REBUILD LEADERS MARK MAJOR SAFETY MILESTONE

REBUILD LEADERS MARK MAJOR SAFETY MILESTONE

REBUILD LEADERS MARK MAJOR SAFETY MILESTONE

On the first anniversary of its formation, the Canterbury Rebuild Safety Charter today celebrated the signing of its 100th signatory, working towards providing safe working conditions for Canterbury rebuild workers.

Glenn Murdoch, Design Director at Vicus Design Group, today became the Safety Charter’s 100th signatory, and hosted the Safety Charter Working Group members  at the company’s head office.“Being a part of rebuilding our city is a valuable job, but our people are also working for us to provide for themselves and their families,” says Mr Murdoch.
“An injury, or at worst, a fatality, has severe repercussions on the family for the rest of their lives, and nothing is worth that risk.  It’s our responsibility to ensure their safety, every day, which is why we’ve signed the Charter,” said Mr Murdoch.

Graham Darlow, Chief Executive of Fletcher Construction and Chair of the Safety Charter Steering Group, says that the Safety Charter is about industry coming together to improve safety standards and create a legacy for the rebuild and the construction industry nationwide.

“We face some unique challenges in rebuilding Canterbury safely.  We have a huge influx of workers coming to the city, many of them new to construction, or new migrants or vulnerable workers, as well as dealing with contractor chain arrangements, labour shortages, cost pressures – let alone the sheer scale of the rebuild,” he says.

“The Safety Charter is a unique initiative bringing companies together who traditionally compete for work, to rebuild safely.

“We’ve grown from 33 signatories on 4 July 2013 to 100 today. This demonstrates the strength of what we’re trying to achieve and the importance of the work we’re doing,” Mr Darlow says.

“We’re not stopping here – we’ve set our sights on 200 signatories by Christmas, as we reach out to companies right across the rebuild,” he says

In the year since it launched, there has been a significant amount of work involved in the Safety Charter, including:

· Over 100 signatories, and 27 organisations who publicly endorse the Safety Charter. Signatories include insurers, project management offices, large and small constructors including group home builders and commercial construction companies, horizontal infrastructure companies, labour on hire companies, the CTU, specialist trade organisations and other planning and design companies.
· The development of a self-awareness tool for signatories to assess their performance against the Safety Charter’s ten actions and allow them to compare their results with their peers
· A Safety Charter video, website and monthly newsletters
· A launch and three quarterly events with over 600 senior leaders attending
· Safety Charter awareness material for sites across the rebuild

Coming up soon with the Charter is:
· Guidance on leadership best practice
· An awareness campaign about health and safety on site, around the Safety Charter’s ten actions.

The Charter signatories – many of whom are competitors – have all committed to the ten actions in the Safety Charter, aiming to create a consistent and collective approach to health and safety on all worksites in the rebuild.

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