Employees from companies working at ABB Switzerland must be instructed, briefed and monitored for each job. Before work begins, the contact partners of the contracting parties must thoroughly discuss any existing dangers and the measures for dealing with them. The specific risks and ABB requirements must be announced when the contract is awarded to the contractor. The contractor must substantiate that it is carrying out the assigned work tasks in accordance with ABB regulations, SUVA specifications and recognized rules and that it is monitoring correct working methods.
The fact sheet “Procedures and Code of Conduct for Contractors” must be filled out.
In doing so, both contracting parties comply with their legal obligations under the Swiss Ordinance on Accident Prevention (VUV, Art. 9):
If employees from several companies are working at a work site, their employers must make the arrangements necessary to ensure work safety and order the necessary measures to be taken. They must inform each other and their employees about any existing dangers and the measures for remedying those dangers. On awarding the contract to a third party, the contracting entity must draw the latter's attention to the work safety requirements applying at its company premises.
Superiors are obligated to bring an immediate stop to any unsafe work procedures. That applies to ABB employees as well as non-ABB employees working at plants or construction sites of ABB Switzerland. To bring a stop to unsafe work procedures, the work must be interrupted until the shortcoming is remedied. This is imperative. Minor shortcomings can be remedied on site whereas major ones entail a work stoppage with consequential costs. Gross violations result in the cancelation of the contract for work and services and in a ban on entering the premises for certain individuals or entire companies.