Health & Safety
RAM MECHANICAL
Heating & Plumbing Services – Edmonton & Fort McMurray
Plumbing, Gas Fitting & Heating
Edmonton: 780-453-3090
Fort McMurray: 780-799-7201
Providing Edmonton Plumbing & Heating Services Since 1984
*We are now offering full plumbing & heating services in Fort McMurray
A Culture Of Safety
It is not only Ram Mechanical’s policy to work safely, it is our culture. We are committed to protecting the health and safety of our employees, as well as the public, our clients, and other contractors. We are certain that every accident, injury and occupational illness is avoidable. Our overall goal is to protect both the public and the environment, while having zero incidents, injuries and occupational illnesses. To be effective, our health and safety program requires all levels of the organization to be held responsible for our overall safety initiatives. Health and safety management will be a driving factor in installing, planning, operating and maintaining of all products and services. This goal can be met by performing all work properly, and in accordance with established policies, procedures, and safe work practices. We will pursue the highest standard of health and safety management as an integral part of efficiency and by ensuring all decisions include health, safety, and environmental influences.
Workplace Safety
Every year in Alberta there are 100 to 200 workplace fatalities. Dimensionally speaking, this means for every one million people that work a full year of hours, 80 people are killed. Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a Provincial government initiative, backed by legislation, to prevent illness, injury and fatalities in the workplace. The OHS Act, Regulation and Code of Alberta delineates the minimum requirements of health and safety in our workplaces. The important word here is minimum. Effective OHS programs far surpass the bare minimum, as defined by legislation. In order to prevent illness, injury and fatality, this is extremely import as legislation is ever evolving and is written as a reaction to past incidents. Ram Mechanical’s health and safety program is updated daily with preconstruction kick-offs, tailgate talks, periodically scheduled safety meetings, and serious external incidents involving other companies. We do not wait for changes to legislation or other government initiatives to update our occupational, health, and safety program.
Safety Save Lives & Costs
It is a common misconception that a strong safety program and culture is a sign of bloating and expensive overhead within and organization. The average cost per claim in Alberta is nearly $10,000, plus administration. These expenses are directly passed to all companies in Alberta via Worker’s Compensation Board (WCB) premiums. Premiums are set by industry type, experience, and safety performance. Companies of the poorest performance can have their rates increased by up to 200%. While companies who outperform their competition will have their premium rates drastically lowered. When looking to hire a mechanical contractor, you should ask for a company’s WCB report card. If the company has poor performance, this is a sign that you, the prime contractor, consultant or owner, is taking on risk as you are legally liable for your worksite. This is also a sign that this prospective company has been ‘handicapped’ by the WCB and you will be paying more for every person-hour of work being completed. Contracting a business that does not have a developed OHS program is dangerous and can expose you and your company to legal action, and can put your holdings and development in risk. Companies that have the best health and safety performance will be developed in all aspects of their business, and will save you time and money while producing a high-quality product.
Safety Employees Buy Into
The architecture of a solid occupational, health and safety program starts at the foundation. The foundation of Ram Mechanical is our ground-level employees. Too many companies try to manage their occupational, health and safety from the top down. Top down management pushes policies and initiatives down the throats of their employees. This produces low morale, stress and zero buy-in. Ram Mechanical knows better. Every employee at Ram is a champion of our safety program. Information and data is produced then collected at the ground level. The incident investigation process will be completed while elevating the data up the management chain. By the time the data makes it to our president, all incidents and near misses will have been investigated, analyzed, corrected, and reported. The president signs off on the incident package and then it is forwarded to our health and safety committee for discussion. This process not only ensures that the people physically doing the work and directly responsible are not only an integral part of our occupational, health and safety program, they are the program. Our health and safety committee, which is made up of administration, management and labour, discusses all incidents and near misses and votes on any proposed changes to the health and safety program. Periodic amendments to our program throughout the year will be formally added to our health and safety manual annually.
Ram Mechanical understands that our company is only as good as our people, and our people must have a safe place to work in order to be good.
COR Certification Is Important
COR, or Certificate of Recognition, is a certification that is presented to companies which have been audited and have demonstrated compliance and a safety program which meets or exceeds the regulations of the OHS act. Internal and external audits must be conducted annually by a certified auditor in order to keep COR certification.
The quality of a company’s health and safety program is a direct indicator of its level of sophistication in all other aspects of business. When contracting or subcontracting a mechanical company, ask for COR certification, to see a copy of their health and safety plan and an up to date WCB report card. If a company is reluctant to share this information with you, look elsewhere for a contractor. Remember, whether you are an owner, consultant or general contractor, you have a legal responsibility to hire a safe and qualified contractor.
RAM MECHANICAL
Heating & Plumbing Services – Edmonton & Fort McMurray
Plumbing, Gas Fitting & Heating
Edmonton: 780-453-3090
Fort McMurray: 780-799-7201
Providing Edmonton Plumbing & Heating Services Since 1984
*We are now offering full plumbing & heating services in Fort McMurray