Innovation

Tata Steel embarked on its formal safety excellence journey in 2004 and since then, has made significant progress in its drive towards becoming a leader in industrial safety. The Group's Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate for Financial Year 2011-12 was 0.68, an improvement of 14% over last year.

Process safety has been a constant focus for all high hazard facilities (HHF) in Tata Steel since 2008, when dedicated teams were put in place. They have identified high hazard facilities across the European operations, and are now carrying out process hazard reviews. Work is going on to determine the required safety integrity level with respect to identified safety critical systems.

Inspiration

Historically, steel making was a dangerous process and accidents were inevitable. Today, many steel companies recognize that this is no longer appropriate for a modern and technically advanced industry. Safety and health requires a permanent 100% commitment from everyone. Most importantly, it requires a strong commitment from top management and all levels of managements, which should set the culture in which safety and health is the number one priority and must not be compromised for any other objective. As mentioned by Mr. Satish Kumar Tiwary, the steel industry is hazardous and there are both different and difficult activities to be performed by the employees. Most of the working spaces involve height, high temperature, or confined spaces. To ensure good health, regular medical check-ups are taking place, also the frequency of the check-ups depends on the age of the employees, Higher the age, frequent the check-ups. In addition to this, these check-ups and medical facilities related to treatment are provided free of cost by the company.

Overall impact

Some of the daily occupational practices include:

• Providing chilled air and cool water to Employees working in hot environment.
• Serving Energy drinks and Glucose to employees.
• Providing Dust Masks and Air conditioned spaces.
• Checking and ensuring the Dust levels within acceptable limits.
• Providing safety equipment relevant to the job (helmets, glasses etc.).
• Conducting Yoga classes and sports activities on a regular basis to encourage a healthy lifestyle.
• Ensuring free medical facilities and specialized medical services.

Business benefit

“At Tata Steel, people come first, and employees are our Asset, if employees are healthy, productivity will automatically increase, also we welcome the suggestions of employees”, said Mr. Satish Kumar Tiwary. The company believes that the primary purpose of a business is to improve quality of life of people.

An initiative on employee engagement has been undertaken for white-collared employees at Tata Steel in partnership with Aon Hewitt to measure the current levels of engagement of officers in India.

Social and environmental benefit

• The overall employee engagement score of Tata Steel is 67 percent.
• Compared to industry benchmarks — the metals, mining, and manufacturing (India and global) sectors — Tata Steel exceeds the average scores and should now strive to be in the top quartile of the industry.
• The employees of Tata Steel believe that its core strengths are its value system and ethics, its strong brand, its commitment to promises made, and the respect among co-workers, which helps create a positive work environment.

Interview

Mr. Satish Kumar Tiwary, Chief Mechanical Officer