S I y h W nisatiON o ? t m n r a a t h impor so
Joining forces Most risks principals are subject to are comparable despite the fact that every company has their own house rules, Anne says. “At most locations, you work with pipelines under pressure, with inflammable or toxic gasses and liquids. Those dangers are all over. At all locations we work there are heights and confined spaces. However, a lot of principals use their own HSE year plan or action plan. For example, one focuses on working safely at heights and proposes extra measures. In the same period, another focuses on falling objects and yet another feels that in this same period extra effort should be put on how to identify risks. Our principals expect us to actively participate in their additional safety issues by training and certificates. Those certificates are of a limited validity. This could mean that you would have to get those certificates every other year. In my opinion, principals should join forces – meaning they should campaign on certain issues jointly, as the industry as a whole. This would save an enormous amount of money. An additional advantage would be that subcontractors, especially those working for multiple principals would not be buried under safety issues information.”
Don’t underestimate people “Sometimes, our men have the misfortune to have to watch 5 safety instructions or videos a week because at that time they’re working for 5 different principals at 5 different locations,” Anne says. “This is not very motivating to them. Our mechanics obviously think that working safely is very important but in fact they just come to do their job. Don’t underestimate people. It’s fine to feed them safety information but an overkill doesn’t do anyone any good. Think about your own kids. Pushing them constantly doesn’t help.”
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