Staying sharp on safety. An accident is often in a small corner

Despite numerous laws, measures, awareness programs and work plans, too many accidents still happen in the construction industry. Government policies are therefore being tightened up to curb this. For example, as of January 1 of this year, major government clients such as the Government Real Estate Company, ProRail, Rijkswaterstaat, BAM and Dura Vermeer demand that contractors put more work into a new safety culture. BSE Betonwerken bv anticipated this early on and has safety in place on many fronts. "That not only gives us a head start, it is also a big advantage for the contractors and clients we work for."

BSE Betonwerken bv of Ermelo has long placed safe and healthy work high on its list of priorities. Employees of the company, which performs all types of concrete work from precast to pouring floors, are in daily work with heavy equipment and with heavy structures. "And so an accident quickly lurks," says Gert van Dusschoten of BSE Betonwerken bv. "We want to prevent this by all possible means, because we all know that an accident has a huge impact on those involved and on the company. That's why safety is our top priority."

The standard in safe and healthy working is SCC. Nicole Ruiter, co-owner of BSE Betonwerken bv: "In March we had another accredited Certifying Body visit us for a major external audit. That was for the VCA Company Certificate. In addition, there are the small, annual audits. All our foremen, project managers and people in the office have a full personal SCC certificate. This is all standard, but not enough to raise safety awareness to a high enough level. That's why we also hold toolbox meetings every other month, where we discuss incidents and near misses, if they occur at all. At BSE we don't do this on paper, we show things using videos because that communicates better. The videos are e-mailed after the meeting so that employees can watch them again at home. If there is an incident or near miss, we immediately turn it into a toolbox. We use VCA forms for registering incidents and near misses, which are also included during the audits. We then communicate the feedback back to our people."

The chance of an accident is always present, Van Dusschoten acknowledges. "But you can minimize the chance of accidents. And that mainly involves raising awareness, because most accidents have small causes. Think of things like leaving litter on a staircase, leaving tools lying around or drilling concrete without dust extraction, earplugs or glasses. It all has to do with behavior and negligence. They don't do it on purpose. That's why our Last Minute Risk Assessments, which we conduct every day on every project, are so important. With these, we put all the safety issues on the back burner. They are pasted on every shack and in every bus, in various other languages if necessary. Because we also want the message to land well for our foreign workers."

BSE Betonwerken bv also has a Safety Culture Ladder SCL Light certificate. Logical, because without this safety ladder the big contractors won't hire you.

A complicating factor is that the concrete company, like many companies in the construction industry, is mostly dealing with hiring staff. Ruiter: "That remains tricky, but safety applies to everyone. That's why all our instructions and toolboxes are in multiple languages. Our own people act as safety ambassadors to raise awareness as much as possible. We always do this in good consultation with the main contractor. In this way we try to operate professionally and relieve our clients as much as possible. We do as much with the fact that we have been using only FSC-certified wood for formwork and construction timber for two years. This means that the contractor and the client can include this certificate in, for example, a BREEAM calculation. The environment is becoming increasingly important, so we do what we can. For example, one of our vans has solar panels on the roof. while the other four vans have inverters and an extra battery. As an approved training company, we pass on our policy on safety and sustainability to the apprentices who work on our projects. You can't start early enough with that."