Construction Safety Week got off to a thoroughly social start and culminated successfully with dozens of purposeful events taking place across the country. Throughout the month of October companies around Ireland said a resounding yes to promoting health and safety in the industry.
Safety Week, an initiative of the Federation’s Safety and Health Subcommittee, is a national awareness campaign that endorses positive safety and health amongst the more than 159,000 workers, clients and stakeholders in the construction sector. This year also saw the launch of a new CIF social media channel aimed at engaging with the next generation of construction talent.
‘Build it and they will come’ has been ringing true for the @cif_Ireland channel on TikTok, which has racked up over one million views to date. Established by CIF Director of Communications Meabh Smith as part of a wider social media strategy, a series of videos were produced to deliver what is a very serious message on industry safety but in a light-hearted and engaging way.
WhatsApp groups to toolbox talks
Scores of CIF member companies also planned various special events and gatherings in the name of health, safety and well-being. O’Connor Sutton Cronin focused their attention on in-house talks, First Aid and defibrillator training, while at Sorensen Civil Engineering toolbox talks took centre stage on each of Safety Week’s key topics including Safe Access & Egress, Safe Working at Height, Safe Control of Hazardous Energies, Safety by Example and Safe Use of Mobile Equipment.
This year the Lighthouse Club also took its Help Inside the Hard Hat campaign to sites around Ireland to raise awareness of the importance of the overall wellbeing of industry personnel.
Also on a site tour at Elliott Group was GAA star Oisín McConville who carried out a series of talks, while Kenaidan Contractors Ltd set up a #CIFSafety22 WhatsApp group so that all CIF communications were shared instantly amongst its team.
Shay Murtagh emphasised safety workshops, while Alpha Mechanical Services set up nurse stations on site to give health-checks to employees, subcontractors and main contractors. A school visit, mental health tea and coffee morning and emergency scenario drills were the order of the day at CField CS Ltd.
While at BAM Ireland, industry experts delivered training and awareness programmes at 58 locations in the run up to its annual Safety and Wellbeing Day. This year’s event had a theme of ‘Take 5’ and focused on five ways towards positive mental health.
Congratulations and thank you to all those who took part in Construction Safety Week 2022.
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