Baxter Malta awarded prestigious certification

The Baxter Malta facility was last month awarded the prestigious international health and safety management certification OHSAS 18001. The facility was certified by the international assessment group ERM CVS, whose lead auditor cited Baxter Malta as an industry benchmark operation.

This was announced by Baxter Malta's director of Manufacturing Sergio Vella during the inauguration of the Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) awareness week held at the facility between last Wednesday and Tuesday.

The EHS Week was inaugurated by the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry for Social Policy Dr Frans Agius, together with US Ambassador Anthony Gioia.

In his address, Mr Vella said that "this is truly a great achievement on the part of all the Baxter Malta employees, since the achievement of this type of certification requires all employees, not just management, to demonstrate that they are fully conversant with work-related risks within their areas, as well as with the preventive measures in place to eliminate such risks.

"Such a system naturally entails a significant investment in time and resources to train all employees in on-the-job risk assessments, followed by continuous improvement plans and projects. However, it obviously provides a great long-term payback in terms of a safe work place where the key objective is zero accidents."

The ceremony was also addressed by Charlot Caruana, Baxter's EHS co-ordinator. Mr Caruana said: "The challenge behind OHSAS 18001 certification implied a more hands-on approach with a higher employee involvement. A new risk assessment process had to be developed in such a way that it would help to document the potential hazards identified, the related risks and the respective risk control measures.

"Giving our employees the opportunity to discuss openly work related risks by providing them with a systematic tool to identify such situations resulted in a sense of responsibility to achieve the objective of zero accidents. This was the vital element towards the implementation of OHSAS 18001."

The organisation of an Environment, Health & Safety awareness week at Baxter Malta has now become a fixed reference point in the company's calendar of events.

During this event, a number of consultants, companies and governmental and non-governmental groups will be participating through interactive talks and demonstrations with a view to increasing further environmental, health and safety awareness among all Baxter employees.

The participants include the Institute of Health and Safety, who will discuss solvent and chemical handling, manual handling and machinery safety, WasteServ who will be giving a presentation on waste separation and Estetika who will give advice on adopting a healthy lifestyle.

Ms Christine Copperstone will share experiences on managing stress and Charlot Caruana will facilitate an open forum between management and shop floor representatives.

Baxter Malta's operations have, over the past years, evolved in a very specific way, whereby it has been recognised that, apart from financial, customer and quality focus, a truly world-class company must possess environment, health and safety considerations as key success factors in its overall strategic plan.

The rationale behind such a drive is to understand that a world-class company needs to reinforce its commitment towards the public and society at large by safeguarding, as far as practically possible, the environment in which it operates.

Additionally, Baxter recognises that one of its principal assets is its employees and, in this respect, one of its key responsibilities is that of safeguarding the safety at work of its associates and ensuring a risk-free work environment. This approach is also a key factor in enhancing employees' work engagement and motivation towards the company.

With EHS as one of the key building blocks of its journey towards excellence, Baxter Malta has registered a number of meaningful milestones in this critical area. Certification to the international environmental standard ISO 14001 in the year 2000 was one such leap ahead.

Linked to this were a number of demanding programmes, such as waste minimisation, recycling and energy conservation, all involving the direct participation of many employees at all levels of the organisation. One such programme involved investment, last year, in a solar installation system, the largest on the island, that generates enough electricity to power the company's reception area.