Workplace Safety Program for Working Families from EJ

Being a family-owned company, EJ understands the value of workplace safety and how it can impinge on the happiness and security of staff at home. It's why we have a very simple, comprehensive safety program with clearly identified key rules of thumb for staff to follow.

On the 8th November, EJ celebrated 135 years of business, since starting way back in 1883 East Jordan, Michigan, USA. This day also marked the 2nd Global Safety Day with this year's event titled "Recommit to Safety."

All EJ business units, around the globe, downed tools to connect as a group, to celebrate our safety achievements and values, and to learn more about keeping safe in the future.

In the Asia-Pacific, EJ closed all branches at lunchtime for a global presentation on our safety statistics and 10 core safety commitments we can all concentrate on to keep ourselves and our fellow workers safe; in the factory, the stockyard, office, out on the road and on job sites.

Appearing in a globally distributed internal company video, President, Tracy Malpass, and Sales Director, James Malpass, both underscored their advice with the safety maxim; "At EJ, we have no jobs that are so urgent or so important that they need to be done in an unsafe manner." Other gems of advice included "speak up if you see something that needs attention;" "We must keep on improving;" And "take your commitment to safety home with you."

At our Brisbane safety event, we invited our Queensland Department of Workplace Health and Safety (WHSQ) advisor, Senior Inspector, Yanery Rodriguez-Ventura. Yanery kindly presented aspects of the Work Health & Safety Act 2011, duties of officers and workers, how WHSQ helps to improve workplaces and some examples of their work in other industries. Yanery concluded with a powerful WHSQ movie about staying safe at work and safety advocates who had suffered from preventable injuries.

At the time of writing (Nov 2018) the Asia Pacific teams have recorded their best ever record of 51 months of no lost time injuries (LTI). This is a record to be proud of and we feel it's down to this simple statement from the Malpass family who owns EJ; "At EJ, we have no jobs that are so urgent or so important that they need to be done in an unsafe manner."