Alba Takes Steps To Ensure Contractor Safety...

Over the past 15 years the number of contractor employees in our plants have expanded exponentially. These workers can either be in our facilities for a consistently longtime (i.e., years) or a short period of time (i.e., days). It is that vast range that makes training and supervision of these workers difficult. The APSB has posted numerous incidents involving contractor employees resulting in injuries and fatalities. Here is a recent story of an aluminium company who has taken a proactive approach toward with contractor employee safety.

Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba)'s commitment to increased safety awareness accross the entire plant and to steer the organization toward's a zero work accident environment continues to gain greater momentum as the company's executive management held a safety meeting with some of its main contractors on Tuesday, May 7, 2013.

Alba's Chief Executive, Tim Murray and Chief Operations Officer, Isa Al Ansari met with the contractors to highlight the positive steps the company is undertaking to ensure all-around safety, and how these steps resulted in the company achieving 4 million work hours without loss, time, injury (LTI) in the month of April.

During the meeting, it was decided that monthly meetings will be held between the contractors and the hygiene, safety and environment team along with quarterly meetings with executives, if necessary.

Commenting on the safety meeting with the main contractors, Alba's Chief Executive said:

"Contractors share the same work space with our employees, and it's vital that they, too, be included in our current campaign to develop a zero accident work environment  Safety, after all, is a collaborative effort and its success hinges upon cooperation of everyone who's working at the plant. We consider contractors to be part of our team, and hence, we are keen on getting them equally passionate - like the rest of our employees - with the steps that the company is taking in strengthening the safety culture across the organisation."

At the meeting, the importance of the three Zero Accident Principles was also highlighted in bringing about culture shift within the company. The principles states that the ownership of safety is everyone's responsibility; working safely is a condition of employment; and all work related injuries and illnesses are preventable.

The APSB would like to congratulate Alba on this initiative. How does your plant involve contractors within safety culture of your facility?

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