Every year, many organisations and construction companies host safety campaign stressing out the need to reduce injuries on work sites. October 2018 witnessed a record number of events and activities regarding different aspects of workplace safety, including the right use of PPE, road safety, worksite inspections etc.
It is an established fact that workplace safety begins with contractor safety orientation, especially in heavy industries. In order to stress out on this fact, safety week this year was marked by GoContractor’s collaboration with Evercam Construction Timelapse Cameras. We created a video with Evercam to highlight the importance of health and safety on construction sites. The video underscored the need for construction cameras to increase productivity as well as the importance of a contractor management software explaining how GoContractor can help workers to do the entire initiation process themselves, using any device and from the comfort of their own home. Both – GoContractor and Evercam – used Lottie Dolls as their mascot to discuss how the two platforms can improve productivity and create a safe and compliant workplace.
The mission of these safety weeks is to increase awareness of the importance of being committed to safety every day, and to conduct onsite safety awareness activities. From the Irish Road Safety Week to the European Week for Safety and Health at work, all the aspects of safety and compliance were touched by Initafy during the Safety weeks. Here are all the key events related to health and safety in October 2018 and how GoContractor proactively underscored the importance of each of these safety events.
Irish Road Safety Week (October 1 – 7)
October began with Irish Road Safety Week which included a lot of road safety activities across the country, e.g. lectures on pedestrian safety and Tyre Safety Day. GoContractor did its bit in promoting Road safety campaign by underscoring the need for driver safety training across its social media platforms.
UK Construction Week (October 9 – 11)
The Irish road safety week was followed up by the UK Construction Week. This week brought together 1000s of construction professionals to showcase new technologies, systems and industrial products all under one roof.
CIF Construction Safety Week (October 22 – 26)
Lasting from 22-26th October this year, part of the collective mission of Irish Construction Safety Week was the reduction of accidents occurring on-site.
A different theme was featured during each of these five days:
- Working from Heights
- Mental Health
- Working Safely near Utilities
- Working Safely around Dangerous/Hazardous Substances
- Vehicle Safely
European Week for Safety and Health at Work (October 22 – 26)
This year, the EU week for Safety and Health at Work coincided with CIF’s Construction Safety Week. The primary theme of this year’s European Healthy Workplaces Campaign was ‘Healthy Workplaces Manage Dangerous Substances.’
GoContractor was involved in both of these safety weeks – CIF Safety Week and EU Week for Safety and Health at Work – using a range of different methods. GoContractor carried out safety campaign using Lottie Dolls as its mascot. GoContractor’s Lottie found her way into the world of heavy industries and gave an account of her adventures in all things safety and PPE.
We discussed some more of accident-related figures on our social media platforms, explaining the main goals of this campaign to include:
- Increasing awareness of all the risks involved and forms of protection.
- Discussing the most common misunderstandings about these risks.
- Promoting effective tools and practices to eliminate these substances from being a risk.
- Targeting particular, highly exposed groups of workers and providing them with exclusive advice.
Always Make Safety the Top Priority
With 50,000 worker deaths estimated to occur around the globe every year, and an average of 39% of fatal accidents in the UK occurring in construction this confirms the importance of making safety a top priority in the heavy industry. But,
Whether they’re entry-level workers, seasoned veterans, supervisors, or plant managers, the employees need to understand health and safety risks, the steps they need to take to minimize those risks, and common safety standards and compliance procedures.
