2013 worldsteel Safety and Health Excellence Recognition

worldsteel_worldsteel-logo2São Paulo, 08 October 2013 – worldsteel has recognised three member companies, ArcelorMittal, Gerdau, and Tata Steel Europe for excellence in four distinct safety and health programmes.

Alexey Mordashov, worldsteel’s Chairman for 2012/2013, said: “The goal of an injury-free, illness-free and healthy work environment remains the highest priority for our industry. Recognition by peers is one of the best ways to encourage people to continue towards zero injuries and most of the best ideas are simple and surprisingly easy to implement. I am very proud of the achievements this programme has made since the launch in 2009”.

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All four programmes demonstrated a commitment to safety and health that fulfilled three key criteria:

1.          The programme positively embraced the worldsteel safety and health principles

2.          The programme was able to demonstrate a positive impact upon safety metrics

3.          The programme could easily be applied to other member companies

ArcelorMittal Unicon launched its ‘Journey to Zero’ safety management system in 2008, taking a systematic approach and starting with the leadership first. The programme identified three main barriers ‘Technical barrier’, ‘Organisational barrier’ and ‘Behavioural barrier’ to achieve the goal of zero injuries. Several specific initiatives have been implemented to tackle the three barriers. Under this programme, the company has reduced the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) by 90% in five years.

ArceloMittal Lazaro Cárdenas implemented a safety management programme, specifically designed for contractors in 2009. The programme has been deployed across six main areas; ‘Mandatory safety training, Access control, Operational control risk, Contractor’s safety supervisor, Golden ACES for maintenance major shutdowns, and Safety evaluation performance’. The programme helped the company to avoid all fatalities and to reduce the LTIFR by 80 % in three years.

Gerdau launched in 2010 ‘Safety Behavioural Management’, a strategic project to consolidate the company’s best safety and health practices with proven results within several locations. They were structured in a ‘Behavioural Management for Occupational Safety Manual’ and the use of this process resulted in a significant reduction of the company’s LTIFR from 3.0 to 1.0 (injuries/million hours worked) and accelerated the movement of the safety culture within the whole company.

Tata Steel Europe, in 2010, introduced ‘Fit for Work, Fit for Life’ campaign, an integrated health approach provided by ‘Occupational Health Service’. The approach acknowledges the two-way relationship between the working environment and health state of the workers and is supported by three pillars of ‘Prevention, Promotion and Reintegration’. The company provides its employees with, firstly, a comprehensive occupational health service to prevent injury and work-related illness, secondly, a regular health check-up with promotional events and, lastly, support for reintegration of individuals back into workplace.

• The World Steel Association (worldsteel) is one of the largest and most dynamic industry associations in the world. worldsteel represents approximately 170 steel producers (including 17 of the world’s 20 largest steel companies), national and regional steel industry associations, and steel research institutes. worldsteel members represent around 85% of world steel production.

www.worldsteel.org