As Saudi Arabia witnesses a growing wave of construction and industrial projects, issues of health, safety and the environment have assumed unprecedented urgency.
There is a growing realisation that much needs to be accomplished to keep staff and establishments safe and raise productivity in the work place.
As work practices get more sophisticated, and occupational hazards increase, establishments cannot help factoring in the cost of a safety system.
A Bahrain-based company, National Occupational Safety & Health or Osho, which has been associated with projects in several cities of Saudi Arabia, now plans to spread its wings there.
“As a specialist safety organisation with collaborative relationships with international bodies, we have the capability to fulfil requirements in Saudi construction and industrial establishments and create an overall safety culture,” said Osho managing director Alawi Shubber.
“We supply expertise in terms of safety, health, occupational hygiene, industrial hygiene, evaluation and auditing.”
Osho collaborates with the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, UK, and the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency and serves as Middle East agent for the National Safety Council, USA.  It can summon a large pool of experts drawn from various nationalities.
“The people we have are very professional and capable in both the construction and industrial sides. They include Americans, Canadians, Indians, Filipinos, Europeans and Far Easterners,” said Shubber.
“Our goal is to continuously provide exceptional solutions that are based on thoroughly tested systems and advanced and proven technology. These solutions are delivered at a reasonable speed and competitive cost.
“All our services are provided while ensuring that our clients comply with national and international standards and legislation relating to the protection and safety of workers, work environment and environmental management.”

Osho’s offerings
Shubber founded Osho in 2004 and has led the company into gaining contracts in the Gulf, particularly Bahrain, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, as well as in Russia where it devised and implemented safety training for 4,000 staff of a construction contractor.
Osho offers services in health, safety and environment (HSE) management, training and awareness and consultancy.
The consultancy service is multi-dimensional covering environmental health and safety management systems’ implementation, OHSE policies and procedures development, HSE audits and inspections, ergonomics and industrial hygiene surveys, risk assessments, accident/incident investigation and safety rules and regulations.
Other consultation subjects include hazardous waste operations and emergency response, hazardous waste management, air pollution, fire protection and ISO 14000 certification.
In Saudi Arabia, most contracts have come from Eastern Province companies. The aspiration is that many more firms operating in diverse fields in various regions of the kingdom will come aboard.
The presence of a large number of construction, petrochemical and oil and gas firms means the potential for an Osho role is very large, said Shubber.
The organisation has already gained a footfold in some of the high-profile companies in the last couple of years.  At Saudi Aramco, it trained some of the oil giant’s aviation staff in handling safety matters and other company staff in industrial hygiene workshops.
It implemented training schemes for several Sabic companies.
Osho also participated in the 8th Sabic Technical Meeting and Exhibition “STM-8,” which was held recently in Saudi Arabia, and presented the latest technical safety solutions and health issues at the worksite for industrial oil and gas-based companies.
At Sipchem, it accomplished traffic management, which, among other things, involved facilitating order through the security pass system.

New contracts
Currently, says Nada Alawi, Osho’s general manager, the company is negotiating contracts with a few Saudi companies in different cities. The contracts involve a range of services including behaviour-based safety training and consultancy work in terms of ergonomics, work hygiene and work illness assessment. One contract involves training workers employed in the construction of a gas plant.
So far, Osho has provided training, awareness and consultancy in Saudi Arabia, but not management.
“That’s because some companies have already established an HSE management department,” said Shubber. “There’s still a role for Osho there. We help them to put proper standards in safety manager through a transfer of knowledge. We complement them. When they have problems we step in, help them fix their own solutions, and if they’re interested in getting international certifications we help them get that.
“We are considered a CIS (Centre of Information Safety) for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in the GCC.”
Nada commented: “Many firms need to address issues of general safety in terms of policy, procedures and proper implementation.
“They may have a policy and a procedure, but more often than not these only exist on paper. They should think of the long term.
“Most accidents happen because of human error. This can lead to catastrophic results – injury and serious harm such as loss of vision and amputation.”
Nada said many companies approached Osho for a full assessment of safety requirements as requirements differed from company to company necessitating expert help in identification.
And most contracts came in from “word of mouth” as companies got to know about its successful undertakings, she added.
Osho, as a CIS agent for the ILO, celebrated recently World Safety Day by organising a safety management meeting for more than 1,500 workers on how to manage workplace risks and on employee responsibilities for ensuring a safe work environment.

Networking
It has taken part in exhibitions and hosted seminars to enhance networking. The company has been a participant at Sabic’s technical meetings where safety and security form an integral part of discussions as well as at Sabic meetings specific to safety, health and the environment. 
With Saudi Arabia developing into a huge market for commercial and industrial businesses, Osho is stepping up its marketing drive in the expectation it can fulfill a greater role in its areas of specialisation, said Mohammed Alawi, its development manager.
“Most of the companies are aware of us and we enjoy brand recognition. Many of the big names trust us — Chiyoda, Hyundai, CCC (Consolidated Contractors Company), Bapco (Bahrain Petroleum Co), GPIC (General Petrochemicals Industries Co), Bahrain, etc.” 

The Russia assignment
A high point for Osho was the assignment in Russia. A certificate issued by Hideo Kobayashi, project director, Chiyoda Toyo Sakhalin Development Ltd (CTSD) Limited, the contractor for an LNG plant in Sakhalin, a remote part of Russia, praised it for helping achieve 20 million man hours of work without loss time injury.
Osho mobilised 12 trainers, developed and conducted site-specific safety training modules in English, Russian, Korean, Chinese, Turkish and Thai over several months.
The training was presented to supervisors and craft workers and focused on general safety followed by craft-specific safety training.
CTSO Ltd thanked Osho for its “commitment to safety excellence and presenting world-class training in one of the most harsh construction sites in the world.”
Of the 17,000 trained in the past two years, 10,000 were linked to Qatar projects. The company trained Chiyoda’s construction workers in the Pearl Gas to Liquid project at Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar, among other involvements in the country. 
While its projects in Saudi Arabia encompass training and consultancy, the company was successful in winning HSE management contracts in Bahrain with well- known companies and brands including Bahrain Financial Harbour, Al Areen, Marriott Suites, Pearl Towers and Villa Mar. Currently it is putting in place a management department for Marina West.

Outsourcing to Osho
In management projects, companies outsource HSE management to Osho which sets up the department, provides managerial staff and devises a safety policy, procedures and operations manuals.
“Under HSE management, we do a full-scope service including risk assessment while also looking at specific areas such as dismantling of cranes and hoists.
At Bapco and GPIC, Bahrain, Osho supplied consultancy services.
 
How it all began
Osho’s founder Shubber, served for over 35 years with Bahrain’s Ministry of Labour in the occupational safety and health department, representing the kingdom at international conferences and gaining immense experience.
He was encouraged by the ILO, the World Health Organisation and Arab Labour Organisation (ALO), with whom he had dealt with in conferences, to start a firm that would help companies identify with their safety needs.
 The new firm would have to help them adhere to safety laws, criteria, standards and regulations for the protection of the work environment and protection from work hazards.
“Osho began with a focus on construction because change was needed in a situation of untrained labour, no safety systems, departments, policies or manuals,” a company statement said.
“This was a big challenge for Osho and it was able to create a safety culture,” it added.