Johannesburg, 11 March 2018 – With employees being the most valuable assets of any successful business, companies should value their lives and invest heavily in ensuring that the environment in which employees operate is safe, Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) Chief Executive Officer Kaizer Nyatsumba said today.
“Employers have an obligation towards their employees to ensure that not a single life is lost at the workplace, regardless of how hazardous one’s work environment is. In fact, the more hazardous the environment, the more caution employers need to exercise to ensure the safety of their workers. The injury or loss of even one life at a plant or at a site is one life too many,” Mr Nyatsumba said.
It is against this backdrop, among others, that SEIFSA established the SEIFSA Awards for Excellence to encourage and celebrate companies which invest in the health and safety of their workers.
To celebrate companies that go out of their way to invest in the health and safety of their employees, SEIFSA will present the Health and Safety Award of the Year to a company with the best legal compliance record in Health and Safety or the lowest Lost-Time Injury Frequency rate in 2017.
Other awards that form the seven categories of the SEIFSA Awards for Excellence are:
- The Most Innovative Company of the Year, which will be awarded to a company that showed the best level of innovation in research and development or production in 2017.
- The Most Transformed Company of the Year Award will be received by a company that showed the highest transformation level in the composition of its Board of Directors, Executive Management and Managerial Team in 2017. This award category pits companies employing fewer than 100 people against those of similar size, and companies employing more than 100 companies against others of similar size.
- The Best CSI Award will be presented to a company whose corporate social investment programme/s in 2017 had a major impact on the lives of its beneficiaries.
- The company rated the highest in customer service performance in 2017 will receive the Customer Service Award of the Year;
- This is the Decade of the Artisan, and an award will be made to the company that trained the highest number of artisans in 2017;
- The Environment Stewardship Award will go to a company that has successfully implemented greening initiatives in its day-to-day business operations in 2017.
Mr Nyatsumba encouraged manufacturers operating in the metals and engineering sector to submit their entries for the seven categories before the deadline date of 29 March 2019. SEIFSA awards entrants will be assessed on their performance in the period 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017. Participants can enter by visiting the SEIFSA Awards website (www.seifsaawards.co.za).
The Awards are open to all companies in the metals and engineering sector, and not only those that are members of Associations affiliated to SEIFSA.
Awards winners will be honoured at a ceremony that will take place at the IDC Conference Centre in Sandton on 24 May 2018.
Issued by:
Ollie Madlala
Communications Consultant
Tel: (011) 298 9411 / 082 602 1725
Email: ollie@seifsa.co.za
Web: www.seifsa.co.za