On March 14, Republic Cement health and safety leaders and managers attended the Safety Leadership Conference at Seda BGC, Taguig, with Health, Safety & Environment Director from CRH Europe Michael Keating as keynote speaker.
At the start of the conference, Republic Cement's safety performance for 2022 was acknowledged as one of the best, with high hopes of retaining or even going above the record for 2023.
Employee safety is a priority for Republic Cement. We place safety at the core of our operations at all levels, ensuring that any safety risks are quickly identified, addressed, and resolved. For this kind of commitment to be organically embedded in our company culture, we place our trust in our top-level management to guide us to safer processes and work behavior.
"Our industry is unforgiving," Keating remarks. As such, we have to be able to get to the root causes of safety accidents, improve our safety awareness, and strengthen the implementation of safety practices such as consistently following the 16 Life Saving Rules.
"How are we doing with safety? Are we doing it safely?" When it comes to safety awareness, these are the two main questions we must constantly keep in mind. "Contractor safety is our safety," Keating adds. Indeed, our safety obligation does not end within the organization but rather extends to our partner contractors and stakeholders.
Safety is not limited to just the workplace but is something that affects our homes and communities.
Emphasis was also placed on the role of leadership as a component of safety culture; leaders must follow the principles of commitment, accountability, and line management responsibility throughout our operations. Aside from understanding the risks and risk factors of the industry, Safety Leadership Interactions (SLIs) are also a necessary part of building our safety culture. SLIs allow employees to know that their leaders listen to what they have to say as teammates and members of the organization as a whole.
We empower our employees to embody our value of respect for people by providing them with the tools, training, and skills needed to ensure that the best safety practices are followed at all time as we build a safer, stronger Republic.