New Delhi, 10 October 2012 – worldsteel has recognised four member companies, China Steel Corporation, Gerdau, NatSteel, and Tata Steel Limited for excellence in their safety and health programmes.
Xiaogang Zhang, worldsteel’s Chairman for 2011/2012, said: “The goal of an injury-free work environment is the highest priority for our industry and the safety and health of our people is the core value of the industry. This is even more important in difficult economic times when it may be tempting to reduce safety efforts and resources. I am very pleased to see increased level of participation from our industry and improved safety performance this year despite the recent challenging business environment.”
All four companies 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
China Steel Corporation launched its Safety Promotion Project in 2008. The project focuses on four areas: ‘Safety Improvement Proposals’ including a ‘To Chairman’ mailbox allowing all employees to communicate safety concerns directly to the company chairman; ‘Physical Safety Training’ providing real-life simulation of the most common industry hazards; ‘Safety Care’ to address behavioural issues, and Health Promotion Activity including annual health examinations for all employees. The programme has helped to halve the company’s Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) between 2008 and 2011.
Gerdau introduced ‘Safety Multipliers’ into every shift team. The Safety Multiplier is a role designed to provide safety support between team members, aimed at creating an interdependent approach to safety among the workforce. Each Safety Multiplier is a member of the shift team, who has been trained to assist their colleagues to identify and correct unsafe acts and conditions, to prevent injury or incident. Safety Multipliers undertake the role in addition to their usual tasks for a year, with the aim of having all team members at some point undertake the role of Safety Multiplier. Safety Multipliers, as a result, have assisted in identifying and correcting an increased number of unsafe acts and conditions.
NatSteel implemented a ‘Risk Assessment Process’, comprising seven steps, to identify and analyse high-risk activities. All identified activities were ranked based on their risk score calculated during the process. This process has enabled the company to focus its resource on high-risk activities and to form task forces to re-examine identified high-risk areas. A ‘Working at Height’ task force identified potential falls from heights and audited all working-at-height activities within a three-month period.
Tata Steel Limited implemented a Contractor Safety Management System to bring about a cultural transformation within its contractors’ workforce on the construction site at Jamshedpur. The company introduced a six-stage contractor management programme to achieve effective change in culture and attitude of its contractor workforce. This has resulted in a greatly reduced LTIFR and zero fatalities within its 48,000 construction workers.
Click here to watch the 2012 Safety and Health Excellence Recognition video on worldsteel’s YouTube channel.
• 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.