Upon landing, the crew submitted an SMS report.
They both cooperated fully with the company’s SMS investigation.
The Captain was fired.
2.9.1 Just Culture and Non-Punitive Reporting
Cougar Helicopters’ safety management system (SMS) manual and other related company documents advocate a non-punitive reporting system as a core element of a healthy SMS. In this occurrence, both pilots reported the occurrence and cooperated fully with the company’s SMS investigation.
The decision was made to terminate the captain’s employment based on the company’s determination that the captain could not operate safely in the offshore IFR environment. To some employees, this appeared to be in conflict with the principles and processes outlined in Cougar Helicopters’ SMS and with non-punitive reporting.
The reporting of hazards is a cornerstone of a robust SMS. A non-punitive reporting policy encourages open reporting of safety occurrences. At the same time, companies have a responsibility to ensure that their employees are competent to carry out their duties in a safe manner. This means that, from time to time, companies may take significant measures, including termination of employees who are involved in safety incidents. Therefore, when introducing a non-punitive reporting system and a Just Culture decision tree model, organizations must be clear with their staff about the types of situations that could result in disciplinary measures, or other company actions including termination. Otherwise, subsequent management actions may undermine the trust employees have in such systems.
When actions taken by a company are perceived by employees to be inconsistent with its non- punitive reporting and Just Culture policy and processes, there is a risk that employees will not report safety occurrences for fear of reprisal.