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Worldsteel Recognizes Three Steel Producers for Safety & Health Excellence

Alexey Mordashov, worldsteel’s Chairman for 2012/2013, said: “The goal of an injury-free, illness-free and healthy work environment remains the highest priority for our industry. Recognition by peers is one of the best ways to encourage people to continue towards zero injuries and most of the best ideas are simple and surprisingly easy to implement. I am very proud of the achievements this program has made since the launch in 2009.”
 
All four programs demonstrated a commitment to safety and health that fulfilled three key criteria:
 
1. The program positively embraced the worldsteel safety and health principles
2. The program was able to demonstrate a positive impact upon safety metrics
3. The program could easily be applied to other member companies
 
ArcelorMittal Unicon launched its ‘Journey to Zero’ safety management system in 2008, taking a systematic approach and starting with the leadership first. The program identified three main barriers ‘Technical barrier’, ‘Organizational barrier’ and ‘Behavioral barrier’ to achieve the goal of zero injuries. Several specific initiatives have been implemented to tackle the three barriers. Under this program, the company has reduced the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) by 90% in five years.
 
ArceloMittal Lazaro Cárdenas implemented a safety management program, specifically designed for contractors in 2009. The program has been deployed across six main areas; ‘Mandatory safety training, Access control, Operational control risk, Contractor’s safety supervisor, Golden ACES for maintenance major shutdowns, and Safety evaluation performance’. The program helped the company to avoid all fatalities and to reduce the LTIFR by 80 % in three years.
 
Gerdau launched in 2010 ‘Safety Behavioral Management’, a strategic project to consolidate the company’s best safety and health practices with proven results within several locations. They were structured in a ‘Behavioral Management for Occupational Safety Manual’ and the use of this process resulted in a significant reduction of the company’s LTIFR from 3.0 to 1.0 (injuries/million hours worked) and accelerated the movement of the safety culture within the whole company.
 
Tata Steel Europe, in 2010, introduced ‘Fit for Work, Fit for Life’ campaign, an integrated health approach provided by ‘Occupational Health Service’. The approach acknowledges the two-way relationship between the working environment and health state of the workers and is supported by three pillars of ‘Prevention, Promotion and Reintegration’. The company provides its employees with, firstly, a comprehensive occupational health service to prevent injury and work-related illness, secondly, a regular health check-up with promotional events and, lastly, support for reintegration of individuals back into workplace.
 
To download the brochure from worldsteel's Bookshop, click here. Photos of the 2013 Safety and Health Excellence Recognition are available here.
 

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) is one of the largest and most dynamic industry associations in the world. worldsteel represents approximately 170 steel producers (including 17 of the world's 20 largest steel companies), national and regional steel industry associations, and steel research institutes. worldsteel members represent around 85% of world steel production.