Occupational health standards
Before developing our Occupational Health Standards we reviewed the insights gained from 15 years of corporate site visits into the health issues on sites and the best methods that had been developed to manage them. We looked at regulations and accepted best practice in North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa. We realised that, although there were many differences in the detail, there was broad agreement on the elements required for a best practice occupational health programme. We incorporated these best practice elements into a set of standards that were discussed and agreed by operations.
The standards require sites to assess all the risks to health at the operation and then from this assessment to develop programmes and timescales to control these risks. Other aims of the standards were to:
- Improve the flow of information on health issues to managers to enable them to take a more active role in prevention.
- Provide more accurate data on workplace conditions.
This improved knowledge of risks would enable every employee in the Group to play an active role in protecting the health of our workers.
Implementation of these standards commenced at the end of 2002 with full compliance expected from the beginning of 2005. To assure compliance with the standards an auditing programme commenced in January 2005 and all sites will be audited by the end of 2006. This auditing programme has demonstrated high levels of compliance with the aims of the standards with much improved knowledge of workplace health risks and workplace conditions.
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