“If safety health and environment does not start at a management level, it cannot take place anywhere,” said Christian-Jacques Vernazza, ESTA president.

“These are 15 principles that we have to live up to. The ESTA mission is for safety and health to be followed by all employees.”

First to sign the document was Roderik van Seumeren, managing director, Mammoet, and president of the ESTA crane group. Second was David Collett, managing director, Collett Transport, and the president of ESTA’s special transport group.

Finally, Christian-Jacques Vernazza, who is also managing director, Mediaco, signed the charter.

Below is a transcript of the charter:

ESTA Members Group SHE Principles

Mission statement

The mission of ESTA is to assure the safety and health of all employees by setting and enforcing standards, providing information, instruction, training and supervision whilst establishing partnerships and encouraging continual improvement in workplace safety and health.

1. Top and senior management at all times demonstrate SHE committment and leadership

2. All members committed to setting out clear expectations within their organisations and companies

3. All members committed to holding themselves & employees accountable & responsible

4. All members are committed to having systems in place to allow learning from accidents & incidents

5. All equipment is serviced & maintained in accordance with manufacturer instructions

6. Equipment will at all times operate within manufacturer safety systems & instructions

7. All members are committed to implementing safe systems of work on all tasks they undertake

8. All operators will be trained & have the necessary skills & competence on each machine they operate

9. All employees work to agreed standards, practices & rules at all times

10. All members are committed to giving special attention to equipment set-up and poor ground conditions

11. All members are committed to challenging & listening to concerns & feedback

12. All members are committed to raising awareness of risk in all that they do

13. All members are committed to sharing & learning from safety information within this group

14. All members are committed to the use of equipment with the most environmentally friendly solutions

15. All members are committed to following legislation, codes of practice & industry standards.

We the undersigned, as senior management representatives of the ESTA Members Group, do commit our companies to work within the agreed above principles and to share good practices, initiatives and learning across all of our European locations and we are committed to displaying these principles at our work sites, communicating them to all employees within our organisation.