Page 952 - Xmo Strata - Bulletin Archive

Health, Safety & Environmental Bulletin No 350

04 April 2013

Assault by Customer

Please see enclosed self-explanatory bulletin that was shared with us by ABB.

We commissioned an external agency to run a course for all our site operatives in 2011 about “dealing
with difficult people” and have attached the bullet points from the training as a reminder of some of the
most important elements of that course.

We encourage all our teams to make a positive intervention if they witness any unsafe behaviour,
however, some people can become abusive or aggressive when approached. There are techniques that
can be used to reduce the risk of a conflict:

• Never confront someone in front of others; the person may get defensive which could lead to
confrontation or aggression.

• Approach the person in a calm manner, never raise your voice and take them out of earshot
of others.

• Instead of accusing someone of breaking rules or working dangerously, express concern
about their welfare and say that you are worried that they might get hurt. This is far more
likely to be received well.

• If you approach someone in a concerned and caring way, the risk of violence should be nil -
if violence is threatened or the person becomes hostile, back away and weigh up the risk of
the unsafe act against the risk of confrontation.

•

Since we implemented our XmoMan Management Information System in 2004, we have addressed
more than 590 hazards and mitigated the risk at source, have made more than 240 positive interventions
and made the decision not to intervene at site level in 39 recorded cases.

Please keep up the excellent focus that we have on preventing incidents and accidents, but NEVER put
yourself at risk in doing so.

The routine decisions we make on a daily basis are often more as a force of habit than something we spend time
thinking about – looking before we cross the road, moving out of the way of falling objects etc. But what about
decisions that are just as important as these that we may think about, but choose to ignore – like seeing
someone doing something unsafe, or not eliminating a simple hazard when we spot it? These decisions are just
as important, and we want these to become just as instinctive as crossing the road. Please visit YouTube and
type ‘Xmo Strata reverse thinking’ into the search box – let’s make each decision count this year!