Health and Safety Clean Sweep
The Crest Team discussing potential workplace hazards with Villa Maria Estate Ltd’s Health and Safety Co-ordinator, Selina Rae and Security Officer Andre Eksteen.
Health and Safety inductions for large, complex workplaces can be very involved, especially when two different company policies come together. However, for CrestClean and Villa Maria, it’s been a smooth process, even on the verge of New Zealand’s new WorkSafe law coming into play.
Three South Auckland CrestClean Teams are on Villa Maria’s site seven days a week, cleaning the entire Mangere estate, which includes offices, a café, and events space, in addition to wine production, bottling and distribution. Regional Director Viky Narayan says Villa Maria has always been exceptionally health and safety conscious, and adds that their Health and Safety Co-ordinator Selina Rae “was quite happy with the content of Crest’s health and safety documentation. She was quite impressed to see what we had in place.”
“Absolutely, it went well,” agrees Selina. “We have our Health and Safety documentation and you have your own documentation, as well, so it was great to meet our requirements and Crest’s all at once.”
CrestClean has been cleaning Villa Maria Estate Ltd since 2007, however this was the first induction involving Crest’s new Health, Safety, and Environmental Management System, called SafeClean, which was developed in response to upcoming government reforms of workplace safety requirements. SafeClean was specifically designed to minimise the risks of Crest’s work at customers’ premises.
Viky says he made sure to be there with everyone from the three Crest Teams who service Villa Maria, which includes Franchisees Dipti Kanji, Pravin Chandra, Mahesh Kanji, and Rajesh and Paidamma Mani. “When it’s a big site it’s how we prefer doing it, rather than having each person inducted individually.”
South Auckland Franchisees Paidamma Mani, Rajesh Mani, Mahesh Kanji, Pravin Chandra, and Dipti Kanji, during a Health and Safety Induction at Villa Maria Estate Ltd.
Selina says it was a huge advantage to have the entire Crest Team available at the same time, on the same day. “With the Crest Team, it was great to be able to get everyone together so everyone hears the same thing. We could walk around the entire site together and be sure everyone was aware of potential hazards.”
