UAE-based company AF Construction (AFC) recently recorded a safety milestone of 10 million man-hours without a lost time injury (LTI).

Speaking to Construction Week about the health and safety (H&S) issues that AFC hopes to address in the year, chief executive officer of AF Construction, Edmund Mahabir, said: "We encourage our employees to report issues or concerns they come across, and we work together to ensure a safe working environment.

"One of the inevitable parts of construction is working at a height, which can be a high-risk activity. As part of our H&S procedures, we continually analyse and review risks, and take steps to mitigate it."

Commenting on the company's H&S goals for the year, Mahabir said that AFC is looking to record "a lost time incident (LTI) rate of less than 0.020; a high-risk accident frequency rate that is less than 0.031; an all accident frequency rate of 0.45; and no environmental recordable incidents."

Among its special HSE programmes on-site are the 'Don’t Walk By’ (DWB) campaign, which places focus on employee responsibility — as opposed to just walking by — when they encounter health, safety, quality, and/or sustainability issues, he told Construction Week.

"Each of our project sites seek to generate 25 DWB’s per individual, including consultants, suppliers and AFC employees. This initiative has supported us in reducing our lost time incident rate and all accident frequency rate," he added.

AFC's ongoing 'Promises' campaign sees employees "promise their family and management that they will work safely, thereby continuing a strong H&S culture," Mahabir said.

In addition, AFC is also taking conscious efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. "We constantly ensure reduced diesel consumption and waste generation, and divert as much waste possible from landfills," he concluded.