Safety for employees and customers

Epidemic health and safety policy provides safety for employees and customers at Joseph Ash Galvanizing.

Since the Coronavirus pandemic began to affect us in the UK, Joseph Ash Galvanizing and Premier Galvanizing plants have remained opened. This is because it’s critical to maintain operations for essential service companies who rely on us as part of their supply chain.

As we are open, we have written and implemented a new epidemic health and safety policy with the goal of keeping our employees – and any customers and suppliers who visit our site – safe and well. You can read the new policy here.

Health and safety has always been of paramount importance to Joseph Ash Galvanizing and Premier Galvanizing, and it’s something we’ve been recognised for year-on-year with many RoSPA awards. Therefore the epidemic policy is very important to us. If you are a customer or a supplier who needs to visit one of our plants, or meet with one of our operatives or delivery drivers, we hope you find this new policy useful and comforting as it demonstrates we are doing everything we can to keep our plants safe.

Please get in touch with our Health and Safety Manager – Chris Gibson – should you have any questions or concerns.

COVID-19 – An update from Steven Hopkins, Group MD.

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Partners,

On Monday evening the Government issued stringent guidelines about the need for everyone to stay at home, including a request for employees to work from home unless it’s impossible to do so. Following the broadcast, many businesses – who cannot operate from home – temporarily closed until such time as the rules are relaxed.

After the announcement, the Joseph Ash Group (including Joseph Ash Galvanizing and Premier Galvanizing) took the decision to keep our plants open. This is because it is critical to maintain operations for the companies carrying out essential services, who rely on us as part of their supply chain.

For example, in the last few days and over the next few weeks we have the following steelwork booked into our plants:

Motorway barriers and road infrastructure components
Food manufacturing walkways
Steelwork for the temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital (Excel Centre), other medical buildings and sadly a temporary morgue
Gas mains, sewage works and oil pumping components
Clinical waste bins and trucks
Security fencing and security bollards
Works we are undertaking on Project Mensa which is critical to maintaining the country’s nuclear defence capability, as we are the UK’s only ‘Fit for Nuclear’ approved galvanizing company.

The safety of our team members and customers is our top priority, therefore please be assured that whilst we are operating, we are adhering to the Government’s strict and necessary guidelines about social distancing and hygiene.

To minimise the numbers of people at the plants, all team members who are able to work from home are doing so, and they have been equipped with the necessary IT and communications tools to allow them to work remotely.

If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch.

We hope you and your friends, families and colleagues keep safe and well during this difficult time.

Steven Hopkins
Managing Director
Joseph Ash Group

Dear Friends, Customers, Colleagues and Partners,

As the news about COVID-19 develops day-by-day and we’re having to adapt our work and home lives I thought I’d share an update about Joseph Ash Galvanizing and Premier Galvanizing.

The good news is… it’s business-as-usual (mostly).

So far our workforce of 570-odd people has been relatively unaffected, with no-one ill yet. This is great news, but maybe I should be touching wood, as realistically (and sadly), we’re likely to see some sickness soon.

Because everyone’s health and safety is our primary concern and we want to do our bit to limit the spread of the virus, we have made some changes to the way we work. These are outlined below:

Under normal circumstances, we’re a company that likes to visit customers. It is not appropriate for us to do this right now however, so we’ll be keeping in touch with you via telephone and email. The only times we’ll visit is when we collect and deliver steel, or at your specific request – for example if you need some advice about venting. During these meetings our team members will respectfully not shake hands, they’ll decline drinks, they’ll maximise personal space, and they’ll minimise contact with surfaces and equipment, whilst getting the job done quickly and efficiently.
We’re also following these procedures internally as well by keeping visits between our nine sites to a mimimum. We’re also conducting meetings by Skype and Facetime to avoid gatherings. And when we must gather, hand gel is used, maximum space between everyone is encouraged, we’re not touching each other’s possessions and we’re not sharing food. This applies in our mess rooms as much as our offices. Everyone has also stopped shaking hands.
We have doubled our efforts on hygiene by deep cleaning the kitchens and toilets to prevent opportunities for germs/bacteria to settle and breed. All cloth towels and tea towels have been replaced by disposable paper ones and we’ve been lucky enough to secure a large amount of anti-bacterial wipes for all divisions. We’ve also distributed 62 wall-mounted automatic sanitiser units to all plants, and supplied all team members with individual pocket-sized hand sanitiser bottles. (Lovingly filled and distributed by some of our team members at Head Office.)

