HEALTH AND SAFETY

CSI's core aim in terms of Health and Safety at Work is to hit the zero accident mark. In order to achieve this, the group has developed effective systems for measuring, monitoring, and reporting its members' performance.

CSI developed effective cross-company systems for measuring, monitoring, and reporting the performance of its members with a view to exchanging information that can be transformed into recommendations for accident prevention and improved quality of life for the worker.

The majority of the CSI´s members informed that the main causes of fatalities at work are accidents with vehicles, falls from great heights and problems associated with isolation procedures for electrical systems. Among the main causes of accidents resulting in workday loss, preliminary studies have identified falling, slipping and tripping, injuries resulting from falling objects, and the improper handling of tools and machinery.

These factors were analyzed and discussed by the CSI Health and Safety taskforce in a bid to aid the companies in developing more effective accident prevention programs. Another target is the need to improve and expand the health and safety culture in the workplace among both employees and outsourced personnel. The main goal is to achieve a zero work-related accident rate.

Commitments individually assumed by CSI companies....

• Implement the recommendations made by the Health and Safety taskforce in terms of management systems, data monitoring, and public processes for rendering accounts.

... And the results obtained by Votorantim Cimentos

• VC implemented 95 percent of the taskforce's recommendations. Click here to see the results and read about the Safe Behavior Process, which encourages employees to detect behaviors with the potential to cause or aggravate workplace accidents and to take proactive steps to correct them.

Performance in the area of Health and Safety is gauged through the following indicators:

• Fatalities
• Accidents resulting in workday loss

Check out the Assurance Letter of the external audit conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

The Safe Behavior Process is an approach Votorantim Cimentos has adopted to support its other safety activities in the quest for definitive accident control.

The process consists of four main activities, all carried out by the Safety Committee: the identification of critical behaviors, Collecting data, feedback, and removal of barriers.

The crux of the process is observation. Workers are trained to act alongside the Committee as observers, detecting and reporting potentially critical behaviors within the company—that is, any act that could increase the risk of accidents.

Once registered, the observer reports are forwarded to the Committee for consolidation, evaluation, and the definition of systematic actions to be carried out with the employees. The final aspect of the process involves breaking down barriers - understood as situations that contribute to the risk behavior and that compromise workplace safety.

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