Saint-Gobain emphasise importance of safety to employees

Less than six months after inaugurating their new state-of-the-art factory in the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi (ICAD), Saint-Gobain Gyproc hosted their first company wide health and safety day on 8th September 2010.

Gyproc’s commitment to enhanced health and safety practices across the company was demonstrated as normal work ceased for the day to allow all employees to participate. The day consisted of practical demonstrations, interactive sessions and video presentations addressing the serious aspects of the topic combined with fun elements including teamwork.

Craig Chambers, Managing Director said, “Zero harm is our single goal for all employees at Gyproc whether working in our factory, on the road or in our offices. By training all employees in the skills to identify and minimise the risks we will be well placed to achieve our targets”.

Saint-Gobain takes Health and Safety very seriously which is why 24% of all training in 2009 was in this area. The initiative is paying dividend for the group which acknowledged 58 of their sites that had accumulated more than a million hours worked without a lost-time incident in 2009 with 84 smaller sites reporting no lost-time incidents for at least five years.

“The day was a huge success as all of our 100 employees took part in sessions such as, first aid, driver safety and working at height. Slips, trips and falls are the biggest cause of accidents every year,” said Gyproc’s Safety Manager, Nadeem Menon. He continued, “These accidents occur both in the workplace and in the home – so by raising the awareness our employees can minimise the risk and stay safe at all times.”

The company will look to repeat these events annually whilst reinforcing the importance of health and safety with employees as they perform their daily activities.