WHILE hand injuries continue to affect the welfare of construction workers and reduce productivity, Bovis Lend Lease has shown that a commitment to safety issues can achieve positive results. According to Peter Marix-Evans, Bovis Lend Lease Australia’s Head of Environment Health and Safety, the company’s single greatest priority is health and safety.

He said, “Eliminating workplace injury is an enormous challenge that we are determined to overcome. Our commitment to health and safety underpins everything we do, so this is why we have an incident and injury free objective that applies equally to our employees as well as clients, partners, contractors and visitors.

“Historically, construction workers have been issued with leather rigger’s gloves for hand protection. Unfortunately, due to the lack of tactile dexterity, limitations of the protective attributes of leather and other comfort factors, many workers either remove these to perform certain tasks, or avoid wearing gloves wherever possible.”

Mandatory Glove Policy

Our aim was to introduce a mandatory glove policy for all trades on all sites. In 2006 we commenced a study in consultation with several glove sup pliers to find a solution.”

Ansell started working with the Bovis Lend Lease Environment Health Systems team as early as 2006. The company’s sales and marketing director, Jérôme Feuvrier said this was a typical situation where Ansell’s world-wide expertise in developing gloves for specific work applications was able to provide a solution. “Ansell has jointly developed new protection technologies with industry names such as Dupont, partnered with companies like DSM to offer materials that offer exceptional protection against cuts and abrasions, and carried out research with leading university departments.

“In assessing the needs of Bovis Lend Lease, we were able to provide technical advice on the compounds used in each glove and their level of protection which is confirmed by appropriate standards certification. Bovis Lend Lease’s approach to accident prevention benefited from our programs that are designed to help managers select the right glove for the right job and boost worker acceptance,” Feuvrier said.

Introduction Program

After glove selections were made, Lend Lease national safety staff were presented with the recommendations, fol lowed by an information rollout, con tractors’ meetings and program implementation in mid 2007.

“Awareness of hand safety and developing a glove-wearing culture by our construction staff has been built over the last three years through a series of toolbox talks, staff training and product testing with workers on site,” said Marix-Evans.

“We now have implemented a safety program that provides different protective gloves specifically selected for construction tasks. With thousands of tradespeople employed nationally on our building sites, the incidence of hand injuries has been significantly reduced. Since commencing the safety initiative we have reduced reported hand injuries by approximately 28 per cent.

“We aim to lead our health and safety agenda over and above compliance with local legislation, safety standards and other industry requirements. That's why we've established a dedicated Global Safety Leadership Team to enact our Incident and Injury Free vision on sites and in offices around the world,” he added.

According to Marix-Evans, Bovis Lend Lease has clearly defined standards to better identify, assess and manage risks. “Despite the early success in embedding our Incident and Injury Free vision in our culture and the decline in our injury rates over recent years, we remain committed to reducing these rates even further. We believe any injury to our people and those working with us while under taking our business activities is unacceptable and as a result, we are continuing to work towards achieving our vision of operating Incident and Injury Free.”

Part of the injury reduction process has been the development of minimum safety requirements that prescribe physical and operational safety standards for virtually all business activities, supported by localised guidelines and solutions to comply with those requirements.