In terms of travel and transport, all business flights have been banned, and car sharing is being avoided where possible. Procedures have also been put in place for receiving goods and dealing with visitors safely.
To maintain smooth operations, we’ve ordered a tad more zinc in case of supply difficulties, we’ve arranged kettle maintenance back-up, and we’ve ordered a supply of laptops for those who have to self-isolate and work from home.
Finally, and most importantly… we’ve sent our pregnant ladies home!

So, all in all, I think we are in a good place to ride out the storm, and continue to provide you with a great service and the best metal finishing quality available in the UK. We want to do our bit to keep the economy moving and we don’t believe that any plant closure will become necessary. No doubt we will have our share of temporary absences but, logically, our capacity is likely to flex similarly to that of our customers.

If you have any concerns – or if you fancy someone new to talk to during periods of self-isolation – please get in touch.

In the meantime, we wish you and your families a quick recovery from whatever Nature throws at you.

Kindest regards,

Steven Hopkins

Joseph Ash Group MD

All hands to the pump. Joseph Ash Galvanising staff distributing hand sanitiser.

Team members at head office doing their bit to help fight Covid-19.

It’s been all hands to the pump at Joseph Ash Galvanizing today as team members from Head Office have been racing to fill bottles with alcohol hand sanitiser. The pocket-sized bottles will be distributed to all members of staff in our offices and at the plants in a bid to try and keep everyone as safe as possible from the Coronavirus.

In the photo you can see Trish Facer (left) and Wilma Da Fonseca (right) from our accounts department filling and closing the bottles. We’re not quite sure how many they have bottled yet, but they are getting through a fair few!

Good job!

As health and safety are of paramount importance at Joseph Ash Galvanizing and Premier Galvanizing, we want our plants to be safe for all drivers who drop off and collect loads. With this in mind, we recently produced ‘Safe deliveries’ posters for our customers.

The poster reminds all drivers who enter/leave our plants to ensure their goods and materials are loaded safely and correctly on their trucks. It has lots of useful tips and advice on how to load and unload correctly.

The posters are being printed and we aim to post hard copies to customers before Christmas. If you’d like to download an electronic copy so that you can read the safety advice today click here, or call your usual contact number to request a poster.

We’re pleased to announce that Joseph Ash Galvanizing’s Medway plant has again met the bronze level requirements of the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme.

Medway’s accreditation with FORS has just been renewed.

The Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) is a voluntary scheme that covers all aspects of vehicle emissions, fuel efficiency, economical operations and safety.

It provides peace of mind to vehicle operators that legislative requirements are being met. It also enables vehicle operators to know they are helping to increase efficiency, win work, and reduce costs.

Finally, it enables operators to know they are becoming safer and greener.

Thank you to the FORS team for assessing us. Thank you also to the team at Joseph Ash Medway who worked hard to receive the award.

Walsall, Bilston, Chesterfield and Telford OHSAS membership renewals.

OHSAS is an International Standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems. As stated by the British Assessment Bureau (the awarding body) “It provides a framework for the effective management of OH&S including all aspects of risk management and legal compliance. It addresses occupational health and safety rather than any specific product safety matters.”

OHSAS 18001 is important for the following reasons:

It reduces workplace hazards and boosts employee morale
It provides a safe environment in which to conduct operations and business
It is a framework for an occupational health and safety management system
It minimises the risk of production delays.

A number of Joseph Ash Galvanizing plants were awarded OHSAS in 2015 (Bilston, Chesterfield, Telford and Walsall), and we are pleased to say that membership has just been renewed.

Well done to the teams at Bilston, Walsall, Telford and Chesterfield for this achievement!

Watch this space for OHSAS 18001 at the remaining Joseph Ash Galvanizing plants.

Safety culture at Joseph Ash leads to machinery innovations

As a five-time winner of the RoSPA Gold Award for health and safety in the workplace, Joseph Ash Galvanizing is always looking at ways to protect employees, customers and visitors to our plants. A recent health and safety initiative that we are proud of involves a new crane invention.

