Safety, Health and Welfare
Introduction
Like any primary industry, the concrete and quarrying industry is aware of its responsibilities regarding the health and safety of all who are involved in the industry.
To ensure the ongoing success of the Irish Concrete Federation and its members and their products and to further develop the delivery of the highest quality support services in this regard, the Federation retains the services of a full time Health and Safety Manager. The Health and Safety Manager has responsibility for managing, maintaining and further developing the Federation’s policy and strategy on all health and safety matters for the quarry and concrete industry in Ireland with the objective of improving the health and safety record within the industry and reducing the frequency and severity of accidents in a proactive partnership manner.
Health & Safety Committee
Our key Health and Safety objectives are achieved by working closely with the Federation’s Health and Safety Committee. The Committee addresses the many health and safety issues relevant to all stakeholders. These include the Construction Regulations, General Application Regulations, safety concerns regarding road works, the safety of drilling and blasting operations, best practice with regard to the management of safety, health and welfare in all workplaces and health and safety issues relevant to all work activities undertaken by the membership. The Federation also issues information and guidance safety bulletins to the industry on a wide range of issues.
Members of the Health and Safety Committee were also involved at the negotiation stages of the new Quarry Regulations which come into effect on May 1st 2008. The overall objective of the regulations is to put in place updated, streamlined, simplified and consolidated occupational safety, health and welfare provisions for the quarrying industry which will replace the existing provisions in the Mines and Quarries Act 1965 and various Regulations relating to quarries made under that act and the provisions of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Extractive Industries) Regulations 1997 relating to quarries. The new regulations, which were drafted following a public consultation process, take account of engineering and other developments in the quarrying industry that have taken place over the last four decades. They also take into account developments in other EU Member States.
Health & Safety Manual
The many challenges facing the Quarry and Concrete industry include maintaining competitiveness, being able to react quickly to market demands, reducing costs, improving quality and the skill shortages within the industry. Health and safety can not only help to overcome these challenges, it is an essential component of the overall management structure to ensure success. Health and safety must be a core requirement of business activity, not an inconvenient add-on. Modern successful organisations are moving towards integrating health and safety with quality and environmental management.
In this regard the ICF has successfully published an ICF Health and Safety Manual and a wide range of support material highlighting the benefits of health and safety to our members to ensure their ongoing success and statutory compliance with health and safety legislation. The manual is designed to be of practical use through all levels of company responsibility. Consequently it embodies the essential requirement of specific industry hazard identification, risk assessment and appropriate control measures, the key objective being the reduction, control and elimination of accidents through prevention at source. The manual is available to all sectors of our industry and our counterparts throughout Europe. Revision of the Manual will commence following the enactment of the Quarry Regulations.
Health & Safety Award Scheme
Since 1998, the ICF has run a Health & Safety awards competitions for Extraction Sites and Concrete Plants and Precast Plants on a three year rolling basis.
Independent Concrete Control Management (ICCM) Ltd
Members of Independent Concrete Control Management Ltd (ICCM Ltd), the group liability insurance scheme providing employer liability, public liability and product liability insurance are inspected on an annual basis and advised on how the management of their works may be improved to eliminate or reduce levels of risk.
As part of the Federations and ICCM Ltd health and safety service, a substantial amount of site accident investigation is provided to members with recommendations being made for corrective measures to be taken to prevent recurrence through the issue of safety bulletins, circulars and guidance notes.
Stakeholder Co-operation
In order to ensure we remain fully informed and up to date on the wide ranging health and safety issues relevant to our member companies the Federations is a member of a number of European organisations including UEPG, the European Aggregates Association. In addition, consultation and co-operation with industry stakeholders ensures that the aggregate and concrete industry is fully represented on health and safety issues impacting on our industry.
Training & Education
To help achieve improvements in health and safety standards and to support all members engaged in this process with the ultimate aim of reducing accidents and ill health arising from work related activity the Federation runs seminars and training programmes in the area of health and safety. Full details of this training service can be viewed on the training section of this website.
Useful Links:
