Be Safe Brief October 2022: Highways and Civils

Hello, welcome to the October Be safe brief.

Congratulations to this month’s See it, share it, winner, Navinder Chumber whose action reflected our value “We look after each other” by ensuring hazardous areas are adequately demarked. Thank you Navinder.

Our four be safe rules

Our four Be Safe rules aim to ensure you go home safely every day.

* Be fit for work

* Get a brief before you start work

* Report anything unsafe

* Stop work if anything changes

If you feel you cannot work to these four be safe rules, please stop and tell your line manager.

Lessons learned from injuries

One thing identified from recent VGC injuries was the opportunity to stop work when something had changed was not acted upon. If you believe that something is not quite right/does not reflect the planned works please stop work and allow it to be reassessed.

Client issued safety alerts – hand held power tools

A couple of safety alert  have recently been issued by our clients on using a powered hand cutting tools where In both cases minor injuries were sustained by the operative operating the tools.  Whereas final investigations are still to be completed the following points were identified as needing to be reviewed at work locations.

1. Always ensure the tool is suitable for the task in hand
2. Pre use tool checks and set up checks are undertaken before using the tool
3. The tool safety guards are in place and correct
4. Suitable exclusion zones are in place
5. PPE especially task specific is available and used

This applies to any powered hand tool that you may use as part of your job role.

Client issues safety alerts: site plant

We receive various safety alerts from client regarding overturned plant and incidents involving slewing plant. When working in the vicinity of plant please consider the unexpected may occur without warning. Control measure should be implemented at the site, however these still rely upon you not breaching them.

1. Always stay out of the exclusion zone of plant unless authorised to be there.
2. Never take a short cut which could bring you into the zone of influence of the plant.
3. Where plant is transporting materials/stockpiles consider are you far enough away if something went wrong.
4. Never assume the driver or operator has seen you unless they acknowledge you and isolate the machine.

Observations

Observations are a way for you to communicate with the company on issues you see and we review every observation that comes in to BeSafe@vgcgroup.co.uk. Where appropriate we will take forward to Clients. Where our HSQE team are made aware of observations and good practice we can share this information with clients to promote good practice or suggest improvements to an area that they may not have identified themselves.

Each month, VGC select a “See It Share It” winner from all of the observations that we receive. This is awarded to the person who identified an issue along with a positive action to rectify.  These can be submitted to our besafe@vgcgroup.co.uk email.

Please contact your VGC line manager or VGC’s HSQE department if you have any concerns. To find out more about observations, please visit Observations – VGC Group