Saint-Gobain Glass has clocked up 1.5 million man-hours without reporting a “lost-time“ incident, which includes accidents. Mechanical engineer Garry White – whose clocking-on pushed the site beyond…
Saint-Gobain Glass has clocked up 1.5 million man-hours without reporting a “lost-time“ incident, which includes accidents. Mechanical engineer Garry White – whose clocking-on pushed the site beyond the 1.5 million-hour threshold – received a reward from Peter Hindle, the company“s general delegate for the UK, Ireland and South Africa, to mark the occasion. This fantastic achievement is no accident. Saint-Gobain Glass has put a series of measures and safeguards in place, designed to educate its Eggborough-based workforce, and to put safety at the top of the agenda. The company even has a safety motto: “Nothing is so important that it cannot be done safely.” During those 1.5 million hours, a Saint-Gobain employee issued the company“s 5,000th SUSA. Safe/unsafe acts (SUSAs) were launched in April 2008 and are designed to empower the workforce to be more safety-conscious. Each employee uses SUSAs to check each other“s behaviour – regardless of position within the company – and are, in effect, mini audits. SUSAs praise good behaviour as well as highlight unsafe acts. A dozen are issued every day, proving that Saint-Gobain employees are putting safety first. Safety has also been given its own section in the monthly audit, and Saint-Gobain continues its series of high quality training and risk assessments throughout the factory. Safety awareness is not just restricted to employees. All contractors coming on to site must progress through the “Permit to Work“ system, which makes them aware of all Saint-Gobain“s safety procedures.