China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation: Safeguarding health and safety of employees to build a sound shelter overseas

 
Company profile
 
China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC) was founded in 1950. Currently, CMC is an important international engineering contractor, project manager, and automotive supply chain service provider in China. Its main business covers international project contracting and large complete equipment exports, domestic trade and engineering, automotive marketing, and other sectors. In 2016, the company headquarters and subsidiary have 1,258 employees.
 
With a strong business foundation, complete qualification and reputable brand, it enjoys extensive reputation both at home and abroad. By virtue of the capability of business and resources integration, CMC can provide customers with an all-in-one solution including market development, commercial service, financing arrangements, key equipment manufacturing, project design and construction, technical service and consulting, etc. In recent years, under the strategic guidance of Belt and Road and Go Global policies, CMC actively explores both domestic and international markets  and has undertaken a batch of overseas engineering projects with great influence and  achieved greater progress in the international middle-and high-end markets ,including Malaysia, Brazil and Turkey.  
 
Challenges
 
Data shows that Chinese enterprises’ investment aboard has increased from 10 billion US dollars in 2005 to 85 billion US dollars in 2013. As of the end of 2013, 15,400 Chinese investors set up 25,400 enterprises in 184 countries and regions in the world. While entering the international market in large scale, health and safety risks faced by employees overseas are increasingly prominent. In addition to taking the traditional work safety, health and security into account, there are a number of other risks, such as the threat of diseases, the risk of infectious diseases in specific areas, traffic accidents, political unrest, violent crime, natural disasters Dangerous and so on. How to manage the occupational health and safety of employees overseas has become an important challenge for business operations.
 
Enterprises have to learn how to create a healthy and safe working environment for employees so as to attract talent, reduce the frequent flow of talent, and thus promote the development of enterprises. Furthermore, enterprises need to actively control risks to ensure the continuity of business and create new opportunities to reduce the loss of he project progress and corporate image caused by business disruption.
 
Solutions
 
CMC adheres to the safety policy of “safety first, prevention first, comprehensive management”, gives priority to the safety and health of employees overseas health in the workplace. CMC implements work safety measures, improves overseas safety protection conditions, and establishes a sound health and safety management system, to enhance safety capacity. CMC, by creating good work conditions for the employees overseas to maintain the stability of employees, building a competitive workforce for the enterprise.
 
Build safety mechanism
 
While implementing the strategy of "going-out", CMC pays high attention to the life and property safety of employees overseas, establishes a long-term work safety mechanism synchronous with domestic level, and makes and implements an emergency management system including Comprehensive Emergency Plan for Safety Accidents of CMC, Emergency Management Methods for Project Emergencies of CMC, as well as special emergency plan and special emergency response plan of the overseas project department. The overseas project department set a special safety management position, responsible for the scheduling of project facilities, distribution and supervision of the use of personal protective equipment, and the hanging and inspection of construction safety warning signs.
 
Lead project participants to take part in the operation of work safety
 
CMC urged the overseas project department to sign safety production agreements with construction sides timely and instructed overseas project department to conduct emergency drills, so as to implement safety responsibility for overseas projects by contracts. The company also carried out daily safety inspections and special safety inspections. For potential safety hazards having been found, it demands contractors to rectify as soon as possible and verifies their rectification results. CMC also launched "three degree safety education" activity, urging relative project construction sides to participate in safety trainings, popularizing safety production knowledge to staffs of the overseas project department, in an effort to improve their safety consciousness and safety quality and to create an atmosphere of safety production.
 
Pay attention to the health of employees
 
CMC respects and cherishes the life and health of its staff. In terms of institution construction, it perfected vocational health management system unceasingly and established a three degree medical insurance system combining socially-fund medical insurance and supplementary medical insurance of general technical groups and the company, thus realizing the overall coverage of medical reimbursement and improving the staff's risk resistance ability. During the daily work, the company increased efforts on health management and disease prevention, including providing physical examination for all the staff each year, offering special physical examination for female staff each half a year, making special budgets for vaccination, health lectures and consulting, and building staff health profiles. Since 2004, CMC authorized expenses for each department for fitness, encouraged them to organize collective fitness activities, and organized various team competitions like hiking, shuttlecock kicking, rope skipping, boat rowing and ball games regularly to refuel for health.
 
Promote the building of HSE system
 
All overseas project departments of CMC promoted the building of HSE system actively. In adherence to HSE management concepts, system and operation methods adopted in international projects, they compiled a HSE Management Manual for Overseas Contracted Projects to manage risks in the overall processes of project establishment, biding, contract signing, project effects, choices of partners, project implementation, completion and delivery. They also organized trainings targeted for the application of the manual and special trainings on the application of risk analysis and control tools and promoted the application of the manual actively.
 
All overseas projects are equipped with HSE Management Department, which is responsible for the project management. CMC also hires Chinese and local experts to carry out safety, occupational health, environmental protection and other aspects of professional actions and they are responsible for the regular checks of these projects and regular communication with local stakeholders so that they can find problems in time and find solutions. All these efforts further facilitate the risk control of occupational health and safety risks in international projects.
 
Achievements
 
Social benefits
 
CMC guaranteed the safety of its staff and improved their safety capacity effectively through a series of safety system and measures. Since the pilot application of HSE Management Manual for Overseas Contracted Projects, the company's Sri Lanka South railway project completed many high-risk construction projects, including 2 tunnels, 79 culverts and 12 large and medium size bridges. No death or major injury accidents happened. The minor injury rate was under one thousandth and no public safety accident occurred.
 
Economic benefits
 
As an overseas engineering contracting enterprise, excellent safety construction reduces operational risk and stable staff management also improves productivity and work flexibility. While ensuring the health and safety of employees, this also enhances the staff’s trust and trust for the company.
 
Prospect
 
CMC will continue to set “providing staff with a good working environment” as the goal, strengthen the health care of employees overseas, and provide a safe and healthy working environment. It will summarize the work experience of pilot application of the Manual and give full play to the leading role to drive all overseas engineering projects to improve HSE management, so as to make overseas projects be in a long-term and stable state under control and promote the sustainable development of staff.