London-based utility maintenance contractor, Falco Construction, has racked-up 1.5 million consecutive hours of work without a reportable health and safety incident. The company, which facilitates maintenance and repair on electrical, water and telecoms utilities reached the milestone in June 2018 making it a 40-month period since its 200 strong workforce experienced its last RIDDOR incident.
Managing Director, Brendan Griffin, commented:
“Providing planned and responsive groundworks in and around London presents multiple health and safety risks to our mobile workforce. This achievement is testament to the robustness of our management systems and hard work by our in-house health & safety team.”
The sector Falco Construction specialises in, facilitating the installation, maintenance and repair of electrical, water and telecoms assets, is highly regulated by the industry and its clients. The company operates an occupational health & safety management system which has been certificated against International Standard, OHSAS 18001, since 24th December 2009. Falco Construction is also accredited to the Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme (CHAS), the National Electricity Registration Scheme (NERS) and is a corporate member of The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and the Constructing Better Health (CBH) initiative.
Facilitating the installation and maintenance of utility assets, which typically involves excavation and working in underground environments adjacent to busy highways, exposes Falco’s workforce to a number of health & safety risks including: confines spaces, exposure to toxic substances, contact with live services, HAVS and noise.
Risk assessments are carried out for all activities prior to commencement and Falco’s workforce are highly trained and subject to regular site audits and undergo frequent medicals and health surveillance. Typical measures used to protect operatives and the public include: NRSWA-compliant traffic management; segregation of works using fencing and barriers; COSHH assessments, CAT & Genny scans and adherence to HSG47; use of permit-to-dig systems; PPE including Hi-Viz, flame-retardant workwear; safe limits of use of vibrating equipment; confined-space training; use of access equipment and harnesses.
Falco Construction’s in-house Health & Safety team, led by Hugo Goldsmith, are confident its commitment to health & safety and the discipline of its management systems will result in 2 million hours of RIDDOR-free work by the end of 2018.