BTK Group Study: What Prevents Workers from Following Occupational Safety Rules?
"The BTK Group conducted a survey asking participants: 'What prevents workers from complying with occupational safety rules at production facilities today?' Rush and production plan pressure were named as the main obstacle by 64% of respondents," the study states.
Almost equally common was the habit of acting according to old patterns—the option "we do it as always" was chosen by 60% of respondents. Another 47% pointed to employees' overconfidence that an accident would not happen to them. A lack of training and risk awareness ranked only fourth, noted by 41% of those surveyed.
According to Irina Kiuru, Executive Director of "BTK Sfera," this distribution of answers demonstrates that the problem is far from always being a lack of safety briefings. Even when aware of the requirements, a worker may deviate from them if they consider their habitual method sufficiently safe or if they are trying to complete a production task faster. As a result, formal rules begin to compete with real-world workplace practices.
Another 36% of respondents linked violations to inconvenient personal protective equipment (PPE), workwear, or the work environment itself. This highlights another dimension of the issue: compliance becomes significantly more difficult if protective gear interferes with work or is poorly suited to the specific task.
The role of the immediate supervisor was rated lower by participants, but it remained a notable factor. A lack of personal example from management was cited by 27% of respondents. In additional comments, participants also mentioned excessive demands, rigid management directives, and fines for failing to meet production targets.
The least common reason among the options provided was the complexity of rules and processes, which was chosen by 24% of respondents.
According to Irina Kiuru, training and instructions remain necessary, but their effectiveness is limited if deadlines encourage rushing, habits reinforce unsafe actions, and workwear or the work environment make compliance uncomfortable. Furthermore, safe working conditions must account for the specifics of each industry and the real needs of the employee—ranging from the nature of the operations performed and the level of risk to clothing requirements and workplace organization.
The survey was conducted among 100 occupational safety specialists from October 7 to 10. Respondents were asked to identify what, in their view, prevents workers from complying with occupational safety requirements at production facilities.
Participants could select multiple options from a provided list: rush and production plan pressure, the habit of doing things "as always," complex or inconvenient rules and processes, lack of personal example from a supervisor, insufficient training and risk awareness, inconvenient PPE, gear, or work environment, and the belief that "nothing will happen to me." Additionally, an open-text field was provided for respondents to specify their own reasons.
The survey included specialists representing a wide range of sectors, including transport, social protection, public administration, manufacturing, the Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM), the nuclear industry, biotechnology and science, healthcare, mechanical engineering, energy, IT, construction, oil and gas, mining, metalworking, and the cosmetics industry.
