Our Health & Safety Commitment

Our core values are built around prioritising our employees and stakeholders’ physical and mental well-being. By retaining a continuous focus on improving process safety, we are confident that we will be able to meet our goal of building a sustainable future by creating a ‘Zero Incident’ safety culture at the workplace.

To achieve zero preventable harm, we regularly review manufacturing practices to ensure there are no fatalities or incidents. We believe that building a strong social connection with our employees and contractors is essential to create a happy and fulfilled workforce. During the pandemic, we stood by our people and the nation, by envisaging a pragmatic approach of running our factories and offices that prioritised health and safety.

We continue to exemplify the significance of health and safety at the workplace, and strive to create a safe and holistic environment for our people to work in with the utmost commitment towards our operational thinking. Our efforts resulted in the number of safety incidents at Dalmia Bharat falling to an all-time low as we remain vigilant and work relentlessly to meet our ‘Zero Incident’ objective.

Our organisation’s mantra for the new normal is ‘RE-start, RE-shape and RE-imagine.’ We see this approach as a clarion call towards ensuring preventive measures backed by a forward-thinking outlook. This has enabled us to not only work with empathy and compassion but also empower our people towards taking responsible and shared action to meet our overarching organisational goals.

We have been able to progress towards achieving our zero-fatality target for both the direct and indirect workforce, owing to the collective and continuous efforts of both our employees and the management.

Safety key performance indicators

We believe that a safe and healthy workplace not only protects workers from injury and illness but can also lower injury and illness costs, reduce absenteeism, increase productivity and quality, and raise employee morale. It also helps to improve corporate reputation thereby making it a great place to work.

We know that better safety equates to better health. Healthier employees can complete tasks more efficiently. We are therefore ensuring that every Dalmia Bharat employee that enters the workplace returns to their home content and is in good physical and mental health.

In many aspects, the way we encourage a safety culture within our organisation sets us apart from other companies. Working safely is a requirement, not a choice. The responsibility to ensure that an employee must perform a job safely has been assumed by our unit leadership team and is encouraged by every layer within the organisation. Every employee including contractual manpower, regardless of rank, has the authority to stop work if it is not being conducted safely or by the established Dalmia Bharat safety standards, rules, and procedures.

Our top leadership always shows a higher level of commitment towards safety and health. Dalmia Bharat’s leadership has constituted an OH&S Board and seven group-level Safety Committees to drive safety culture in the organisation. The Safety committee names are as follows:

• Standard and Procedure Safety Committee

• Safety Observation & Audit Safety Committee

• Contractor Safety Management Safety Committee

• Incident Investigation Safety Committee

• Training & Capability Building Safety Committee

• Logistic Safety Committee

• Occupational Health Committee

We have successfully been able to regulate health and safety standards across all our manufacturing units for 13 critical jobs. These include working at heights, scaffolding, hot work, material handling and lifting operation, fire risk management, electrical safety, road and driving safety, mining operation, Lock Out Tag Out Try Out (LOTOTO), confined space, Heavy earth moving machinery, Rail safety, Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (HIRA) and Job Safety Analysis (JSA).

We regularly conduct hazard identification and risk analysis for jobs. We follow a determined safe operating procedure thereafter. To implement required control measures for ensuring safety, workplace risk assessment is conducted by a designated team leader and work permits are issued by the concerned engineer before commencing any work. Safety team members at Dalmia Bharat continue to conduct routine inspections at workplaces to observe the USA/USC. In addition, we stringently follow rewards and reprimand procedures.

A safety observation schedule is drawn up comprising cross-functional executives for daily monitoring of safety practices on-site. Safety officers regularly visit sites, and Safety Marshals are deployed at worksites for 24/7 monitoring. Any deviation from safe practices is promptly discussed with concerned officials, HOS and HOD for correction. These practices are also discussed at daily coordination meetings, sub-committee meetings and apex safety committee meetings. Every incident is investigated by a cross-functional team, including the Safety Officer, while appropriate action plans are drawn up according to the findings and implemented to prevent recurrences. Investigation learnings are reviewed by the Technical Head/Unit Head and recommendations are implemented within the target date, and shared during safety committee meetings, apex meetings and coordination meetings. Inspections are also conducted to unravel any similar hazards at different sites, and necessary control measures are applied to prevent them. Horizontal deployment is followed to implement these measures across other segments. We have developed 36 checklists to carry out workplace inspections.

We believe in ensuring the highest levels of transparency in reporting safety incidents, which also enables us to take corrective actions and improve existing safety standards. Based on this, a monthly safety performance report is generated considering first aid incidents, medical case incidents, lost time incidents, fatalities, safe person-hours and safety training manhours.

