Organisational changes in HSE

When Doris Forkel-Wirth took over as head of the HSE unit in 2018, she explained her vision for the unit, a vision centred on excellence. HSE strives to be an international reference in HSE matters at research centres and this can only come through sharing knowledge, competence and experience, both inside the HSE unit and within CERN as well as with other research centres.  To reflect this vision, some organisational changes were made in 2018 and the possibility of more organisational changes concerning the HSE-DI and the HSE-OHS groups was evoked.  These further organisational changes have now been finalised.

The HSE-DI group has been divided into two groups to make a clear distinction between strategic and legal functions, which remain in HSE-DI, and transverse HSE functions, which are now in the new Training and Coordination group, HSE-TC. HSE-TC, headed by Christophe Delamare, is responsible for the management of CERN Safety Training, the HSE Unit’s Safety Office and coordinates support to the other HSE groups in the areas of administrative assistance, quality management and space management. HSE-DI, headed by Doris Forkel-Wirth, continues to be responsible for developing HSE policies and strategies and providing support to the other HSE groups in budgetary and legal matters. The DI group is further responsible for the coordination of the establishment and maintenance of CERN Safety Rules and steering the implementation of the tripartite agreement on radiation protection and radiation safety, as well as for special projects.

On 1st May 2019, the reorganization of the HSE-OHS group further came into effect.  The group now has three sections: the Medical Service (HSE-OHS-ME) headed by John Wijnberg, the Infrastructure and Building Safety Engineering Section (HSE-OHS-IB) headed by Saverio La Mendola and the Process Engineering and General Safety Services Section (HSE-OHS-PE) headed by Simon Marsh. The new organisation follows an in-depth analysis of the group’s tasks and activities performed by the Group Leader, Yves Loertscher, when he took over the OHS group in 2018.

 The main objective of this change is to bring together the theoretical and practical aspects of the domains covered by OHS, such as mechanics, electricity, structures and fire engineering to respond optimally to the needs of their clients. In addition, the reorganization has allowed resources to be freed to support other HSE activities such as emergency preparedness, which is under the responsibility of the Fire and Rescue Service (FB) and quality management, which is a service provided by the new TC group.

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