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Des conditions de travail dignes du musée : le chantier du Louvre à Abu Dhabi

dimanche 29 septembre 2013

Louvre Abu Dhabi : Building on a reputation for safety

Read more : http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/art/louvre-abu-dhabi-building-on-a-reputation-for-safety#ixzz2gIOrR2AI

It was still only the first week in July when Stephen Van Wyngaard began to realise that he might have the beginnings of a
serious problem.
On the site of Louvre Abu Dhabi, workers were starting to report sick in increasing numbers with symptoms of heat-stress.
In themselves, the cases were not particularly serious – no one had collapsed – but the number of workers reporting to the
on-site first-aid clinic on a typical day suffering from the heat soon rose from five to ten.
By the end of the month, up to 13 cases a day were arriving for treatment.
As the health and safety manager for the museum project, Mr Van Wyngaard thought he had taken every precaution for the
welfare of the men under his care.
Workers were already observing a summer midday break that was longer than the statutory minimum, and the site had a
plentiful supply of water and cool areas. The importance of recognising the first symptoms of heat stoke had been drummed
in to workers during induction training.
Yet still they were feeling the heat.
“It was beyond what I had ever seen in my life,” says Mr Van Wyngaard. The team of safety officers that is permanently on site
during working hours was at full stretch, as were the two trained nurses in the health clinic.
But within days he had diagnosed the problem and found a solution.
The Louvre’s proximity to the sea was pushing humidity levels to highs many of the workers had never before encountered.
The answer was to change the working day. The midday break was extended by several hours and the workforce would work
two shifts, one ending at 10am and the other not starting until 4pm.
By the end of the first week of the new shifts, only two cases of heat stress had been reported.
Even as July turned to August and the daytime temperatures reached furnace levels, the number of workers suffering from the heat dwindled to almost zero.
Maintaining the highest standards of safety and welfare will always be a priority on such a big project, the first of the city’s three museums on Saadiyat Island’s Culture
District.
In the coming weeks, the number of workers on the site will reach its peak – around 5,000 – with the risks of accident and injury ever-present.
So far, the construction team picked by the Tourism Development and Investment Company has achieved an enviable level of safety. As of last week, nearly 3.4 million
working hours had passed with out an accident – defined as an injury serious enough for a worker to miss the next shift.
But even with the most rigorous precautions and the most thorough training, accidents happen.
During this first stage of construction of the museum, the workers are in an environment of concrete and steel, surrounded by heavy machinery. It is a world of sharp
edges and heavy loads. Cuts and bruises, even broken bones come with the territory. Many of these would not seem serious, even in an office environment.
In a typical scene at the site clinic last week, a worker extends a finger with a nasty scrape to be cleaned with hydrogen peroxide. Mark Flores, a nurse from the
Philippines, disinfects the wound then deftly winds a large bandage around the injured digit.
His colleague, Afzal Nazar, from Kerala, helped, as he often does, with the translation, explaining that the man had injured himself moving steel pipes. He would be fit to
return to work but required to return to the clinic for daily check-ups to make sure the wound was healing.
The clinic, a small single-story temporary structure on the edge of the site, is the front line for a variety of ailments and injuries.

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