Osmond Crosdale is our Maintenance Manager at Joseph Ash Galvanizing, who has been working with the Walsall maintenance team to develop a new motorised crane hook safety catch system, with the aim of preventing accidental hook detachment in slack rope situations.

The team have designed and launched a wireless system which is integrated into an automated process (thus eliminating human elements), which automatically closes prior to the picking up of a load carrier (or jig) and opens only when ready for unhooking in a safe manner as prescribed by the automated sequencing.

A short video of the crane hook safety catch system can be seen on our YouTube channel.

This is a perfect example of a creative solution with safety at its core, and it is a great achievement by Joseph Ash Walsall.

We look forward to carrying this initiative through to our other plants in due course.

Joseph Ash Galvanizing and the RoSPA Gold Medal Award

Joseph Ash Galvanizing has been handed a prestigious award – the internationally-renowned RoSPA Health and Safety Awards, the longest-running industry awards scheme in the UK – in recognition of our practices and achievements in helping our employees get home safely at the end of the working day.

We have won the Gold five years in a row (from 2014-2018) and we’ll be presented with the award during a ceremony at Hilton Birmingham Metropole hotel on Thursday, July 5, 2018.

The RoSPA Awards scheme, which receives entries from organisations around the world, recognises achievement in health and safety management systems, including practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.

Mick Jackson, IT and Marketing Manager at Joseph Ash Galvanizing said: “Promoting health and safety and the prevention of accidents at work, at leisure, and on the road is a prime concern for Joseph Ash Galvanizing, so it’s great to win this award five years in a row. We are pleased to be continually recognised for our efforts.”

Julia Small, RoSPA’s head of qualifications, awards and events, said: “The RoSPA Awards are the most highly-respected in the health and safety arena, with almost 2,000 entrants every year, and allow organisations to prove excellence in the workplace, demonstrating a commitment to the wellbeing of not only employees but all those who interact with it.”

The majority of awards are non-competitive and mark achievement at merit, bronze, silver and gold levels. Gold medals, president’s awards, orders of distinction and the Patron’s Award are presented to organisations sustaining the high standards of the gold level over consecutive years.

Competitive awards go to the best entries in 24 industry sectors including construction, healthcare, transport and logistics, engineering, manufacturing and education.

There are specialist awards for health at work, environmental management and fleet safety, and excellence trophies for the best international, new entry, workforce involvement and organisation operating or based in Scotland. RoSPA’s top accolade is the Sir George Earle Trophy.

Headline sponsor of the RoSPA Awards 2018 is NEBOSH – the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health – for the 13th consecutive year.

Click here for more information about the RoSPA Awards.

Last year 16 LGV drivers at Joseph Ash Galvanizing undertook a seven-hour SAFED course as part of their continuous Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (DCPC) training*.

SAFED – otherwise known as ‘Safe and Fuel Efficient Driving’ – is a driver development course (held in cab and in the classroom) with the aim of improving the safe and fuel efficient driving skills of LGV drivers.

Training can include the better use of gears to avoid over-revving and the unnecessary use of gear changes, as well as an overall awareness of fuel economy, and the minimisation of hard-breaking.

It is an important course which results in less accidents on the road (to people and vehicles), lower fuel costs, and less downtime for vehicles that would otherwise need to be repaired more frequently.

SAFED is also an important course for the environment, as it results in reduced emissions. In fact, since the 16 Joseph Ash LGV drivers completed their course, we are pleased to report that CO2 emissions from the Joseph Ash fleet of 21 trucks, was reduced at year end by 66.8 tonnes.

This is great news.

Joseph Ash Galvanizing has SAFED drivers, DCPC drivers, and now greener drivers.

*DCPC is also known as CPC or Driver CPC and stands for Driver Certificate of Professional Competence. Legislation was introduced into the UK in September 2009 and all professional LGV drivers must hold their DCPC in addition to their vocational driving licence. All LGV drivers who undertake DCPC will hold a Driver Qualification Card (DQC) which is very similar to the Driving Licence card and proves the driver has completed his/her training. All drivers must complete at least 35 hours of DCPC every five years on a continuous basis – this is typically split into five courses that run for seven hours at a time, so on average drivers receive training once a year. The SAFED course counts as part of continuous DCPC training.

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