Occupational Health and Safety Successes On

ANNEXURE A2 PROJECT REPORT:

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY SUCCESSES ON

DEDISA PEAKING POWER PLANT PORT ELIZABETH

AVON PEAKING POWER PLANT SHAKASKRAAL

George Plotz

Safety Officer

Group Five Coastal

A construction project challengesreportsubmitted infulfillmentoftherequirementsfortheregistration

Of

Construction Health and Safety Officer(CHSO)

In the

The South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Professions (SACPCMP)

26June 2015

SUCCESSES I HAVE ENCOUNTERED ON THE SELECTED PROJECTS FROM 2014 TO 2015

I am the Site Safety Manager for Group Five Coastal at Avon PPP and was a safety officer at Dedisa PPP.I ammanaging 4 safety officers and a workforce of about 650 employees at Avon PPP. At Dedisa PPP I was part of a team of 8 safety officers to ensure SHE compliance on site with a workforce of about 1250 employees.As it can be expected managing these projects is no easy task. The health and safety challenges I encountered at the project sites are discussed below;

1. PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT

Having learned from the procurement challenges from previous projects, I made effort to improve my involvement in the company procurement process. On both sites we were required by the contract agreement to make use of local sub-contractors. They did not make allowanceavailable for occupational health and safety requirements (e.g.: Personal Protective Equipment) and the problem was overcome by procuring the necessary PPE and counter cost to the sub-contractor’s invoice. As a result we did not have issues with procurement of PPE by sub-contractors as we managed the procurement and therefor ensuring compliance on site.

1. COST MANAGEMENT

During pre and post contract project evaluation the true cost of accidents and incidents is being assessed. This is obtained from our monthly stats. Our approach is to be proactive to eliminate the high cost of an accident (due to direct and indirect cost) i.e. hospital bill, transportation, overtime cost, repair and replacement of any damages caused to plant or equipment etc. The company foots the bill for any unexpected cost for improving Health and Safety.We believe that investing in Health and Safety management can offer good return on investments and moral obligation as well as company image.Investing in accident prevention not only saves lives but leads to improved productivity, worker motivation, improve company image and client confidence. The other benefits we achieve are reduction in Insurance Premiums and receiving rebates.

1. HAZARD IDENTIFICATION MANAGEMENT

Due to the fact that our company has to make use of local sub-contractors, I discovered that very few of them has had any qualifications or training in hazard identification. They did not have the finances or the means to have their employees trained and educated. I then established a system where the sub-contractor have been awarded a certain contract they have to submit the safety file on site two weeks prior to them starting on site. The appointments of the relevant persons will be scrutinised by the safety department and any person appointed with no training will be called in and have to attend an in house training session. This training is based on legal requirements and hazardous situations were identified and sometimes reported as a near miss by employees. Due to the above intervention, the incident frequency rate has decreased.

1. RISK MANAGEMENT

At the start of the projects a baseline risk assessment was compiled based on the scope of works. During the project execution I ensured that issue based risk assessments are conducted for all activities. These issue based risk assessments was communicated to all employees involved in the different tasks and communicated during inductions, weekly toolbox talks and daily safety task instructions. It was evident that this training was successful on the monthly stats reports indicating the decrease in incidents and injuries.

1. ACCIDENT AND INCIDENT MANAGEMENT

When an accident occurs, an investigation is conducted regardless of the severity (e.g.: First-aid, medical, or lost time injury). In terms of the incident / accident investigation procedureof the company, the site management and all contractors involved are part of the investigation team. What was most important is that lessons learned are then communicated to the workforce. This resulted in a decrease of similar incidents occurring on these projects.The relevant risk assessments are reviewed and if required updated and revised. Re-training is then done again with all involved. In addition we had an incentive program for zero injuries to all employees on a monthly basis and a big incentive when we reach a million hours LTI free on both projects.

1. LEGISLATION AND REGULATION MANAGEMENT

On both projects I maintained the legal and other occupational health and safety requirements.I ensured that all legal appointments were in place and on both projects all appointments was successfully done in accordance to the new construction regulations. The ongoing training on the legal requirements has ensured that both sites remained compliant, and there was no contravention notices by the Department of Labour when the sites were visited.

1. HEALTH, HYGIENE AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

On the projects welding, flame cutting, and brazing are hazardous activities that pose a unique combination of both safety and health risks to employees. In protecting the employees when performing the mentioned tasks, and the other employees working in the same environment, we used a proper method of control. The controls that we used includes ensuring that employees avoid eye injuries, issued with respiratory equipment, ventilation of the working area, and have the correct safety protective equipment as per the continuous risk assessment. The success of the welding safety program was evident in the fact that there were no incidents relating to welding activities.

Construction workers need adequate toilet and washing facilities, a place to warm and eat their food. In the beginning of the projects these basic requirements were neglected. We had to motivate to the site management that a cold water tap and chemical toilet were not adequate facilities, and explained how good facilities can positively benefit health and wellbeing of the employees. It was agreed that proper facilities including hot water, soap and towels are provided. The success on this intervention was evident because zero hygiene and health issues (e.g. Dermatitis) were reported.

The major physical waste generated from construction activities is identified in the form of material waste like concrete leftover, demolished debris, steel scrap, and timber cut-offs. On the Avon site there was no environmental officer and I took charge of the waste management to ensure we make use of a registered service provider for removal of waste and disposal certificates were received. This approach serves as a monitoring of safe disposal of all waste generated on site. I also maintained the spill register on site and by means of toolbox talks made the workforce aware of the impact of hazardous spills and the amount of spills reduced dramatically.

1. COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT

Communication was done by means of e-mails, telephonic calls and Toolbox talks. When an incident occurs on site it is communicated to all interested and affected parties immediately (even if by phone), investigated, and the findings are then put into a safety alert that was communicated to all. I also go to the scene of the incident to do a personal “stop for safety” awareness talk to all the employees on site with site management. I find this approach most effective due to the fact that similar occurrences have decreased tremendously.

1. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS MANAGEMENT

The first priority is to have a proper emergency preparedness and response procedure in place on site. This procedure must take into consideration all potential emergency situations. In these projects we had one drawn-up by the client in terms of national key point protocol. My responsibility was to educate and train the employees and periodically test the procedure. The success of the implementation of the emergency preparedness and response procedure was evident in the shorter response time during emergency drills.

CONCLUSION

The successes and achievements were not going to be possible if the site management and employees were not involved, and structured systems were not in place. I strongly believe in teamwork and the involvement of the workforce is essential to achieve safety, health and environment objectives.