In spite of a hectic 2008, Keppel Corporation’s offshore and marine (O&M) section observed utmost safety standards earning it a an award during the Annual Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Awards that was held yesterday by the Ministry of Manpower and the WSH Council.
“Since our WSH reform in 2005, we have managed to reduce the work fatality rate more than 40 percent from 4.9 per 100,000 employees in 2004 to 2.8 last year,” said Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong during the awards night, recognising the companies that continue to implement sound health and safety management schemes. “However, to bring the rate down further to lead in global standards will require a strong WSH culture across our workplaces.”
There are 36 work-related cases recorded up to June 30, 2009, which exceeds the 32 cases recorded over the same period last year, the minister noted.
Keppel Corp stands out during the awards, having a total of 18 safety accolades – the largest number among the contenders. Two of the company’s supervisors are awarded for their excellent safety leadership while the O&M division also gathered awards for the newbuild and conversion projects without incident. Keppel Singmarine, O&M’s specialised shipbuilding unit, also won the Silver Award for WSH Performance for three consecutive years.
“At Keppel, we continue to focus on promoting individual and collective responsibility to ensure workplace safety,” said Company CEO Choo Chiau Beng. “We believe that everyone must embrace safety as a way of life.”
Through the company’s systematic and sustained efforts, they maintain low accident rates. There were only 0.4 cases reported for every million man-hours worked in 2008, a 0.36 reduced cases for the first half of 2009 for Singapore operations.
Additionally, Keppel Corp. spent $17.5 million in 2008 for workforce safety training, improving its safety standards on its offices, plants and yards in Singapore.