Workplace Health and Safety Strategy

Fulton Hogan Ltd, Nelson Region

The Nelson Region of Fulton Hogan Ltd was one of the first businesses to sign up to the Department’s Partners in Action Pledge.

Peter Denton, the company’s Safety Quality Training and Employment Relations Manager, makes it clear that their focus is on zero harm saying that “no injury is acceptable”.

“Communication is crucial at Fulton Hogan - it is essential to share safety information between management and our employees and contractors,” Mr Denton says.

The company has safety tailgate meetings for each crew every day, as well as monthly, quarterly and annual safety meetings for each department and division in the region.

“We have recently adopted a focus on engineering-out hazards in an effort to eliminate risk rather than just isolate or minimise hazards,” Mr Denton says.

“For example we require valves to be regularly turned on and off at the top of our bulk storage tanks at our port facility.  This had previously involved a worker walking more than five metres up a steep and narrow cat-walk ladder to the top of the tank, even in very wet and windy conditions.

“To eliminate the hazard, we have recently installed a system to remotely activate the valves from a control box at the bottom of the tank avoiding the need to go up there at all.  It is now easier, faster and much safer!” he says.

The management team at Fulton Hogan in Nelson also sets three unique and novel safety initiatives each month and are always on the lookout for ways to reward ideas and exceptional safety performance from their workers.

This month their initiatives include:

‘Gate safety’ – the checking of licenses and load security on trucks, utes and trailers at the gateway to the Nelson yard.

‘Stay-Safe engagements’ - management are set a minimum number of times they are to engage with field staff to discuss a point of safety and record it on a central database. “The more we talk and listen, the more we learn and can grow our safety commitment,” Mr Denton explains.

‘Zero Harm Barbeque’ – the plan is to get everyone across the region together to celebrate 120 consecutive days of zero harm, with management doing all the cooking and cleaning up.

The company promotes the theme of ‘this is how we do it right around here’.

“We want workers to be fully aware of the hazards that they are exposed to at work and how to manage them so no one gets hurt in the first place, rather than focusing on the consequences of injuries if they do happen,” Mr Denton says.