Safety at work is not a luxury or an added bonus - it is an integral part of running a successful business and something we take exceptionally seriously at EMR. It goes without saying that anyone who works at or visits one of our sites should have the confidence that they will be able to go home safely at the end of the day.
As we mark World Day for Safety and Health at Work today, it’s an important opportunity for EMR to discuss the journey we are on to improve health and safety on our sites and in the metal recycling industry.
As the last of our UK sites achieve certification to the ISO 45001 standard for occupational health and safety during 2022, we continue to embed health and safety into our operations.
One key element of our approach is our Life Rules which address the risks that have the potential to result in serious injuries. Rules that apply to safe Loading and Unloading, as well as avoiding the Line of Fire are particularly important in our industry where large volumes of material are handled.
Other risks covered by our Life Rules include: Confined Space Entry; Working at Height; Transport and Driving Safety; Hot Work Safety; Permit to Work and Energy Isolation.
And complementing EMR’s Life Rules is our brand-new Think Twice point of work risk assessment. This process asks colleagues to employ the same careful thought process that any of us do when crossing a busy road, double checking that what we are doing won’t harm us or those around us.
Think Twice isn’t a replacement for our formal risk assessment process but is designed for construction, installation and maintenance tasks so that conditions at the time are considered before starting the job. It can also be used when we are about to start work in an unfamiliar place or if conditions change once we have started a job.
Yet, at the heart of our approach to health and safety, is one simple message: nobody should be forced to work in a situation where they believe either they, their colleagues or our customers are at risk.
This has led to EMR introducing a Stop Work Authority, which empowers every member of our team to call a halt to our operations if they feel it is unsafe. With the backing of our chief executive, Chris Sheppard, employees at every level of our business know that if they raise concerns and press pause on site, any issues will be taken seriously and they won’t face any backlash.
Clearly, ensuring our operations are as safe as possible for our staff and our customers takes time, effort and skill. Since 2020, EMR has tracked and recognised our progress through our ‘SHE Perfect Day’ programme.
This covers environmental protection as well as health and safety. If EMR completes a workday without any harm, it is recorded and celebrated throughout the business as a ‘SHE Perfect Day’. If it wasn’t a SHE Perfect Day, we take the opportunity to learn and improve, even pausing work if we have to do so.
In an industry such as ours, improvement in health and safety cannot simply be taken for granted. This programme sets a goal for all of our colleagues, while ensuring best practice developed on one site can then be captured and spread throughout our 60 sites nationwide.
These are some of the programmes EMR has implemented to safeguard our business, those who work within it, and every person who visits our sites. Achieving excellence in health and safety is a process of constantly adapting and improving what we do to limit the risks of injury and harm. As a leading metal recycler in the UK, EMR is proud to be driving forward this change and creating an example for the rest of the industry to follow.
