St Vincent Brewery Ltd embraces safety as a way of life

The St. Vincent Brewery (SVBL) is embracing safety as a way of life through safety standards set for its employees.

SVBL prides itself on implementing and maintaining global safety standards and developing a company-wide safety culture. At SVBL, Safety is non-negotiable, a release from the company said.

SVBL is part of the multi-national company Anheuser-Busch Inbev (ABI), the world’s largest brewer, headquartered in Lueven, Belgium, with an ecosystem that includes major hubs in Brazil, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

SVBL is part of what is known as the “Middle-America” group, which includes Central America and the Caribbean. The parent company sets international safety standards, such as Norme Regulamentadora/Regulatory Norm (NR) standards.

Employees of the St Vincent Brewery Ltd at a Safety Meeting

Thus, SVBL has been using international best practices as its benchmark, including Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) standards that are practised by their regional group of companies, including all the Caribbean breweries under the ABI umbrella and through-out the “Middle-America” zone, the release said.

“From the moment someone enters the gates of the SVBL compound, they are entering a high-level safety zone. The objective is to have every worker return home safely to their family.

“For their own safety, employees are educated in the general safety rules, such as appropriate and safe attire, including no wearing of jewellery on the compound, wearing long pants, as opposed to shorts, work boots, and strict wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE),” the release said.

St Vincent Brewery Ltd Employee wearing PPE at Muster Point

There are designated areas for cell phone use, designated walkways and designated areas for vehicle traffic.

All new SVBL employees are trained in company safety and environmental policy as part of their onboarding.

According to Safety Supply Analyst, Mr Kurtley Jack, safety is about positive influence and creating awareness. This includes regular safety meetings, held twice daily (one for each shift),  employees being encouraged to report unsafe conditions and behaviour, safety data being displayed for transparency and shared to all the Departments.

He indicated that from the participation of the workers in safety meetings, they are usually very open and interactive in meetings and clearly feel a sense of ownership in keeping their workplace safe.

According to Mr Jack, who has worked with the Brewery for five (5) years “It’s intriguing and no two days are alike”.

He began his tenure at SVBL in the Commercial Department as Safety and Fleet Supervisor and then moved to being Supervisor of Safety & Environment, then to his current role as Safety Analyst.

St Vincent Brewery Ltd safety statistics

He feels motivated to support employees in keeping their safety standards high when he hears that they have even implemented some of these practices in a home environment with their own families, and can observe and confidently identify when workers in other companies are not adhering to safe on-the-job practices.

SVBL is proud of its stance as a leader in St Vincent & the Grenadines in setting high standards & keeping their employees safe.

As the prominently displayed safety statistics would attest, with over 897 days without an injury resulting in lost time among full time employees and a current record of over 1268 days without incident among casual employees, surpassing the previous record of 983 days, there is much to be proud of.

SVBL currently employs some 212 employees.