Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction (E&C) Group netted awards from Singapore’s Land & Transport Authority (LTA) for workplace safety and health excellence in no less than 6 categories at the 2020 Annual Safety, Health and Environmental Award Convention (ASAC).
Since 1999, ASAC has recognized contractors for being “proactive and successful in promoting workplace safety and health management practices at their worksites, ensuring high health, safety and welfare standards of workers, and giving due consideration to protecting the public and the environment.”
Three awards were given for Samsung C&T’s work at site T307, a project on Singapore’s Thomson-East Coast Line, centered on the construction of the Marine Parade station and its connecting tunnels. It received the Construction Safety Excellence Award for the second year in a row, the Accident-Free Recognition Award, and the inaugural Workplace Health Award.
This last category was added this year and granted for demonstrated excellence in carrying out health programs at a worksite. Specifically, Samsung C&T promoted good health management among workers and automatically checked their temperatures whenever they entered the site to prevent COVID-19 transmission. The company also provided personal health care kits, containing reusable face masks, personal utensils, thermometers, and mosquito repellent, and made available IT facilities that enabled workers to communicate with family members who were abroad.
Another site to be awarded was the T313 site, where Samsung C&T is contributing to the construction of a subway station and 1,200-meter tunnel in Singapore’s southeastern region, connecting Xilin Avenue to the MRT system. This site was awarded in 2 categories: Construction Safety Merit and Accident-Free Recognition. Furthermore, the section of the North-South Corridor (tunnel) between Novena Rise and Toa Payoh Rise, named N106 after its contract number, received the Construction Safety Innovation Award.
Samsung C&T has made many different efforts to create safety as the culture of their construction sites. It created a communicative safety culture in which all workers can participate instead of a top-down manager-led list of requirements.
A concrete example of this is the Last Minute Risk Assessment, adopted by Samsung C&T at its sites in Singapore and Hong Kong, which allows workers to decide for themselves whether or not to work on a particular day after checking the status of work preparation and risk factors. Also, Samsung carries out regular interviews with workers to communicate about site safety and is creating a culture for workers to maintain workplace safety directly through the execution of experience-centered safety training. Another feature of Samsung C&T’s rigorous focus on workplace safety is the system of applying for and granting letters of permission to work before beginning any task on a construction site.
In the field of construction, whether in Korea or abroad, Samsung C&T continues to strive to create workplaces that are safe and healthy places for workers. The aim is a happier, safer and healthier workforce that is able to pull together to overcome the challenges of any project.
