Maximising the safety level in working environment in every project is always the top priority of ATAL. We are honoured to receive four prizes under Construction Industry Safety Award Scheme 2016/2017, which is organised by The Labour Department. All these are recognition and encouragement to ATAL in the area of Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS).

After going through a series of assessment comprising physical site assessment, document review and interview conducted by the Labour Department, the Occupational Safety and Health Council and other co-organisers; we took home 4 prizes in total, including Silver Prize in Civil Engineering Site category for Stonecutter Island Sewage Treatment Works Project; Bronze Prize in Building Site – Sub-contractors category for Taikoo 2A Redevelopment Project; Meritorious Prize in Civil Engineering Site – Sub-contractor category for Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macao Bridge Project. For Stonecutter Island Sewage Treatment Works Project, we also won the Silver Prize in Safety Team.

ATAL places great importance on safety and health. We target to achieve zero reportable accident in our job sites. Our EHS team has built up a sound safety organisational hierarchy to support the project teams to implement and promote EHS at work. Combining with regular training of sub-contractors and workers, the projects are able to comply with the standard of the EHS management system and most importantly, raise the safety awareness of frontline staff at all levels in order to mitigate the risks.

“The awards recognise our high level of safety performance and all the effort contributed by everyone in the project teams.  From top management to frontline workers, we demonstrated commitment in work safety. Through our collaboratively effort, the safety awareness can be enhanced among our staff and even the entire industry,” says Ir Dr. Sammy Wan, Manager – Quality, Safety & Environment. He also added that the pre-work safety planning and prior coordination at the outset of the project and various safety initiatives we made are vital.

Inspecting project site carefully and reminding the workers to follow the safety rules and regulations are important. In addition, ATAL pays attention to communication with staff and safety culture promotion. “I believed that safety control needs collective effort. We exchange ideas with frontline workers and take their advice on safety improvement, which helps us to enhance the work procedures and the safety management system effectively on a weekly basis,” says Mr. Chiu Kin Keung, Site Supervisor of Taikoo 2A Redevelopment Project. Every day, he will reach the site 30 minutes before site work starts to ensure all facilities are up to standard.

ATAL strives to do the best to prevent any hazards. For instance, ATAL Spark Protection Screen is being used for providing shielding to confine the fire spark. Meanwhile, well-designed safety promotion posters are displayed on the Screens for educating staff to prevent fire hazard and the proper hot work operation, and warning signs are posted for keeping people away from the area and hot work permit is put on the screen to certify the worker’s qualification. Moreover, fire extinguisher is placed nearby in case any accident caused.

We will uphold the “Safety First” attitude in every project and pledge to prevent the accident in advance. ATAL will continuously develop various safety promotion initiatives and keep monitoring the safety performance closely. ATAL is willing to take lead in promoting the “Zero Accident” culture in the industry.