The health of our people is central to our business success. We need to understand the potential for health risks and establish suitable mitigation measures to reduce the incidence of organisational and societal health problems.
Hearing loss is a major occupational health risk and the Group has engaged specialised service providers to assist with alleviation initiatives to design out pollution zones and dampen machinery noise.
The majority of operations have installed extensive societal health programs, including random substance abuse tests and voluntary HIV/AIDS tests. The Group’s risk-based HIV/AIDS policy promotes voluntary testing, non-discrimination and awareness about preventing the spread of the disease and mitigating its effects.
Preventative and corrective mitigation measures are being implemented to eliminate the underlying causes and hazards of all health risks, including:
- Lung function disorders from dust exposure
- Fatigue and heat stress
- Repetitive strain and ergonomic injuries
Murray & Roberts seeks to create a mindset and an environment where people believe it is possible to work injury free, regardless of where they are in the world, what role they undertake, or in which operating entity they work.
We aspire to Zero Harm by focusing on the following key issues:
- Fatal accidents – The Group continues to reduce the level of fatal accidents and it remains determined to eliminate fatalities from its operations.
- Safety – We strive to reduce our lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) by increasing safety awareness and our leadership commitment to safety.
- Safe workplaces – Murray & Roberts has developed a model that clearly articulates the roles, responsibilities and accountability of corporate office versus the operations.
- Serious accident prevention – Each operating unit is responsible for developing an annual serious accident prevention plan including specific measures to address the respective risk areas.
- Leadership and line accountability – Management is accountable for the safety culture of their business, the implementation of policy and meeting performance requirements.
- Communication and safety awareness – Murray & Roberts introduced the STOP.THINK campaign to raise safety awareness through media such as an awareness video, industrial theatre and SMS messages.
- Interactions, observations and audits ‒ Safety contacts and observations encourage employees to act safely while the effectiveness of our systems and employee awareness are assessed by audits.
The Group’s environmental risk model aims to enable operations to better understand and identify hazards and risks and their potential effects.
The major risks identified are presented in the table below:
| Risk |
Applicability |
Release of hydrocarbons |
All operating environments |
Improper storage of chemicals |
Construction (above ground) |
Unplanned release to atmosphere |
Fixed facility sites |
Spillage to storm water reticulation |
All operating environments |
Waste from workshop facilities |
Mining (below ground) |
Murray & Roberts will establish the extent of its carbon footprint to evaluate the extent to which its activities might contribute to climate change.
Refer to our Health, safety & environment section in our Annual Report for more information.
