No compromises when it comes to safety

The last year has been exceptionally busy for Procudan’s warehouse team.

An uncertain market and irregular deliveries have meant that our goods inventory was at times piled all the way up to the ceiling.

This has meant that our warehouse workers had to be extra careful; not only when busy filling shelves, but also when it came to being just as busy emptying them again.

And they performed both tasks well, especially because even despite all this activity there have been no workplace accidents, or even any “near misses”.

Room for fun and for safety

On Friday, it was a year since the last workplace accident at Procudan. And even though this was, in its way, a “sad” anniversary, it was still “celebrated” by the warehouse team.

Team leader Bo Lystlund had even baked a chocolate cake, which was immediately cited as a potential workplace hazard because of the risk of food poisoning.

This was just a joke, of course. But it is a good example of the culture that exists within the team. There is room for fun and there is room to talk about safety.

- We don't sweep anything under the carpet. On the contrary, we are probably a bit “stiff” when it comes to our insistence upon following guidelines. This can otherwise be a challenge in a workplace during busy periods, but we stick to our guns, explains Bo Lystlund.

Taking responsibility for each other

He points to health and safety representative Mirsad Duric as a person who is very attentive when it comes to ensuring that our workplace health and safety policy is followed.

Mirsad Duric has been at Procudan since 2015, and he thinks that 2022 has been the busiest year to date. He points out that there is a strong common understanding that safety comes first.

- We are good at backing each other up – and we remind each other how important it is to be safe. Coming home from work with an injury is in nobody’s best interests, he says.

His colleague Martin Dan Larsen backs him up.

- I am in complete agreement with Mirsad. We are good at taking responsibility for ensuring that nothing falls between the gaps. We talk things through and get to grips with any loose ends, he says.

The accident could have been avoided

Although 365 days may seem like a long time with no accidents or near misses, a year is perhaps not such a long time after all when you have such a keen focus on workplace health and safety.

Friday was therefore also a good opportunity to remind each other to continue to pay attention.

The accident that happened a year ago was the result of some unusual circumstances. It happened because a newly-laid pedestrian crossing was very slippery on a freezing cold day, and one of our colleagues was unlucky enough to slip on it.

The white stripes were subsequently coated with a non-slip material to prevent the same accident from ever happening again. But ideally, we would have had the coating applied before anyone got hurt.

Previously, more than three years have passed between workplace accidents at Procudan's warehouse and production. Our teams want to not only match that, but to improve on it.

And this is why a continued focus on safety is so important, even when things are going well.