Baulderstone reaches safety milestone

Baulderstone received national recognition recently for its continued safety excellence for its work on the Australian Defence Department’s $35.2 million Enhanced Land Force (ELF) Infrastructure project in Townsville.

Baulderstone, and its contractor team, achieved a copy-book record for project delivery, clocking up 78,000 hours without incurring a single lost time injury (LTI).

Federal Safety Commissioner (FSC) Helen Marshall visited the Lavarak Barracks to present Baulderstone with its Australian Government Building and Construction Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Re-accreditation, following the company’s initial accreditation three years ago.

Baulderstone North Queensland Regional Manager Gary Butler said the re-accreditation recognised Baulderstone’s continued commitment to safety leadership: “We have five core steps to best practice when it comes to safety and our ELF team have really delivered on this project.

“This is an eight-stage project and, at its peak, we have 85 people on the ELF site per week, employed across 35 subcontracting companies. As well as our own Baulderstone team, up to 90% of our subcontractors are local companies and we feel a strong responsibility to ensure safety is an engrained, active part of daily practice and not a vague ideal.

“We share the FSC’s vision of a building and construction industry where no one is harmed. Safety is a primary focus in delivering project excellence for all Baulderstone’s clients and its partners.

“Through our Safety Matters campaign, we have worked hard to increase awareness of safety hazards in the workplace and we reward great safety behaviour on all our projects.

“We are pleased to share our OHS expertise with local contractors who commit to our safety journey and actively deliver best safety practice on each project.”

The Baulderstone top five steps to safety in construction are:

1. Commitment and understanding by managers and workers of safety responsibilities.
2. Consultation and communication between all trades and contractors on site to ensure safety procedures and decisions are actively implemented.
3. Recognition that safety is a journey that never ends - safe work procedures are constantly reviewed, updated and improved upon.
4. Training and supervision is field based and practical. Supervisors live and breathe safety procedures and are not office bound. Supervisors conduct CHATS (Construction Hazard Assessment Talks) to ensure everyone on site is aware of safety procedures.
5. Regular reporting of safety success and opportunities for safety improvement. If someone sees something unsafe, work is stopped, the incident reported and the procedure reviewed.

The Australian Government Building and Construction OHS Accreditation Scheme is widely acknowledged as setting the highest OHS benchmark for the building and construction industry. As well having effective OHS management systems, accredited companies must demonstrate a strong safety culture throughout the organisation.

In approving reaccreditation, FSC Helen Marshall commented on Baulderstone’s strong on-site audit performance over the three years they had been associated with the scheme: “It’s evident Baulderstone has a strong leadership commitment to OHS and this is flowing through to the workers on site.

“Re-accreditation is a rigorous process and the workers on the ELF project should be proud of demonstrating the high standards and strong safety culture achieved by Baulderstone.”