Sidel awarded accreditation for health & safety excellence

Sidel has received its fifth consecutive award for excellence in the management of health & safety practices in its activities. The accreditation comes from SAFEcontractor, the leading third-party accreditation scheme, which is used by many large organizations as a means of sourcing a competent contractor. It has acknowledged the activities and practices of Sidel’s employees as they carry out their duties in line with the company’s health, safety and environment group procedures on customers’ sites.

“Our intention is to pursue the highest standards and the safest working practices in everything that we do as an organization,” said Stéphane Aymonier, Corporate HS&E Director at Sidel. “To successfully achieve accreditation for yet another year is very satisfying. With a large number of highly experienced engineers working at sites other than our own, this shows that our efforts to minimize the risks to our staff, to our customers and to the public are proving very effective.”

Minimizing risk of accidents

Under the SAFEcontractor scheme, organizations undergo a screening process to examine the health & safety procedures put in place and effectively carried out – as well as their track record for safe working. The aim is to determine whether good standards of safety are followed in performing all aspects of the work undertaken and, in doing so, minimizing the risk of accidents.

Safety audits and other relevant procedures are undertaken on all sites and those people designated to carry out work on the company’s behalf require good knowledge and understanding of health & safety practices.

Health and safety throughout global operations

Sidel has nearly 3500 employees worldwide. At its own sites around the globe, it employs health & safety professionals who provide daily competence advice to staff and the company also uses the support of proven specialists from external organizations. Employees undergo a training program giving them a good working knowledge of health and safety at a workstation. Field service engineers receive a training focus on all risks that they could face on customer sites. Guidelines give instruction regarding manual handling risk, working at height and other risks, along with PPE (personal protective equipment) and other safety equipment. In addition to providing health & safety training for its own employees, helping to ensure on-site safety for all, Sidel will also carry out training of customers’ staff at their own facilities if required.