Health & Safety on a fiber project in Africa

SAFARICOM DIGITAL CITY

H&S UPDATE

Local subcontractor and H&S

•Europeans have established H&S practices in place •African Telecoms, before the mobile boom, was built by European vendors •Employers of the European vendors, held responsibility for their employees sent to Africa

•Then it changed: African mobile boom opened the market for local subcontractors across the whole continent •The local subcontractors did not have the strong H&S policies the European vendors do •Once foreign investment came to mobile operations, such as Vodafone, they bring along

the strong policies they have at home

Insurance and H&S •Employers are legally obliged to get insurance for employees, interns and Contractors. (Yes, Safaricom

pays mine)

•Staff member attempt to claim workplace accident compensation.

•Or try finding a physical problem not to work.

•The famous “I have a pain in the back. Can’t do physical work”.

•I came to Africa in May 1983 since the Germans from Siemens had too much pain in their backs to work in

Africa.

•Need to know a bit of how insurance works.

•Cost of insurance is high if claims and risks are high.

•An example: My car is parked in a garage I pay less insurance

•To lower the cost of employees’ mandatory insurance, companies must show they enforce H&S

•Else, employees happily throw themselves against electric poles, drinking and driving, fall from

towers, kill pedestrians and themselves in the process

Accidents and management image •Accidents damage companies’ reputations and its top

management image

Transport Minister Amos Kimunya

Make people look good

Obama

Brad Pitt

Hale Berry

Denzel Washington

No

Casualties?

Wasting hours and H&S •Employees get paid to work

•Accidents cause missing hours

SOURCE: http://www.vodafone.com/content/sustainability/operating_responsibly/health_and_safety/data.html

Vodafone Group Performance Data

• Look at the data and ask a question

• Get an insight useful for the business

SOURCE: http://www.vodafone.com/content/sustainability/operating_responsibly/health_and_safety/data.html

Biggest contributor is India

Look to everything with a H&S angle

•Safaricom Digital City is making microwave obsolete

•Microwave will be relegate to the fringes of the network

•Less microwave=Less Outdoor work on top of the tower installing

and directing antennas.

•No Corrective Maintenance done at heights

•Less time on the road running to troubleshoot microwave links

•Fiber does not kill. Road kills

• From 3 Contracted Regional Managers for the other cities: • 2 (per independent Assessment) did not know how to drive

and have to go back to driving school

What % of these road accidents could have been related

to running to troubleshoot a Microwave link or power?

6 Absolute Rules

•‘6 Absolute Rules for health and safety’ worldwide, which aim to reduce

accidents and incidents across the entire range of its operations. These 6 rules are mandatory for all employees and associates, and the company will not accept any breach of these rules. • •Mandatory use of Personal Protective Equipment. •Avoidance of work with electricity by colleagues and associates who are not

certified and suitable for that work. •Prohibition of work while drunk or under the influence of prohibited substances. •Mandatory use of seat belts when driving. •Prohibition of the use of mobile phones when driving.

•Prohibition on speeding while driving.

The Vodafone Group wants casualties to go down

Developing Countries under the microscope

•In a developed country the state is the H&S enforcing party, in Africa is the company

In a developing country it is Vodafone’s affiliated that have to enforce the “6 Absolute Rules” ‘6 Absolute Rules for health and safety’ applied worldwide, •Applies to contractors, hence we have to enforce into vendors •Yes, the vendors that employ the local subcontractors

•Applies to personal life (I chill at home in this long high traffic holiday) •The CTO’s of Vodafone operations are on the hook for the application of the rules •Thus Thibaud is the numero uno enforcer here at Safaricom

•Fiber is new to the Vodafone Group. •They have built only in Ghana but that for a fixed line operations it bought there. •Fiber works is an add on to the 6 Absolute Rules

•Thus we need to teach the Vodafone Group about H&S as Fiber building in Africa is concerned.

Three strikes and you are out.

I went to the ball!

Two yellow cards as warning

A red means you cannot defend your

behavior

And are out

This Damaris Kimani is tough!

The modern construction worker is a machine operator

Heat dissipation by oil and water in a internal combustion engine

In Kenya construction is built by hand

Heat dissipation is by the surrounding air

Try to see a crane in the landscape

Needs adaptation

Like proper working clothing

The workers could not wear the outfit used in Nairobi

Soliton is purchasing New high visibility outfits

Cotton with reflective strips

Light weight and does not require vest for more comfort

Soliton adapts after yellow card

New Red High Visibility clothing

New High visibility clothing

Red is not a color on the Mombasa environment

Original low visibility clothing

Original Blue with orange vest

Only vest for heat dissipation

Mombasa Spot Check

Loose Kaki colored

clothes and vest for

visibility

To deal with the heat

How did we perform here?

•All incidents and near misses, are reported to Thibaud and Shaka

• 780Km completed and some 450 work in progress.

•Built by hand work right at the curb of main thoroughfares

•Zero casualties

•Today in Nairobi we witness other builders, for other businesses, employing some

of the H&S measures we applied to SDC

•This H&S success here will be a bullet point in my CV and I would ask Safaricom for

a reference letter for my next employer

My next investigation

I was a member of CIPA in 1972

What is CIPA?

The Internal Commission for Accident Prevention (CIPA in Portuguese) is,

under Brazilian law, a committee composed of representatives appointed by

the employer and members elected by workers, equally in each property of

the company, which aims to prevent accidents and diseases stemming from

work in order to make it compatible permanently working with the

preservation of life and health promotion of the worker