Spotlight: the towers of London
For centuries Canary Wharf was the centre of international trade
– now it’s one of the world’s major business districts. In 17 years
Canary Wharf Contractors has built 24 office buildings ranging from
10 to 50 storeys, including the iconic One Canada Square tower.
Connect went to speak to Chris Booker, Senior Health and
Safety Manager for CWC, to find out what it’s like working on such
a massive project…
“When I joined CWC seven years ago there were
6,000 construction workers on site. In my time here I’ve overseen
around half of the construction work at Canary Wharf, and it’s been
great getting involved with something that hasn’t stopped
evolving.”
Chris came from a petrochemical background where he was used to
the safety culture being very high.
“Mainstream construction didn’t have the same
level of safety culture as petrochemical engineering, so I saw this
role as an opportunity to try and influence change by bringing that
culture here and raising the standards.”
Chris, along with his team of nine, oversees all the projects.
He looks after the day to day running of the health and safety
department, including the policy and strategy for the company and
making sure that it’s going in the right direction.
“I try to be as hands on with the projects as
I can be. I go onto site to see how the safety managers are getting
on and how the projects are shaping up.”
The majority of Chris’s time is taken up with making contact
with contractors to form a partnership.
“Rather than the old adversarial relationship
where we’re beating each other up, my approach over the years has
always been to work well with the contractors who we tend to use
time after time.” Chris adds: “We have regular meetings to discuss
what they’re working on, any issues or problems they want to raise
and how we can move forward.”
The company's accident rates are the lowest they have been for a
long time - the accident frequency rate for 2009 is 0.11 per
100,000 man-hours.
“We try to keep them low by plugging away and
making sure that we’ve got the right contractors, the right
assessments and making sure we’re planning and upping the
competence level of our workers.
“I try not to focus on the accident rates –
instead I look at our performance levels. If we’re performing well
then the rates will follow.”
Eighty per cent of the construction personnel are at
manager level and go through the IOSH Managing Safely course.
Around 200 people have been trained in the last few years.
“We’re constantly feeding them with
information to make sure they’re aware of our health and safety
standards.
“We spend a lot of time with the contractors
at the procurement stage. As soon as they come to work with us we
tell them about our safety systems and what we require of them. We
find that most companies are up to speed, but we always make sure
before they start the job that they know how we want them to
work.”
Because CWC employs contractors they regularly work with migrant
workers.
“We have a rule that when someone joins us,
no trade contractors can send people to an induction who can’t
understand it. It’s up to the contractor company to send them along
with an interpreter if necessary.
“This also applies on the site. We don’t
allow migrant workers to be unsupervised if they can’t speak
English. Someone who speaks their language as well as English is
put in their group so they can guide them and interpret on their
behalf.”
Chris adds:
“When the workers come from Eastern Europe,
where they have a completely different approach to safety, it can
take a little time to get them used to the way we work in the UK.
But they become very receptive to it and are keen to work.”
The economic climate may have severely affected construction but
Chris is adamant that apart from being a few projects down, their
standards won’t be affected.
“We mainly work with financial institutions,
so there aren’t as many projects on the drawing board, but with the
projects we are working on the way we work won’t change.”
CWC’s standards have obviously paid off – the company has just
been accredited to OHSAS 18001 for its health and safety management
system.
“It’s been pleasing to see an organisation
come on. It does take a lot of time and hard work because we’re
selling a product that no one really wants, but we’re definitely
moving in the right direction.”
Factfile:
- Chris Booker has been a member of IOSH since 1996 and belongs
to the London Metropolitan Branch and the Construction Group
- One Canada Square is the tallest building in the UK, standing
at 236 metres
- Building work on Canary Wharf started in 1988
Links:
Canary Wharf Contractors
Canary Wharf
Group
Quote me
IOSH gets its message across...
The Times
IOSH President Nattasha Freeman wrote to The Times
highlighting that health is a growing concern for our profession.
She said:
“Today’s health and safety professionals are
not just looking at issues of safety. The health of workers is a
big issue, with 2.1 million people off work because of illness that
they believe was related, in some way, to their work.
“We have to work together – professionals,
doctors and nurses, employers and workers – not only to make
workplaces safer, but healthier, too.”
Express and Star
A decision by Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club not to hold
a victory parade on the grounds of 'health and safety' was
criticised by IOSH’s President Elect John Holden. He
told the Express and Star:
“The reality is that the decision has nothing
to do with health and safety. It’s a question of the time and
effort required to plan it all.
“Peterborough and Burton Albion, both clubs
with smaller resources than Wolves, were able to run victory
parades through their towns. Stoke City managed a parade after
achieving promotion to the Premier League last year.”
Personnel Today
Personnel Today journalist Noel O’Reilly highlighted
IOSH’s ‘Crunch time’ survey of 720 business leaders in a blog. He
wrote:
“This IOSH survey shows that employers
are not neglecting health and safety despite the downturn and,
perhaps surprisingly, 27 per cent are willing to take on
people who have been on incapacity benefit or older workers.
“This will give some encouragement to the
government who aim to cut the number of people on incapacity
benefit by one million, which must have seemed in jeopardy as
waves of redundancies rocked the economy.”
Honorary Vice-Presidents Luncheon
President Nattasha Freeman spoke about the need to shift the
emphasis from safety to health at IOSH's HVP Luncheon at the House
of Lords this month. She said:
“We know that ‘good work’ is good for health
and there’s also evidence that positive workplace perceptions are
associated with better productivity, profitability and staff
retention.
“Health and safety practitioners are already
well placed in the workplace, having learned boardroom speak to
convince employers that workers are an investment and, having
gained the trust and ears of employees, we can open doors to
facilitate a faster collaboration between those involved when
someone is either approaching a period of absence or already in
one.”