Monday next week, September 14, is the start for Skanska Safety Week 2009. All the company’s 55,000 employees, in more than 10,000 project sites and offices, and thousands of customers, subcontractors, suppliers and partners will be involved in the efforts to improve safety. This makes Skanska Safety Week the largest workplace safety campaign in the world.
During September 14-20 Skanska Safety Week is arranged for the fifth consecutive year. The purpose is to increase workplace safety, prevent accidents and to reach Skanska’s vision of an injury-free workplace with the target of zero accidents among employees, subcontractors and the general public.
“It’s totally unacceptable that people in our industry risk their life and health in their daily work. Therefore Skanska Safety Week is such an important event to show that accidents can and must be prevented. The past years’ achievements show that it’s possible to perform our work in a safe way for everyone involved,” says Johan Karlström, Skanska’s President and CEO.
The construction industry is by tradition one of the most hazardous sectors. An estimated 40 percent of all workplace fatalities take place in this industry. But experience from Skanska Safety Week shows that the number of accidents can be radically reduced. During the seven days of last year’s event, seven lost-time accidents were reported. This can be compared to an average week, when 19 accidents are reported. Applied to a full year, this would translate to around 600 fewer lost-time accidents among Skanska’s employees and subcontractors globally.
Activities during the week includes hundreds of safety visits at work sites by Skanska executives, extensive safety training programs, safety briefings for employees, subcontractors and partners and many other activities at Skanska projects and offices around the world. More information about the activities can be found on www.skanska.com/safetyweek from Monday.
“Safety is a core value in Skanska and our highest priority – every day, for every person and at every place where we work. Therefore it’s of great importance that everyone – employees, subcontractors and partners – take part in the planning to prevent accidents. This is the only way to reach our target. We still have quite some way to go, but I’m confident that we will succeed,” says Johan Karlström.
Since 2005 employee lost-time accidents have been reduced by 24 percent in Skanska. The company takes extensive measures to further reduce accidents. Strict rules for personal protection equipment on site have been implemented, extensive training programs are arranged at sites and safety risk analysis is mandatory in the planning of all projects.
Furthermore, safety performance is monitored closely, and benchmarked between the business units in Skanska with the aim to learn from the best units. Performance is also linked to the remuneration of managers. From 2009, the entire company also observes a “stand down” each time a fatality occurs. As well as marking respect for a colleague, this event spreads knowledge to every employee, subcontractor and partner about the cause of the accident and how it could have been prevented.
For further information please contact:
Andreas Lindelöf, Managing Director, Skanska Property Hungary Ltd. tel +36 1 382 9100
This and previous releases can also be found at www.skanska.com
Skanska AB may be required to disclose the information provided herein pursuant to the Securities Markets Act.
Skanska is one of the world’s leading project development and construction groups with expertise in construction, development of commercial and residential projects and public-private partnerships. The Group currently has 55,000 employees in selected home markets in Europe, in the US and Latin America. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, Skanska's sales in 2008 totaled SEK 144 billion.