bill of Rights is always going to be the standard that the oppressed people of the world look up to and pray for. The U.S. Bill of Rights keeps the entire western world living in some sort of relative freedom, and prevents invasions from tyranical dictators to every North American Nation.
In the next 50 years, you will see the emergence of a weathly and free conservative world power, and an oppressed and poverty stricken socialist society living side by side on the same land that was once called the United States of America.
The certain collapse of the U.S. will only bring about a return to it’s pre-WWI Conservative exceptionalism.(NCD)
Lol, and that makes you good for a few generations. 😉
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ~ Thomas Jefferson