Safety

A high number of fatalities (12) on Murray & Roberts sites last year highlighted the urgent need for greater awareness amongst employees and subcontractors of the inherent dangers associated with construction and manufacturing activities.

“We have revisited our fundamental strategies in this area and the Group has committed the necessary resources to ensure that all our operations are safe and that all people entering and working in our many work sites are appropriately prepared and protected against possible danger,” says CE Brian Bruce.

The Stop.Think campaign compels workers to do just that – stop to clear their minds and focus their thoughts on safety before they enter the work place.

Using safety on the sports field as a popular analogy, communications company, Unplugged, has designed various communication tools to instill key safety messages. All people entering a Murray & Roberts site, including visitors, are required to undergo a brief induction process, including a video which explains the Stop.Think philosophy. As workers enter the work place each day, they put on their new uniforms in a “change room” and pass through a “player’s tunnel” that are both branded with Stop.Think messages. Hand signals allow workers to communicate vital safety messages to each other in noisy environments, over vast distances and at differing heights.

Each site has a Stop.Think champion and a coach who is responsible for training all workers to take responsibility for their own safety and that of their colleagues. In the operations where a safety culture already exists and procedures are advanced, such as MEI, Foundries and Cementation, behaviour-based safety practices are being introduced to correct unsafe practices and reinforce safe behaviour.

The campaign was unveiled to Murray & Roberts executives in the rugby change rooms at the Ellis Park and Newlands stadiums and coaches received training at an indoor soccer arena in Edenvale.

In August, a roadshow, which includes soccer-themed industrial theatre, introduced the campaign to all South African employees.

Finally, a newly established Bill Of Rights will commit Murray & Roberts to a safe and healthy working environment for its employees and visitors and ensure that the workforce is empowered and committed to collectively striving for zero harm.

MANAGING RISK

Murray & Roberts has placed health, safety and environmental (HSE) management at the top of its strategic agenda by integrating HSE into its risk management system.

Tyron Botha, who joined Murray & Roberts Group Risk in October 2005, will champion the Group’s risk based approach to HSE. Tyron is also responsible for driving and co-ordinating the implementation of the Stop.Think campaign

To ensure that there is an effective framework in place to support HSE management and new initiatives such as Stop.Think, Tyron is currently reviewing HSE reporting, procedures and policies and developing a separate risk-based model for each of them. A new web-based incident reporting system has been introduced at some entities within the Group to assist with the compilation of reliable data which assists in the investigation of incidents and accidents and the choice of preventative action.

“Our approach needs to be proactive rather than reactive. The Key Performance Areas we will be focusing on are lead indicators that will ensure that we anticipate rather than react to problems.”

Tyron completed an MSc Chemical Engineering degree in 2003, with a focus on Environmental Process Engineering and the life cycle benefits of renewable sources of energy within agricultural sectors. He began his career at a global environmental firm conducting quantitative risk assessments for large corporations in the oil & gas, manufacturing and chemical industries.

To prepare for this new challenge, Tyron will be researching other internal and external approaches to HSE management, particularly in the Middle East, Canada and Australia where HSE practices are more advanced and companies have developed a culture of safety.