In mid-June, all employees of the Specialties - Wood Construction Division met at the Rümlang site for this year's "Wood Construction Safety Day 2022" with a special morning program. The Wood Construction Safety Officer, Silvio Neumann, again organized a safety course for all employees at the Rümlang site. This included a staged live accident and guests such as SUVA, Care Team Thurgau and Werner Witschi, an accident victim who is now in a wheelchair.
The H&S Day was very impressive for all participants and was captured by the camera.
For an impression, feel free to watch the video.
Investing a few minutes in safety can save you life in a wheelchair. It always pays to invest in safety.
Werner Witschi, SUVA Ambassador
As every year, the aim of the action day was to raise awareness of safety and hazard recognition on our construction sites and in our production halls with practical examples.
This was done particularly impressively by means of a staged accident. The unsuspecting employees suddenly heard screams and rushed to the "accident scene". Three of them took charge of the situation, immediately administered first aid and called the emergency call center. Ten minutes passed and the casualty kept passing out. The employees tried to keep the situation under control until finally the ambulance, and later the care team and the police arrived.
After the exercise, the live accident was discussed in the plenum and what was done well and what could have been done better. The participants became impressively aware of the fact that one should always keep a cool head in such a situation and how long the time feels from the first aid to the arrival of the ambulance.
This is why we deal with the topic of health & safety
Healthy employees are the most valuable asset we have. Every employee should return home healthy in the evening. An accident at work causes very high costs and staff absences. That is why we want to reduce the potential for accidents as much as possible.
Health & Safety in timber construction in practice
Health & Safety can be practiced in many ways and needs our full attention every day. We always pay attention to:
Safe construction sites
Safe adapted ergonomic workplaces
Aids so that heavy loads do not have to be carried
Modern extraction systems for chips and dust, so that very good air quality is ensured in the production halls
This is how we inform our employees.
Monthly 15-minute training sessions
Weekly Safety Talks on larger construction sites with a minimum of 4 persons
Monthly H&S meetings at management level
Annual H&S Day
Regular safety audits by management on construction sites and in production
What our employees said about H&S Day 2022
The hands-on morning showed participants how important it is to address workplace safety on a daily basis:
I used to get stressed out when someone was watching me work. I always did it fast, fast. But as of today, I could slow down a bit and watch what I'm doing.
Ali Hussaini Akbar, apprentice carpenter EFZ
Always saying STOP when I see someone doing something wrong, doing something negligent, or pointing out when they have forgotten something.
Sonja Glauser, apprentice carpenter EFZ
In terms of occupational safety, the figures from SUVA, which I saw for the first time, are very interesting.
Marc Jacobsen, Foreman Wood Construction
Also with the lecture of Werner Witschi, one becomes again more consciously, how important the five minutes, which one should take additionally for the security, are effectively. And how close one goes - as is shown in his case by the accident or the paralysis - to death or vice versa. It is very much run in.
