Health & Safety
SAFETY NO. 1 PRIORITY
Lafarge Safety Month June 2009
For Lafarge, Safety of its employees and contractors is an absolute priority. Already one of the safest companies in its sector, Lafarge has nonetheless set itself the objective of becoming one of the world’s leading industrial groups in terms of Safety. To achieve this, in 2006, the Group drew up an ambitious roadmap, covering all aspects of performance in terms of health and safety.
One of Lafarge’s efforts to raise strong awareness among its employees and contractors is holding an annual “Safety Month” in June at all of the Group’s 3,000 sites. During the month, each site organises events to raise awareness and communication campaigns on Health and Safety for employees, their families, contractors and the local communities living near the Group’s business operation.
In Malaysia, in conjunction with Lafarge Safety Month, various activities were organised and participated by employees, their families, contractors, drivers, stakeholders, local authorities and communities in the whole month of June. Some of the activities held were on Industrial Safety, Road and Transportation Safety, Safety at Home and General Health & Safety and the Industrial Safety Conference (ISC).
This year marks the fourth consecutive year that the ISC was held, which is one of the highlights of the Safety Month. This year, to complement the new concept of work groups and exhibitions, the ISC held on 20 June, was staged indoors and outdoors. Lively and interactive workshops were held indoors while exhibition and demonstration on Safety were held outdoors.
Contractors and employees from the Head Office, Plants and Singapore operations as well as employees from other Divisions were invited to this event. This year’s ISC was especially meaningful with the presence of Isidoro Miranda, Group Executive Vice President & Co-President of Lafarge Cement Division.
Safety Induction Centres at Lafarge Malayan Cement
Safety Induction Centre is a one-stop safety training centre, which provides classroom and live learning experience on safety. It consists of a classroom and display room whereby attendees will experience common safety practices in the cement industry.
The classroom is equipped with a modern training facility while the display room showcases safety items that are related to Lafarge safety priorities namely personal protective equipment (PPE), work at height (WAH), working in confined space, energy isolation, hot work and road safety.
The idea of having the safety induction centre came across when the Health & Safety Committee from Rawang Plant visited Shell Refinery Company in Port Dickson in 2005.
At the Induction Centre, attendees will experience putting on actual PPE such as safety harness and complete PPE for cyclone unplugging activity. Attendees can also experience how it feels working inside confined space and WAH as there are live sample of confined space and scaffolding in the Induction Centre.
To improve the understanding on LOTOTO, a real energy isolation facility such as the local isolation facility such as the local isolation box and visual cut off switch are available for attendees to practice.
In general, the objective is to have an effective and consistent learning on health and safety, which will accelerate the behaviour changing process for teammates, contract workers and visitors towards being the safest company in the industry by 2010.
Specifically it is also to:
o Enable authorised teammates to facilitate safety induction training for new employees, contract workers and visitors.
o Have a centralised training venue, which will provide classroom and visual learning experience to all.
o Enhance safety and health knowledge through visual observation and practical experience.
