24 May 2008

Attended seminar on Occ. Safety, Health & Environment in the Construction Industry conducted by the Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia and the following issues were raised. and discussed:

i. The Principles of Safety First

ii. OSH Theory and best Practices

iii. Problems and Practical Solutions

One of the best practices were also shared with a renowned Contractor IJM Corporation Bhd

It was an interesting seminar as it was the first for me to attend upon having to handle the OSHE unit.

Discussed with HR General Manager on the dept’s manpower as the requirement for OSHE unit was unbudgeted for year 2008. Even for the position of the Quality Manager has yet to be filled up since requested from early last year. A candidate was identified but accepted a better offer form another company to work abroad. Getting the right people is quite a hassle as most do not want to come down to Johor if they are based in Kuala Lumpur.

Site visits were conducted to identify issues and non compliance on site. Discussions held with contractors and they raised the issues on least occ. Safety & health implementation due to cost and lack of awareness.

Non compliance includes absence of personnel protective equipments (PPE) such as safety helmets and safety boots/ shoes, protection of slopes for trenches, sppeding of lorries at construction sites (more than 15 km per hr), etc

10 May to 23 May 2008

It was a hectic couple of weeks as the Group of Companies organized the Sports Carnival which started from 26 April till 25 May 2008.

Apart from the site visits and audits, juggling between Quality Assurance matters, then switching to Occupational Safety & Health matters and then tackling Environmental issues that has been a constantly arising can really use up a lot of energy. Ignorance and negligence of the project developers, be it internal or external within Nusajaya has been the major issue and needs to be addressed, if not immediately, has to be done regularly.

This week started subscribing to an online Occupational Heath & Safety magazine. Interesting topics such as
http://www.ohsonline.com/articles/61576/ for Shifting of Paradigm, http://www.ohsonline.com/articles/61578/for Emerging Roles of Safety Professional to be a Change Agent and a few more.

30 April to 9 May 2008

Coming out with the OSH kit for the Project Implementation Team was carried out earlier. the draft was commented, edited and updated before presenting and briefing held to them last month.

The attendance rate was not so good for the first and second sessions held but improved during the 3rd session. Positive feedbacks were received on the effectiveness of OSH Kit.

Meetings were held with the local Fire Dept and Red Crescent to organise the Fire and Evacuation drill which we schedule in July 2008. We intend to have a full pledge drill with the involvement of Fire Dept., Red Crescent (Medical Team) and the Police Dept.

They are very supportive of the exercise and Red Crescent even suggested that we have role play/drama for the injured staffs in full make up.

A mock fire and evacuation drill was held last year by the then organising dept which only involved the staffs only. So taking the opportunity to organise the full drill this year was indeed exciting. Checklists were listed and discussed. Setting up of the full Emergency Response Team (ERT) was also crucial before the full drill.

Earlier this year, we had organised for the appointment of the Fire Wardens from within the staffs as they have undergone the required basic trainings conducted earlier by the Fire Dept. It was also part of acknowledging their contribution or future contribution for that matter. T-shirts and Safety vests including their certificates were presented during the ceremony. They gave a positive response to their appointment. Somehow the impact of organising such event is very positive.

Following that we wanted to find a way to disseminate info to everyone without having to send emails to all staff and after discussions with the our team, it was decided to promote the dept QASHE to everyone via the company intranet.
On 5 May 2008, the first bulletin was launched on the intranet and followed by a series of infos, tips, incidents and other news related to Quality, Occ. safety, Health and Environment.
The link can be viewed from the following.

http://intranet.uemland.com/home/news/qashebulletin/1100448478/Article.aspx