Culture of safety critical to good business practice, says Mpact

At Mpact, a leading plastics and paper packaging producer in southern Africa, one of the fundamental tenets of doing business is being a responsible corporate citizen, which manifests in the creation of long-term value for all stakeholders. Intrinsic to this is being actively committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for all employees, as well as contractors and service providers.

“We are committed to sustainability principles, which underpin our business strategy and operations, and believe that our leading market position can only be maintained with business practices that are based on long-term sustainable development, including the wellbeing of our employees,” says Mpact CEO, Bruce Strong.

Committed to a safe and healthy working environment

The principle of “zero harm” is entrenched at each of Mpact’s operations, including its three paper mills in Felixton (KwaZulu-Natal), Piet Retief (Mpumalanga) and Springs (Gauteng).

“The CEO’s Safety, Health and Environmental (SHE) Philosophy clearly states that all injuries, occupational illnesses, safety and environmental incidents and fires are preventable and that the target for them is zero,” says Strong.

Three underlying principles give effect to this philosophy: individuals are responsible for their own safety; adherence to the “Mpact Fire and Safety Rules To Live By” is the minimum standard throughout the organisation; and there is no differentiation in terms of the treatment and expectations of employees, contractors and service providers.

Systems

Acknowledging that systems play a key role in influencing the work environment, Mpact has set the task of building robust systems that are specific to safety and ensure that safety considerations are thoroughly integrated with other organisational systems.

“The approach is to eliminate hazards where possible, and if they cannot be eliminated, to manage their risks. This requires broader thinking about hazards and risk, which will result in building more robust defences to protect people from harm, based on technical, administrative and individual controls,” explains Strong.

“Safety and health is the responsibility of senior management, who are assisted by line managers at each operation, who are held accountable for the well-being of employees under their leadership. In addition, there is a significant focus on the prevention of uncontrolled fires.”

SHE systems and procedures are in place to ensure compliance with the relevant South African legislative requirements and the mitigation of safety and health risks to prevent injury or ill-health through hazard identification and risk assessment processes.

Safety and health inductions, as well as numerous safety and health training courses, are conducted annually at each operation.

To assist with the management of safety and health and maintain a safe and healthy working environment, the Group also has a number of initiatives and programmes in place. These include a SHE plan; the Mpact Safety, Health and Environmental Policy, set out in accordance with section 7 of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act, 85 of 1993; and the “Fire and Safety Rules To Live By”, a set of rules and standards covering areas such as fire safety, entry into confined spaces, working at heights, energy and machinery isolation procedures, lifting and material handling, rotating and moving machinery, hazardous substances, and work permits for duties such as hot work and controls around mobile plant and equipment.

The Mpact Risk Control Standards entails safety standards and guidelines relating to a wide spectrum of safety, health, fire protection and environmental management matters.

Behaviour-based safety – a matter of “Hearts and Minds”

“We believe that people commitment and a culture of safety are vitally important in creating a safe working environment. Compliance with rules and procedures alone cannot address or mitigate all hazards and risks. A culture which fosters improvements in safety performance is built on people who think for themselves about safety issues and who take ownership and accountability for creating a safe working environment,” says Strong.’

“We have therefore instituted a ‘Hearts and Minds’ programme to get people to think for themselves and take safety to heart – this is not about new rules, standards, procedures, systems, but is rather aimed at eliminating barriers to unsafe behaviours.”

The programme, developed by Shell and the Energy Institute, has been rolled out throughout Mpact’s operations. It is reinforced by a behaviour-based safety framework, comprising three levels of behaviour observation:

Visible felt leadership (VFL) – which is the engagement (not audits) of leaders with people carrying out tasks, in order to observe their actions, understand reasons for them deviating from safe work practices, and implement corrective action.
Planned job observations – which are scheduled observations of people performing their normal duties by others familiar with the related standard operating procedures. These are done to identify incorrect or unsafe behaviour and establish the reasons for such behaviour.
Anonymous reporting of unsafe acts observed – which entails the logging of observations of unsafe behaviour, incidents or conditions by employees and contractors. This provides feedback to operating personnel which is used to identify barriers to safe work behaviour.

Barrier removal processes then deal with interventions that are planned, reported and monitored through plant SHE committees and barrier removal committees which include management, union and safety representatives.

Safety statistics

With an LTIFR of 0.13 reported in 2013, well below industry standards, Mpact has however noticed a recent trend in injuries relating to extremities, as well as trip and missed footing incidents, which is being carefully monitored and actioned in line with the above approach.

Strong adds that the Group’s safety programmes continue to be reinforced and Mpact will continue to drive improvement in safe working conditions and safety behaviour and culture. “Moreover, we will place an even greater focus on the training of our people, especially those in operational positions, as well as assessing them regularly for competence.”