TVIRD received the prestigious 8th Gawad Kaligtasan at Kalusugan (GKK) and the Safety Milestone (SMiLE) awards for its operational excellence at its mining site in Mount Canatuan in Zamboanga Del Norte’s Siocon town.
According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) , TVIRD – an affiliate of TVI Pacific Inc. in Canada – scored over one million man-hours without lost-time accidents in the second half of 2012 alone.
TVIRD Safety Department Manager Arturo Abad received the GKK award from DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.
The GKK is a national award given by DOLE every two years in recognition of outstanding achievements made by establishments and individuals in responding to the safety and health needs of workers, their workplaces, and community.
GKK is a component of DOLE’s Zero Accident Program, one of its flagship programs.
DOLE said the award was given to TVIRD on the merits of compliance to the standards and programs set by the Occupational Health and Safety Center – excellent programs that addresses productivity and efficiency of workers and continuous improvement of the system that manages, reduces or eliminates risks and hazards in the workplaces.
“From July 2010 to June 2012, TVIRD had a zero frequency rate, zero severity rates and a zero combined frequency rate in work-related accidents,” said Abad, who is also a recipient of the 7th GKK individual category award.
He said zero-accidents over a two-year period is considered an outstanding performance achieved by a company in the local mining industry.
TVIRD also bagged DOLE’s SMiLE award which recognizes the company’s safety performance resulting in “Non-Lost Time Accident” over the same period.
Safety Department Safety Officer Kurt Torres attributed the honor to the company’s continued close coordination with its Safety and Health Committee, as well as programs and policies that have designated full time accredited practitioners.
Among 20 mining companies in the Philippines, TVIRD is the sole mining company in Mindanao awarded by the DOLE. It also bested hundreds of companies from the manufacturing, water and electricity, construction and other industries.
The award for the Institutional Category, which is also referred to as the “DOLE Secretary Award,” is given to companies for exemplary health and safety practices that extend to the community. To date, the DOLE regional office has also certified that TVIRD has no pending labor standards case.
“Hand in hand, let us work together in realizing our goal of zero accident and zero illness in our workplaces. This is a boost to productive competitiveness,” Baldoz said during the awarding ceremony recently.
She also stressed that the awards will inspire establishments to continue raising the bar of excellence in workers’ protection and share its expertise to industry colleagues.
For his part, Abad said: “We owe the awards to (our) workers for their dedication and religious compliance to safety programs. The company achieved this rare feat also because of Management’s support and guidance.”
TVIRD has been operating for over a decade in Canatuan, the ancestral lands of the indigenous Subanon tribe, which is the biggest ethnic group in the Zamboanga Peninsula.
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