Blogs: People

Eka Syamsiah Hidayah Nasution, Environment, Health, Fire & Safety Inspector, 26 years old, Jakarta

“Even one incident is one too many. I want to minimise the risks further, even eliminate them altogether.”

This is Eka’s philosophy as the Environment, Health, Fire & Safety Inspector for Golden Agri-Resources (GAR). She oversees work health and safety of the team at Marunda Centre in Jakarta, where we have our refinery, biodiesel plant, and downstream research and development lab.

“Managing risks at work is a never-ending process, as familiarity often leads to complacency. While we look at ways to operate more efficiently, we cannot compromise safety for the sake of being faster. Moreover, there are many heavy-duty machines at the refinery so it is immensely important that employees always have safety at the top of their minds. But accidents do happen, especially when people are too focused on their work and forget established procedures.

To reinforce a culture of safety, I regularly organise training and knowledge-sharing sessions for employees on various aspects of occupational health and safety. Our workers undergo Behavior-Based Safety training when they join the company, and undergo refresher sessions periodically. It is a personal accident prevention course that equips employees with knowledge of how to anticipate risks and tackle them. Basic fire management training is also important in this industry. Similar to our upstream business’ approach to fire management, we train and equip every employee in our downstream operations on how to prevent and fight fires.

We also have monthly safety talks where different departments get together and share their safety highlights of the month. I have seen positive feedback as a result of this initiative—for example, employees are more proactive in reminding one another about gearing up with protective equipment before starting work.

People new to the company are often surprised by my insistence on sticking to the rules, but once they understand that I have their safety in mind, they gladly abide. At GAR, I’m proud to say that our employees are committed to safe work practices and are prepared to tackle emergencies.”

Click here to discover more stories behind the extraordinary, everyday lives of the people transforming palm oil.