20.11.08
Tube track manager scoops top marks for safety
Tube Lines employee named Achiever of the Year in the SHP IOSH Awards 2008
Paul Watson, Tube Lines’ senior delivery manager for the Permanent-Way delivery group, has scooped a top health and safety award for leading a safety improvement programme that has taken the groups Lost Time Injury rate to zero. Paul was named Achiever of the Year by SHP IOSH which promotes good health and safety practice.
When Paul took over the management of the £200million track replacement programme – renowned for heavy, dirty high-risk works - the team had the worst safety record within the business. Fast-forward a couple of years and it is now one of the best safety performing groups thanks to the health and safety initiatives championed by Paul.
Paul introduced many initiatives to drive improvements in safety, including mandatory competence assessments for all management staff, the recruitment of a dedicated safety training and competence manager to oversee the delivery of key safety training sessions, and the establishment of a joint safety steering committee involving all of the groups’ main contractors. He has also helped steer safety improvements and changed attitudes to safety by placing responsibility for health and safety at director and senior management level.
Key to bringing about a ‘no tolerance’ approach to safety was Paul’s personal engagement with the initiatives. He leads from the front, choosing to regularly attend work sites at night and weekends to oversee the work and provide safety leadership rather than sit behind his desk. Since May 2007, no work shifts within the group have been lost as a result of an accident at work and between May 2007 and May 2008 the team clocked up a staggering 750,000 of safe hours worked.
Commenting on his win, Paul Watson at Tube Lines said:
“I was honoured to receive the award on behalf of my team and am really proud that our safety achievement has been given national recognition in the industry. I work with an extremely competent and professional group of railway professionals who have made safety at work their priority.”
Tube Lines places a lot of importance across the entire business on fostering a culture in which all employees and contractors are encouraged to think and work responsibly. Its uncompromising approach to safety has seen the Lost Time Injury rate fall from 1.3 in 2003 to 0.18 in 2008.
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