Some day the plant will become so cluttered a huge effort will be needed to remove all the small hazards that have accumulated. Discontinuing meetings and training will naturally hurt safety communication and awareness. Concerns and problems will not be aired. This can all have a snowball effect. Employees become disinterested.
Hazards go unreported and left unfixed.
The damage that is caused to employee involvement may never be repaired. Employees who participated in safety programs such as behavioral observations or hazard recognition may never be coaxed into participating again. Don's plant went from a 1.2 incidence rate to 5.9 in a 12-month period. Don was moved back to shift work when the behavioral process was dropped. He was so disgusted that he doesn't even stay in touch with his old friends in safety.