Most of our plants have received the latest versions of ISO certifications such as ISO 45001:2018, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 50001:2018. ISO certification is conducted and issued by an independent, third-party audit by a NABCB accredited agency. Its scope is customised for Integrated and Grinding units based on their operations and products, i.e., an integrated unit is certified for Manufacturing and Dispatch of Clinker and Cement, and a Grinding unit is certified for Manufacturing and Dispatch of Cement etc.

We have implemented the Safety Observation and Audit (SOA) procedure, as part of our behaviour-based safety programme. For this, all our executives perform four observation rounds every month with a six-step safety observation process to observe on-site behaviour. These observations are focused on appreciating workers for exhibiting safe behaviour, stopping unsafe acts, and helping change behaviour through counselling with the person in charge. Each day a worker is nominated by departments, as per the working schedule, as the Safety Officer of the day, who observes and corrects any at-risk behaviour. This process has now become a safety tradition at Dalmia Bharat and invokes pride among our workers as it empowers our employees and makes every one of us a custodian of safety at our organisation.

KAVACH- My Safety My App was developed in-house to report lead indicators and track compliance. Lead indicators are reported by all our employees through the KAVACH app. Department-wise lead indicators reporting and compliance is monitored daily during production meetings chaired by the Unit Head/Technical Head, in the presence of all Head of Departments. Lead indicators and lag indicators status is also reviewed during apex and central safety committee meeting.

At Dalmia Bharat, we invite our recruits to begin their journey with us only after completing a medical examination and safety induction training. During the induction, our safety cardinal rules, health and safety policy, workplace hazards and various safety topics are explained in detail to provide an understanding of how the ‘Dalmia Way of Life’ is closely aligned with a holistic safety culture that all company and contractual employees are expected to adhere to.

Every month we formulate unique theme-based Safety Awareness campaigns that tie in particular safety aspects to increase awareness amongst employees. These include the toolbox talk, conducting safety training, nukkad natak, quiz competitions, safety audits, etc.

Our Monthly Safety Gate Meeting is held on the first week of each month to share our safety performance updates as well as honour employees who have exhibited exceptionally high levels of safety behaviour at work. This meeting is chaired by respective Unit Heads. These sessions also comprise health tips by doctors, motivational speeches by Technical Head and Unit Head and a recognition for our most safety-conscious workers. We have now begun extending our initiatives beyond sector boundaries through safety training and competitions for educational institutions and ladies club members too.

Employee health is given utmost importance at our workplace. Occupation Health Centres have been instituted and are equipped with qualified doctors, medical staff and necessary medical amenities for treatment. Ambulance services with experienced staff are available 24/7, for meeting any exigencies. First aid boxes are located at prominent places, along with certified First Aiders stationed at our plants. Occupational health training on ergonomics, effects of dust inhalation and so on, are regularly provided to our employees. Best hygiene practices are maintained while cooking and serving food. Clean drinking water points are available at designated places with regular maintenance. Restroom facilities are given and health tips are shared by doctors at different forums. Gyms are available at clubs; naturopathy and yoga centres have also been put in place to promote good health. We also provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as dust masks, ear plugs, gas-cutting goggles and so on, to ensure the prevention of occupational diseases.

At Dalmia Bharat we believe in celebrating our employees’ achievements in meeting safety and health benchmarks by institutionalising rewards for the following:

• Reporting maximum unsafe acts, unsafe conditions and near-miss incidents by our safety-conscious employees/workers

• Suggesting engineering controls

• Winners of safety competitions

We have implemented a safety management system for our mines, involving the formation of a safety observation and audit committee, and an incident investigation committee, which collectively prescribes appropriate SOPs and follow-up protocols. We regularly record all near misses at the mines and conduct mock drills at regular intervals. We ensure that PPE is provided to all employees, besides conducting safety and safe practices training.

At all our manufacturing plant premises, drivers are trained and made aware of mandatory PPE and safety rules. As a prerequisite, drivers undergo stringent alcohol testing procedures and vehicles are regularly checked for any inflammable material such as cooking stoves, etc. They are also provided with adequate access to restrooms, and a cafeteria and are offered free eye check-ups at different camps.

Our I&F team conducts defensive driving training for drivers while our Logistics team imparts regular training to drivers including lessons on the health impacts of HIV, food safety, stress handling etc. During the pandemic, we conducted special training sessions for truck drivers on COVID-19 guidelines. Preventive precautions were also imparted at the gates by our security personnel. The safety team distributed and displayed informational collateral in local languages at popular zones to create awareness about guidelines and procedures. Transporters were directed to ensure the isolation of drivers with any symptoms of COVID-19, via thermal scans at entry points.