Tarmac follow the Golden Rules
TARMAC are urging their employees to follow the ‘Golden Rules’ –– a major new health and safety initiative that is currently being rolled out across the whole group. As part of the company’s drive to increase employee awareness of safety, health and environmental issues, a Golden Rules pack has been specially created for managers to use as a training tool.
The pack consists of a video and a CD-ROM which outlines best practice for a variety of high-risk work situations that could potentially result in fatalities if not undertaken properly, including working in confined spaces, working at height, energy and machinery isolation, surface vehicle safety, quarrying operations, lifting, material handling and the use of personal protective equipment.
The video, which has been translated into nine other languages to cater for the whole Tarmac Group, includes an introduction from Tarmac’s chief executive officer, Robbie Robertson, who asks employees to commit to the Golden Rules and urges them to speak up if and when they see potential problems.
The company has incorporated the Golden Rules message in its revised Safety, Health and Environment Guide, which will be issued to every employee, and a Golden rules calendar has also been produced for 2003. This will be sent to all Tarmac workplaces in a bid to reinforce the message.
Commenting on the new initiative, Robbie Robertson said: ‘Tarmac management is founded on 0TT0 (Zero Tolerance, Target Zero), which is an approach to safety demanding absolute adherence to standards at all times and an intolerance of unsafe acts or conditions. Tarmac expects its businesses to be fully accountable for communicating, training and implementing safety procedures based on the Golden Rules, and performance under these rules will be audited.’
As part of this approach, Tarmac have set a target of eliminating all lost-time injuries by 2005, and the parallel target of achieving a 50% year on year improvement in performance. This exceeds the industry-wide ‘hard target’ to halve injuries in quarries by 2005.
