A gap in safety compliance could be the result of how the safety rules are perceived by the workers on the job.  A recent survey from TRADESAFE, conducted with 503 blue-collar workers, found that a number of factors determined whether compliance occurs.

The survey found that three specific factors account for underreporting of safety violations: violations are not punished, discipline is inconsistent and there is a fear of retaliation.

The following is an excerpt from the survey. 

Safety Violations Go Unpunished 

Nearly 2 in 5 blue-collar workers, 38%, had seen a coworker repeatedly violate safety rules without facing disciplinary action. This rate differed by industry:

• 54% in logistics and transportation
• 45% in manufacturing
• 39% in healthcare
• 35% in construction

Workers in non-union workplaces reported seeing unpunished violations more often (44%) than workers in unionized workplaces (36%).

Workers pointed to several factors that seemed to protect certain coworkers from discipline, including:

• Close relationships with supervisors: 39%
• Seniority or years with the company: 36%
• High productivity or job performance: 19%
• Job title or role: 19%
• Union membership or status: 13%

The most commonly cited shield from consequences was not union membership. It was proximity to supervisors. Nearly 2 in 5 workers said close relationships with supervisors protected certain coworkers from safety consequences, making favoritism a larger perceived accountability problem than union status overall.

Over half of respondents (52%) also said safety rules felt more like suggestions than enforceable policies. This was most common among logistics and transportation workers (61%), while 51% of healthcare workers reported the same.

Managers were more likely than frontline workers to say safety rules were enforceable (57% vs. 43%). They were also more likely to say enforcement was very consistent (45% vs. 35% of frontline workers).

Another 36% of respondents said deadlines pressured them to bypass safety procedures. This pressure was highest in manufacturing (47%) and still significant in logistics and transportation (41%).

Accountability Friction Made Safety Rules Easier to Ignore

Safety rules lose force when workers believe discipline is inconsistent. Once that happens, unsafe behavior can start to feel tolerated instead of corrected.

Nearly 2 in 5 blue-collar workers, 38%, had seen a coworker repeatedly violate safety rules without facing disciplinary action. This rate differed by industry:

• 54% in logistics and transportation
• 45% in manufacturing
• 39% in healthcare
• 35% in construction

Workers in non-union workplaces reported seeing unpunished violations more often (44%) than workers in unionized workplaces (36%).

Workers pointed to several factors that seemed to protect certain coworkers from discipline, including:

• Close relationships with supervisors: 39%
• Seniority or years with the company: 36%
• High productivity or job performance: 19%
• Job title or role: 19%
• Union membership or status: 13%

The most commonly cited shield from consequences was not union membership. It was proximity to supervisors. Nearly 2 in 5 workers said close relationships with supervisors protected certain coworkers from safety consequences, making favoritism a larger perceived accountability problem than union status overall.

Over half of respondents (52%) also said safety rules felt more like suggestions than enforceable policies. This was most common among logistics and transportation workers (61%), while 51% of healthcare workers reported the same.

Managers were more likely than frontline workers to say safety rules were enforceable (57% vs. 43%). They were also more likely to say enforcement was very consistent (45% vs. 35% of frontline workers).

Another 36% of respondents said deadlines pressured them to bypass safety procedures. This pressure was highest in manufacturing (47%) and still significant in logistics and transportation (41%).

Silence and Retaliation Pressures Kept Safety Concerns Underground

Near-miss reporting only works when workers trust the process. When people expect backlash or assume nothing will change, valuable warning signs are more likely to stay unspoken.

One in four blue-collar workers had witnessed a near-miss and had not reported it in the past 12 months. Workers who felt unsafe speaking up were far more likely than those who felt safe to stay silent (51% vs. 20%). At the extremes, 65% of workers who felt very unsafe kept quiet, while only 7% of those who felt very safe did the same.

The speak-up gap also changed depending on role, industry, age, and union status:

• Managers vs. frontline workers: 66% of managers felt very safe speaking up, compared with just 36% of frontline workers. Frontline workers were also nearly twice as likely to worry that reporting could hurt their career (36% vs. 19%).
• Industry differences: Logistics and transportation had the highest silence rate, with 37% not reporting near-misses, followed by manufacturing at 33%. In terms of retaliation, manufacturing led at 41%, nearly double construction's rate of 22%. Healthcare workers were most likely to worry that reporting could harm their career (40%).
• Union status differences: At the workplace level, non-union environments showed weaker safety culture across nearly every measure compared to unionized environments.
• Generational differences: 64% of Gen Z blue-collar workers said anonymity would increase their reporting, the highest of any generation, and 17 points above the overall average. One in three Gen Z workers chose not to report a near-miss, compared with 25% overall.
• Job-level differences: 31% of entry-level workers cited fear of retaliation as a barrier, compared with 19% of managers.

Overall, 32% of blue-collar workers worried that speaking up about a safety issue could negatively affect their job security, promotion opportunities, or reputation at work.

But the top reasons workers gave for staying silent were:

• Didn't believe anything would change: 36%
• Fear of retaliation from management: 20%
• Wasn't sure it was serious enough: 17%
• Peer pressure from coworkers: 12%

Just over 1 in 2 blue-collar workers (56%) agreed that reporting a safety issue would lead to real action.

The most important reporting barrier was not confusion about whether a hazard mattered. It was doubt that reporting would produce change. That distinction is critical for employers because it means silence is not only a communication problem. It is often a trust problem created by what workers have seen happen after previous concerns were raised.