"The safety, health and well-being of Form Ghana's employees and contractors are not negotiable," says Willem Fourie, the CEO. The company's Health and Safety Policy forms a significant component of employee induction, and safe work practices are underscored by Toolbox Talks every morning and a stringent skills training and refresher course system.

Form Ghana's management team proactively identifies health risks beyond on-the-job safety that could harm the company's operations and cause reputational harm to their employees and their families.

Food hygiene interventions

Food and water contamination could make employees ill, causing absenteeism, and, in extreme cases, could be fatal. Recently, the District Environmental Health Officers and Form Ghana's health team jointly inspected the food preparation premises of food vendors who sell and handle food on-site.

Form Ghana's Occupational Health and Safety Officer, Site Nurses and Health and Safety Assistants educated the food handlers and sellers about hygiene, safety and ways to control and prevent food contamination and cross infections.

Personal hygiene programme

As part of the preventative measures, the chemical sprayers, manual weeding teams, monitoring teams, engineering workshop staff, stores, janitors, and management staff were trained on personal hygiene infield and at the mustering site. This education aimed to address ill-health cases linked to hygiene as a risk factor.

Hand tools safety

The weeding team was trained to maintain their hand tools and ergonomics and safe techniques for slashing saplings/ shrubs and other problematic weeds.

Vehicle maintenance training

Form Ghana's drivers are exposed to extreme hazards in a country with poorly maintained roads, dangerous road users, cyclists, motorcycles, animals and pedestrians. They regularly attend training in risk assessment and defensive driving techniques in various conditions. The drivers were recently trained on the importance of tyre inspections and safety when changing a tyre.