Recognized for health and safety standards, community-oriented programs
Manila / December 2012 – The Department of Labor and Employment feted Canadian mining firm TVI Resource Development Philippines Inc. (TVIRD) with two awards in recognition of its responsive health and safety programs that have positively impacted both its employees and the community. The 8th Gawad Kaligtasan at Kalusugan (GKK) and the Safety Milestone (SMiLE) awards were conferred upon the company for its operational excellence in its mining site in Canatuan, Zamboanga Del Norte, which has 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 this month at the Occupational Safety and Health Center Auditorium, Diliman, Quezon City. The GKK is a national award given by the agency 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.
The GKK is a component of DOLE’s Zero Accident Program, one of the flagship programs of the department. It 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.
“Based on July 2010 to June 2012 records, TVIRD had a zero frequency rate, zero severity rates and a zero combined frequency rate in work-related accidents,” according to Abad, who is also a recipient of the 7th GKK individual category award. Zero-accidents over a two-year period is considered an outstanding performance achieved by a company in the local mining industry.
DOLE Secretary’s Award
TVIRD also received the agency’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 attributes 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.
TVIRD is the sole mining company in Mindanao among 20 companies in the country awarded by the DOLE. Likewise, it bested hundreds of companies from the manufacturing, mining, 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 the company 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. 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.
“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,” Abad concluded.
A local affiliate of TVI Pacific, Inc. in Canada, TVIRD has been operating for over a decade in Canatuan, the ancestral lands of the Subanon tribe, which is the biggest ethnic group in the Zamboanga Peninsula. Since its inception, the company has dedicated significant resources in preserving Subanon culture and the indigenous community’s inalienable rights to life, dignity and sustainable development.
