Excel in safety and health at work

Clarebout has been working hard for quite some time now on a safe & healthy workplace for its employees. We are now moving up a notch. It was decided in the middle of last year to achieve the latest worldwide ISO 45001 standard with regards to safety & health at work. As a result, the company will meet with the highest standards of safety & health at work.

The guidelines for this new standard, ISO 45001, were published in March 2018 and after a preparation phase within the company, the certification procedure started in the summer of 2018. This applies to both the production unit in Nieuwkerke and the one in Waasten. Clarebout hereby gives a strong signal: working safely and healthily is a priority everywhere and for everyone, both in the short and long term. Clarebout would like to be one of the first in its sector to achieve this international standard worldwide.

ISO 45001 is a new, internationally recognized standard that has been developed for the continuous improvement of safety and health at work. The guideline provides a strong framework in this regard and enables organizations to further develop and control safety policy in an excellent manner.

Organizations that base their health and welfare policy on the ISO 45001 will, according to the organization that developed the standards, make further improvements in various areas, including:

• To further develop and implement a policy and objectives regarding safety & welfare at work
• To further identify hazards and risks associated with the activities; endeavour to eliminate or control them in order to minimize their potential effects
• To organize operational controls to seamlessly manage risks, legal and other requirements
• To systematically evaluate the progress regarding safety & health at work and to continuously look for improvements
• To increase the alertness of all employees with regards to risks related to welfare and safety
• To guarantee that employees play an active role in the entire safety & health policy.

Everyone is involved within the company. Employees have already been well-informed and this month new training courses are starting and a major awareness campaign on safety at work has been launched. The efforts will be evaluated regularly via internal and external audits.

The objective is to achieve the standard for both production units officially in March 2020.