Boral's Health and Safety policy in the early 1980s.     Most of Boral's operations in the early 1980s employed between twenty and one hundred staff. As a result they did not have the same problems encountered by other manufacturing and mining companies, which had to deal with workforces of between three hundred and one thousand employees per plant. Being involved in areas like quarrying, pre-mixed concrete, sawmilling and steel also meant that safety issues were very important. The Boral Group therefore appointed a group medical officer attached to the corporate staff to handle occupational health and safety. Each state division also had a part-time safety officer and a loss control officer, whose job it was to audit each division's safety record, assist management in the various plants and achieve the highest possible safety standards. Monthly reports on accidents were seen by all members of the Group's board of directors. Where ten or more people were employed, Boral introduced occupational health and safety committees. This program was very successful, resulting in a 42 per cent reduction in the frequency rate of lost time injuries. Communication was the first priority in Boral's industrial relations philosophy. Neal said, 'I believe that if people talk together then many problems can be solved before they occur. We had a preventative approach to industrial problems.' The company did not have a formal industrial relations structure or department. Line management was expected to handle employee relations and each manager was directly accountable. Neal said, `What our line managers may have lacked in sophistication and training, I believe, was made up in their awareness, their closeness to the situation, and their genuine desire to do the right thing. In corporate head office, we believed that problems should be settled on the shop floor, and we placed extreme emphasis on developing good relations between management and labour.' During 1982 general industrial disputes, connected with wage claims and campaigns for a thirty-five hour week, affected the profitability of many Boral operations. In 1983, every Boral division concerned with home construction experienced a downturn in sales. Home dwelling construction approvals were at their lowest level since 1965-66, dropping 26 per cent from their 1980-81 peak. Cyclone products were also affected by the worst drought in Australia's recorded history. There were some reductions in employment, but despite this there was widespread support in most areas of the company for the wage pause.       in 1985 Boral purchased City Bricks which had been operating from Scoresby in outer Melbourne since 1963. Pictured above is the company's original brickworks in Camberwell Road, Hawthorn, in 1923.     City Bricks' brickworks in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern (above). Its neighbouring Tooronga Quarry (below) was closed in 1983.           City Bricks' board of directors, 1923.     In November 1983, for the first time, Boral gave staff the opportunity to become shareholders in the company through an employee share scheme. As a result of this, 28 per cent of Boral's workforce became shareholders in the group. By 1984, there were over 12,000 Boral employees worldwide, and Boral was in the top fifteen Australian companies. That year Business Review Weekly rated Boral the third best managed company in Australia, and placed it fourth as the best long-term investment stock. By 1985 the state of home building and general construction activity in Australia had totally turned around, partly due to Neal's initiative in lobbying the Hawke government and organising a national housing summit at Parliament House in Canberra. This resulted in the First Homeowner's Scheme, a government assistance program for young home buyers. This scheme, coupled with the Bicentennial Roads program in preparation for Australia's two hundredth birthday, greatly improved Boral's outlook.         »»