Health and Safety Sessions in Workshops

Working in a safe environment.

Economic and social issues being at the core of our mission, Artisans Angkor constantly steps closer to matching international labour standards. This requires an ongoing involvement of our Quality and Sustainable Development team to improve the working environment of our employees.

Employees from all the different workshops and offices attended training on how to use fire extinguishers with the firemen of Siem Reap. 59 attended the first training held in May 2012. 45 persons joined the second in December 2012 and 17 people attended the last one, on the 8th of May 2013. Every workshop has been provided with fire extinguishers since then.

On June 2012, 21 chief of workshops of Artisans Angkor attended for the first time another training held by the Cambodian Red Cross and now know how to behave in case of health problems. The employees learned how to react in case of burns, bleeding, broken bone, snake bite, unconsciousness or even respiratory emergency. During the training, they directly put in practice their new knowledge, like bandaging a wound or transporting correctly a victim. Besides, first-aid boxes have also been installed in each of our 48 workshops and are regularly checked by the chief of workshops, fully aware of the risks and how to deal with them. A second training took place in December 2012 (22 attendees) and a third one happened more recently, on the 6th and 7th of April 2013 where 22 chief of workshops attended.

Artisans Angkor is thankful to the Red Cross for this training and is pleased to know that the training fees will be used in their actions towards the poorest.

All our employees are also given the appropriate personal protection equipment which is put at their disposal in the workshops (e.g. earplugs, earmuff, gloves, masks and helmets) depending on their activity. Additionally, craftsmen and women are more than welcome to directly make their special requests if anything more is needed (e.g. getting more comfortable masks, more tables etc.) to the Quality Department during the regular quality control sessions.

These are some of the elements which enable the creation of an atmosphere of mutual assistance and respect, conductive to the production of high-quality craftsmanship.