The elite of the construction and service provider industry convened in Dubai at the “2019 Better Together Awards” to celebrate Expo 2020 Dubai’s continuing commitment to looking after the health, safety and welfare of the thousands of people working across the Expo 2020 site.

The event, held at The Address Montgomerie in Dubai on Wednesday evening, recognised the successes of individuals and organisations involved in the delivery of Expo 2020 in achieving an exemplary health and safety performance, providing the workforce with good standards of accommodation and ensuring world-class employment practices.

Judges from Expo 2020 and external industry bodies selected winners and highly commended entrants from 207 high-quality submissions across 16 awards categories, including awards for initiatives, individuals and organisations.

Entrants came from a diverse range of organisations – including contractors, subcontractors, third-party developers, design and supervision consultants, project managers and service providers.

The awards ceremony was attended by more than 300 people, including Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashemy, Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director-General, Expo 2020 Dubai Bureau, and members of the Expo 2020 Dubai Sub-Committee on Worker Welfare.

Dr. Rob Cooling, Vice President, Health, Safety, Quality and Environment, Expo 2020 Dubai, said: “Expo 2020 is committed to the highest possible standards of health, safety and worker welfare of the thousands of people who are helping to prepare our site to host The World’s Greatest Show next year. Our approach is one of continual improvement of those standards, and tonight’s awards are an opportunity to recognise those companies and individuals going above and beyond to support us in this.”

Emma Seymour, Vice President, Worker Welfare, Expo 2020 Dubai, stated, “Our health, safety and worker welfare strategy, which we call ‘Better Together’, is underpinned by the core values of care, respect and pride, and aims to influence the wider operations of contractors and service providers to advance health and safety and worker welfare standards throughout the industry for years to come. It’s a partnership between everyone involved in delivering this incredible event, and it’s great to be able to celebrate some of the many achievements made over the last year, as we reach the completion of heavy construction across the site.”

More than 160 million work hours have been completed to date on the Expo 2020 site. There are currently 34,000 workers on site.

Full list of award winners is as follows: Health and Safety Initiative of the Year Award (Al Naboodah – Zero Strike 360); Quality Initiative of the Year Award (Parsons – Promoting a Quality Culture); Environment Initiative of the Year Award (ALEC – Energy Saving); Worker Welfare Initiative of the Year Award (EFS Facilities Management – The Centurion Club); Worker of the Year Award (Ayan Ahammed – Cleveland Bridge); Supervisor of the Year Award (Harpreet Krishnan – Arabtec).

Awards also included: Activity Briefing of the Year Award (Antony Joseph – Cleveland Bridge); Worker Welfare Impact of the Year Award (Manzoorudeen KK); PMC Excellence Award of the Year (Andrew Seymour); Expo Excellence Award of the Year (Maha Al Gargawi).

Moreover, Project Manager of the Year Award went to Mike Whittingham (Cleveland Bridge); Subcontractor of the Year Award to Transgulf; Service Provider of the Year Award to Enova; Consultant of the Year Award to Robert Bird Group; Contractor of the Year Award to Al Shafar General Contracting.

In addition to the Better Together Award of the Year which went to Laing O’Rourke.