Safety at our COR
In March, Ball Construction received COR (Certificate of Recognition) Certification. Once the announcement was made that The Government of Ontario was embracing the IHSA COR Certification process, Ball’s Environmental Health and Safety team lead by co-ordinator Suzanne Johnson went to work to ensure they met or exceeded the COR requirements.
Ball Construction, as a leader in Ontario’s construction industry, quickly acknowledged the benefits and commenced the certification process. By doing so, Ball Construction has been able to make significant and positive improvements to their workplace.
These improvements include:
- Enhancing their health and safety protocols that are implemented at the site level
- Achieving buy in from all of Ball’s workers who now feel empowered to drive their health and safety program
- Encouraging workers to become more proactive in obtaining additional safety & equipment training
- Empowering the workforce to take the initiative to identify and remedy unsafe conditions created on site immediately using TRAC (Task Risk Assessment & Controls) daily risk/hazard assessment which is completed by each worker on site not just the supervisor and/or employee health & safety representative
“The process was intense to say the least,” comments Johnson, “we initiated the COR audit in January 2013 and it took approximately 7 months to complete and submit our audit tool and supporting documentation for IHSA COR desk audit process. COR auditors toured/inspected the St. Catharines Spectator Facility & McMaster University. During the physical audit the auditor confirmed the identified conformities and randomly selected workers for personal interview to determine their knowledge and understanding of the health & safety management system. The final certification was presented to the proud Ball Construction Management team on March 7th 2014.”
Overall, Ball Construction feels a great deal of accomplishment, as the process of completing COR certification was extremely grueling but rewarding and will improve ratings in the bid process.
