Health and Safety

Managing Occupational Health and Safety Risks

At ATC Nigeria, we incorporate international best practices into our approach to effectively manage all identified operational hazards with a view to controlling every significant occupational health and safety risks to “as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP)”. Generally, the under listed are the major risks associated with our operations and how they are efficiently managed:

1. Working at Height: Our core function as a telecommunication infrastructure provider entails the erection of towers and rooftops for our clients (mostly telecom service providers) to place their antennae. To ensure safe work practices at height, regular trainings are conducted for our people including contractor employees on the “Safe Systems of Work”. The risks associated with their job as well as the control measures required to effectively manage them are consistently discussed. Adequate investments are maintained to acquire appropriate fall-arrest and other essential personal protective equipment from globally recognized suppliers. Entry to sites are strictly controlled, while employees and contractors who violate any of the established “Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)” are penalized accordingly. Over the years, there had been no major incident related to work at height.
2. Excavation and Underground Laying of Cables: This is another major inevitable activity in our operations. As we continue to expand our coverage across Nigeria, the amount of excavation works undertaken to prepare site foundations and to lay or maintain underground cables have increased. Consequently, the risks of injury or death posed by trenches collapsing during excavation are controlled by ensuring that all our staff and contractor employees abide by approved safety plans and control measures.
3. Electrical Works: We ensure that only competent personnel are permitted to work on any of our electrical equipment. Relevant health and safety trainings are regularly provided for concerned employees to enable them proactively recognize hazards and appropriately implement required control measures. We ensure every electrical equipment installed in our facilities is fit for its intended purpose, without compromising effective quality control and supervision. Electrical safety audit is also conducted at scheduled periods to support operational efficiency.
4. Safety on the Road: We facilitate mandatory training on defensive driving techniques for every employee required to operate a vehicle on behalf of ATC Nigeria. Alcohol/Drug abuse policy and regular preventive maintenance of vehicles are enforced, while speed-limiting device is installed in all company vehicles. Although, the control of other external factors such as adverse weather conditions; bad roads; traffic situations; attitudes of other road users; among others are not directly under our control, nonetheless, we still ensure regular re-orientation of our drivers on the need to maintain sanity on the roads.
5. Contractors and Customer’s Management: Significant number of tasks which constitutes greatest risks in our operations are undertaken by our contractors, our direct clients and/or their vendors. Their employees work on towers and other equipment associated with deployment and maintenance of their networks. We communicate our health and safety requirements in clear terms to their Senior Management Teams and/or Chief Executive Officers demanding their utmost commitment to our health and safety policy and procedures. We encourage them to pay attention to immediate resolution of every operational challenges as may be identified by our team of experts from time to time.  In addition, we operate a “STOP WORK” policy and consequence management system, which empower us to suspend or terminate the contracts of any contractor or its sub-contractor who persists on failure to comply with our standards.