World Day for Safety and Health at Work award winners

At the 10th European Good Practice Awards, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) recognised and rewarded the outstanding contribution to safe maintenance made by eight organisations and companies from across Europe.

The awards were presented at a ceremony hosted by the Hungarian EU Presidency on April 28 –World Day for Safety and Health at Work.

Entries were received from organisations of all sizes from a wide variety of industrial sectors keen to demonstrate and share their good practice examples. A booklet was also published, showing the good practices implemented by the winners and commended companies.

“The winning companies and organisations have really made exceptional contributions to promoting safe maintenance,” said László Andor, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

Welcoming the positive economic impact of safe maintenance, Kolos Kardkovács, Secretary of State for Employment, representing the EU Presidency, said: “A lack of proper maintenance can have serious safety consequences, ultimately impacting productivity and profitability.”

Actavis Ltd Malta was recently awarded the European Good Practice Award for setting up preventive measures and taking the necessary corrective actions to improve maintenance safety.

The Malta facility, through its 630 employees and its continuous improvement philosophy, has become a key contributor to the group of companies, selling a number of branded generics as well as other generic pharmaceuticals.

The successful integration of a number of acquisitions has helped position the company among the world’s largest in the industry. Founded in 1956, the group has over 10,000 employees in over 40 countries.

A number of in-house corrective actions have been implemented to improve safe operation of a capsule-filling machine.

The most significant action was the installation of a guard to cover the moving parts.

Solutions were also developed following a risk assessment for the preventive maintenance of a coating machine, including improved accessibility to the external technical areas, installation of a lifting device, a manual handling training programme, and the introduction of safe systems of work.

The other seven winners are Voestalpine Hytronics GmbH and Voestalpine Weichensysteme GmbH (Austria, iron and steel production) for their use of technology and organisation to achieve safer maintenance; Protón Electrónica SLU (Spain, electrical equipment) for coordinating repair and maintenance with the client; Skellefteå Räddningstjänst (Sweden, fire services) for its development of safe work routines for firefighters; Sonae (Portugal, retail trade) for its management of preventative and corrective maintenance; Glass Handling Technic Vof (Netherlands, Horticulture) for maintaining and repairing horticultural glasshouses safely and effectively; Tarmac Quarry Materials (UK, mining and quarrying) for its competent maintenance teams and STIB-MIVB (Belgium, transport) for its approach to maintenance.