At Bamburi Cement Health and Safety is a core value. In the face of the coronavirus pandemic we have continued to live up to this core value, acting quickly and with great solidarity to protect employees, contractors and all our stakeholders in the time of Coronavirus (Covid-19).

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Overarching aim and objectives 

We aim to safeguard the Health and Safety of our staff and partners, and ensure that the business does not suffer of inadequate planning or poor decision making in the time of Coronavirus (Covid-19). Our objectives are:

• Protect the health and wellbeing of our people, their families, our stakeholders through medical preparedness, awareness and training
• Maintain business activities through continuity planning and proactive supply chain management
• Protect and strengthen long term relationships with our partners and the communities in which we operate

The Business Resilience Team (BRT) 

In early January 2020 we mobilized a Business Resilience Team to meet this challenge. It puts in place expertise in HR, Health & Safety, Communications, Operations, Procurement, IT, Legal, Compliance, Security and Resilience to provide monitoring, guidance, advice and reporting on the preparedness of our organization. The team is coordinated by a LafargeHolcim Group Business Resilience Team. We prepare our response using a four alert level Trigger Action Response Plan (TARP), with specific actions at each deteriorating alert level. The team is accountable to comply with the national health regulatory requirements and the execution of central guidance on a risk basis.   

Our local measures 

We have put in place a range of measures to protect our teams and contribute to the containment of the disease. These measures include:

• Strict adherence to social distancing in operations and our offices
• Adaption of our Health and Safety guidance for all our operations in relation to COVID-19
• Creation of company-wide COVID-19 online resource center available to all our employees
• Company-wide webinars for employees on keeping themselves and their families safe
• Local employee support programs and webinars for mental wellbeing and resilience
• Travel restrictions and work-from-home arrangements wherever possible
• Strong promotion of digital (i.e., ‘contactless’) initiatives in our markets
• Clear metrics to measure our readiness in respect of the protection of our employees and contractors while on our sites

All these measures have been added to our standing practices to enforce and incentivize Health & Safety and safe business practices in the face of the Corona-crisis. We are constantly monitoring and adapting our approach, carefully following developments as well as the instructions of local health authorities to help in every way we can.

Awareness and information for all employees 

Since the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic we have maintained robust internal communication to sensitize our employees on prevention guidelines to keep themselves and their families safe, as well as update on our business preparedness plan.  

Some of this includes:

• Webinars for all employees
• Tollfree number for Covid-19 related emergencies 
• Regular updates via the internal communication app M-Bamburi, email, sms etc
• Posters & toolbox talks (basic hygiene measures, wash hands, use of face masks, social distancing…)
• Site recommendations (operational readiness checklist and process flows, plans, minimum safety requirements...)
• Intranet page that facilitates staff engagement and interactions to build resilience 
• CEO and HR messages and Live Chats to update on staff welfare, business preparedness and plans 
• Regular communication, alignment and support provided to our business partners
• FAQs with practical scenarios and questions
• Managers checklists to guide on important follow ups for maintenance of staff wellbeing 
• Launched virtual medical consultation services for our staff in partnership with our medical provider etc  

Documents related to Covid-19 safety measures: