28 April, is officially recognised around the globe as World Day for Safety and Health at Work, for our people at Chemring, it’s business as usual when it comes to our safety culture. At Chemring, safety is more than a priority; it is one of our values.
Across Chemring, we are on a journey to zero harm. This starts with our HSE Strategy and our Fundamental Safety Principles. These principles are the minimum expectations that underpin our safety strategy concerning People, Plant, Process and Organisation. They apply to everyone working for or on a Chemring-controlled site, and we expect everyone to understand and apply these rules within their working environment.
Explains Chemring’s Group HSE Director, Steve Messam, “What’s critical is ensuring we create a culture in which people feel able to stop others if they feel something is unsafe. Our Fundamental Safety Principles play a significant role in helping ensure that all employees know when to Stop what they are doing, to Warn their coworkers, to Inform relevant stakeholders, and to Manage the situation according to local procedures. We call this SWIM - Stop, Warn, Inform and Manage.”
Real-life safety scenarios
To support the Fundamental Safety Principles and the underpinning message to SWIM, the Chemring safety team have developed a series of safety scenarios that are based on actual events that have occurred or that have been reported to prevent incidents.
The scenarios are used regularly in safety posters, toolbox talks and training to visually demonstrate how an unsafe condition, can lead to an unsafe act, a near miss, and ultimately an accident.
Concludes Steve, “Our message today, on World Day for Safety & Health at Work, is simple. Everyone is responsible for safety at work, and we all have it in our power to look out for one another and to keep each other safe.”