Oil and Gas UK has added a new entry to its annual offshore safety awards portfolio as health experts raise alarm over workforce’s growing waistlines.
The new Health Award will recognise an individual, team or company which has actively improved the health of its workforce.
It comes at a time when a number of energy companies have begun targeting workers with a waist size over 37 inches and offering them weight loss programmes via occupational health providers.
In the last ten years the average weight of oil workers has risen by three stone, doctors have warned.
“I am very excited that this year we’ve added a new category to the UK Oil and Gas Industry Safety Awards – the Health Award,” said Robert Paterson, Oil & Gas UK health and safety director.
“We have done this because we know that there is a tremendous amount of fantastic work on improving the health of the offshore workforce and we strongly believe those efforts should be recognised”.
The key speaker at this year’s event, jointly organised by Oil and Gas UK and Step Change in Safety, will be Sir Charles Haddon-Cave who led the Nimrod enquiry in 2009.
The winners will be presented on April 30 at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre. The nominations for all eight categories, outlined below, close on February 21.
“By recognising the people and companies striving to improve safety across the industry, these annual awards have become the most prestigious safety awards in the industry,” said Les Linklater, Step Change in Safety team leader.
“Last year we saw some inspirational members of the workforce and I am really looking forward to meeting this year’s nominees.”
List of UK Oil and Gas Industry Safety Awards categories:
• Safety Leadership – for an inspirational and motivational team leader
• Safety Representative of the Year – for an enthusiastic and committed safety rep
• Preventative Safety Action – for a quick-thinker who has helped prevent a potential incident
• Most Promising Individual – for an up-and-coming young person with potential
• Innovation in Safety – for a company which has put in place a clever safety process or technique
• Workforce Engagement – for a worksite or installation which has embraced engagement with its workers
• The Health Award – for demonstrable positive effects on the workforce by an individual/team/company that has taken steps to actively improve the health of its workforce.
• Ideas in Safety – £5,000 prize for an individual/team with an idea for reducing or preventing hydrocarbon leaks
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