Enforcing Health and Safety in an African Fiber Optics project

1. Health & Safety on a fiber project in Africa
SAFARICOM DIGITAL CITY
H&S UPDATE

2. 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

3. 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

4. Accidents and management image
•Accidents damage companies’ reputations and its top
management image
Transport Minister Amos Kimunya

5. Make people look good
Obama
Brad Pitt
Hale Berry
Denzel Washington
No
Casualties?

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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?

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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!

12. 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

13. New Red High Visibility clothing
New High visibility clothing
Red is not a color on the Mombasa environment

14. Original low visibility clothing
Original Blue with orange vest
Only vest for heat dissipation

15. Mombasa Spot Check
Loose Kaki colored
clothes and vest for
visibility
To deal with the heat

16. 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

17. My next investigation

18. 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