CEMEX Readymix achieves 1 year lti free

For the first time in its history, CEMEX Readymix and Mortars, a business sector of CEMEX UK, building materials provider, has achieved one year lost time injury (LTI) free. This achievement is one of four major health and safety attainments celebrated by the company this month.

The company also celebrated another 'first' with two years LTI free by CEMEX Cement three operational sites and their quarries, 12 awards from RoSPA at their annual Occupational Health and Safety Awards and the CEMEX National Safety award, an internal award, was given to Readymix Central Region for its commitment, engagement and leadership.

The Readymix division has 226 sites, many small sites manned by one employee for extended periods of time with multiple deliveries by independent hauliers to tens of thousands of different construction sites every year.

"This is an unprecedented achievement of one year LTI across our entire Readymix operation. Every single employee is to be congratulated for their tremendous effort in keeping themselves and each other safe over an entire year." says Chris Leese, Vice President Readymix & Mortars and Chairman of the Mineral Products Association Health and Safety Committee.

Special internal recognition has come for the Readymix Central Region which won the national Safety Award. The region clearly illustrates the composition of the readymix business with 97% of its 95 plants in the region, single man operations spread over a very wide geographic area. Over one year the business delivers to approx 17,000 sites using a fleet of independent hauliers.

"It is a significant challenge to influence health and safety across this type of business and this internal award is a testimony to the commitment of my team to make accidents and injuries, hopefully a thing of the past" comments Central Region Director, Marcus Rappensberger.

The Central team was presented with Safety Sword, the trophy of the Safety Award, this week by Country President, Jesus Gonzalez. The sword has been awarded on an annual basis since 1966 in recognition of the best overall health and safety performance by a business unit and is given for not only the health and safety record, but other health and safety aspects such as training and induction courses, campaigns around high risk trends and sharing of best practice.

Externally, RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents), an accident prevention charity, awarded CEMEX UK 12 awards including Business Sector award for Readymix Southern and Sector Commendations for Aggregates Southern and Logisticst at this year's Occupational Health and Safety Awards. The awards look not only at accident records but the entrants health and safety management systems.

David Rawlins, RoSPA's Award Manager said "RoSPA firmly believes that organisations that have demonstrated their commitment to continuous improvement in accident and ill health prevention deserve recognition. CEMEX UK Operations has shown that it is committed to striving for such continuous improvement and we are delighted to honour it with the presentation of these awards.

Commenting further Chris Leese said "Clearly everyone in CEMEX Readymix has much to celebrate in terms of progress in Health and Safety. That said, it is a fact that incidents happen in the future not the past and we are determined to avoid any question of complacency. We must remain aware that serious incidents with the potential to cause harm continue to occur and so we should stay alert, deal with hazards, look after our colleagues and be determined in our leadership. In that way we will achieve zero harm."

One of the main factors influencing all these achievements is CEMEX's Visible Felt Leadership (VFL) programme which encourages senior management, supervisors and managers to look at all aspects of health and safety on the sites and colleagues for whom they are responsible.

The programme is focussed on improving safety behaviours through observation and discussion, plus a series of workshops, initiated in 2009, which focus on line management safety leadership skills. Unannounced site visits to observe safety behaviours and discuss safety with the workforce form part of the programme. In 2010 managers and supervisors across the operations made 4953 VFL site visits.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

• For further information and photographs contact Elizabeth Young t. 01932 583214 e. Elizabeth.young@cemex.com
• An LTI is a work-related injury causing the absence of one or more working days (or shifts), counting from the day after the injury, before the person returns to normal or restricted work
• CEMEX is a global building solutions company and leading supplier of cement, ready-mixed concrete and aggregates. In the UK, CEMEX also produces asphalt, and has a significant share of the roof tile, concrete-block paving, and concrete block sectors. Additionally, the company is the leading supplier of concrete sleepers to the rail industry and a supplier of PFA cement additives. CEMEX has a national supply network in the UK with over 450 locations, to ensure that quality building materials are available to customers locally. For more information, see www.CEMEX.co.uk, www.CEMEX.com