Skanska celebrates #GLAD24
David Borley is the lead AP (Appointed Person) for lifting at Skanska, a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden, and president and founder of the Industry Lifting Lead AP Group (ILLAPG).
“My role is predominantly looking after all areas of lifting. I look at improving behaviour standards, most importantly, listening to people, understanding what their needs are, putting those into place, and where I can, offering practical guidance. We have a series of guidance documents I've helped put together on aiding communication and learning and we have monthly forums within our company to help people with lifting,” said Borley.
“One of the key things we do, is looking at how we can link logistics, loading and lowering because we know that the key to a successful project is getting those elements right. And if you don't link them properly, you won't have a very safe project.
“We have in place framework agreements with many suppliers and companies, supply equipment and management companies that look at all of the things that are needed around certification. Obviously, associations like LEEA and CPA, help us with that and one of the biggest things we've picked up over the last year or so is looking at training. At the moment, a lot of companies do their own training standards but it's not very efficient and not the best for the whole industry going forward.
“Industry Lifting Lead AP Group (ILLAPG) was something, that when I was looking at Crossrail many years ago, I was in a state of shock. You go from project to project and the mix mash of standards that people were following was frightening. So, one day I was sitting in a coffee shop in Aldersgate Street in London back in 2015, and I thought ‘we're better than this’ - we can do something better. So, I managed to get some like-minded people together and we started meeting up on a regular basis and that's being going for nine years now, sponsored by GGR Group and Skanska.
“Obviously lots of other people have helped us along the way and a big mention to HSE for helping me setting it up.
“The problem is there's a lot of good work being done by a lot of people but not everyone knows what's going on. So we end up with some companies doing the same thing twice. Our aim is to strive for better communication and collaboration, looking at all these different governing bodies, and how they can assist in improving guidance and regulations.”
In terms of leading by best practice, Skanska has a lot of framework agreements in place whereby employees and partners undergo rigorous checks, pre agreement audits, benchmarking standards, health & safety and quality.
“You’re only as good as your people. So we try to offer as much technical expertise as needed and that's quite a hard thing to do. And then one of the things that often gets picked up on, especially when you look at equipment is maintenance. Maintenance standards vary massively in this industry,” he said.
“One of the big drives this year has been our Below- the-Hook Safety program. It’s fair to say we’ve had a few incidents over the last few years, including a fatal accident at Gatwick, where a slinger signaller was unfortunately crushed by a load and died of his injuries. From that investigation and several other incidents that have occurred, it was clear we were putting personnel too close to the loads. If someone is in close proximity to something that's dangerous, it's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt.
“This led to creating our Hands off the Load campaign and HOSASS, which is the acronym for ‘Hands Off, Step Away, Safe Space’ to ensure safe positioning during lifter operations and minimising direct contact where you can, to reduce the risk of injury where we can.
“The thing for us is changing people's behaviours, so if you can imagine a load where some people are struggling to hold it, slingers close by would run to that load to try and help control it. But all you're doing is putting more people at risk. If a load is being pushed by the wind, if you have half a rugby team hanging on one end of it, you're not going to stop it. We’re trying to change people's behaviours so that they step back and think about what they are going to do before they go in.
“Like most companies we do a lot around safety standards and toolbox talks around lifting including safety stand downs. If we've had sadly a fatality anywhere in the world. We will all stand down for that. Somebody will go through a briefing, so we understand what's happened. Look at what we put in place to prevent it happening in the future. And the whole idea about this is to learn because we want people to go to work and go home safely.
“We want to support Global Lifting Awareness Day #GLAD24 because too many people are hurt through incidents at work. We want to make sure we can do things as safely as we can and if you're willing to join the Industry Lifting Lead AP Group (ILLAPG) please do, because the more people that join help us to change the industry for the better.”
Click here to find out more about HOSAS
Hands Off – Step Away– Safe Space or email illapg@cpa.uk.net
To watch the video and for more information about GLAD visit https://globalliftingawarenessday.com
