PRESS RELEASE
8 APRIL 2011
ISS Facility Services AS aims to be the industry leader in workplace safety and to give its employees a safer workplace. They have concluded a framework agreement with Ramirent Norway and are to send 500 staff members on an HES training course.
“We strive to be best in the business in terms of how we systematically implement and observe health, environment and safety (HES) issues, and it is our aim to have zero fatalities, serious accidents and occupational injury in connection with working at ISS,” says HES manager Tone Edvinsen. ISS staff are now going to improve their expertise on working at height, and receive training on using fall prevention equipment, ladders, scaffolding and mobile elevated work platforms. “This applies first and foremost to staff working in property management, building damage rehabilitation, internal building clean-up, operation and maintenance, and we have about 500 staff members in all who work at height. We are going to train up our own ISS instructors who will in turn give courses to other staff members,” Edvinsen tells us.
Country-wide course programme
Ramirent was selected after careful evaluation. “They have branches around the country and they have an extremely good training concept, Ramirent School (Ramirentskolen). They have the best expertise on what we are looking for in terms of training, monitoring and accident prevention,” says Edvinsen.
Ramirentskolen training consultant Dag Seierstad is happy with the choice of Ramirent, and thinks that ISS is setting a pioneering example in the industry by focusing on HES. “In Norway there are still far too many people at risk of having accidents at work. We know that there is not enough attention paid to safety when working at height, and that brings a high level of risk,” he says. With Ramirent school the company will be offering a total of 11 different courses on topics including fall prevention and the use of cranes, scaffolding and personnel lifts. “We organise courses at several of our 40 divisions around the country, and in addition to that we have travelling instructors, which gives us a country-wide service in certified, documented training courses,” Seierstad tells us.
Zero fatalities
Each year 40 to 50 people lose their lives at their workplace in Norway, according to figures from the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority. “We know that approximately 50 per cent of those fatalities occur in connection with working at height, and we believe a lot of those deaths could have been prevented if more attention had been paid to giving those workers the necessary training and instruction. We have previously advocated a zero-death policy. This entails that we need to aim for zero fatalities and zero injuries on Norwegian construction sites. It is an ambitious target that we ought to strive to attain, and it’s good to see that ISS has set itself that same goal,” says Seierstad.
Ramirent is the leading equipment rental solutions company in Norway. In 2010, its net sales totalled EUR 114 million. The company has 42 rental outlets and 503 employees in Norway.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
Ann-Kristin Ytreberg, Marketing Director, Ramirent Norway
Phone: +47-40-857 671, E-mail:
Ramirent is a leading equipment rental group delivering Dynamic Rental Solutions™ that simplify business. We serve a broad range of customers, including construction and process industries, shipyards, the public sector and households. In 2010, Group net sales totalled EUR 531 million. The Group has some 3,000 employees at some 378 permanent outlets in thirteen countries. Ramirent is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd.
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