2021 National Occupational Safety and Health Award Ceremony was held at the Howard Plaza Hotel on November 17th in the afternoon today. The Awards were presented in person by Premier Su Tseng-Chang. He recognized the long-term effort to workplace safety and health and outstanding achievements demonstrated by the awarded enterprises and individuals. He also expected that the winners will lead other enterprises to value their working environment, and that they will work together to improve occupational safety and health culture.
Premier Su stated that labor is an important driving force for Taiwan's economic development, while enterprises are the impetus for country's progress. Facing the advent of the Industry 4.0, President announced “Program for Promoting Six Core Strategic Industries”. While enhancing the international competitiveness of our strategic industries, we need safe and healthy workforce to support them. In addition to strengthening the cross-ministerial cooperation mechanism and assisting the industries to transform into intelligent manufacture, enterprises should also uphold the business philosophy of safety and health first to create a better and safer work environment.
This year the National Occupational Safety and Health Awards were given to 11 enterprises. Chi Mei Corporation, Macronix International Co., Ltd, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc., AU Optronics Corporation, and Chemours (Taiwan) Company Limited received the Enterprise Benchmarking Award. Their common features are the use of intelligent and automated management to enhance safety and health performance; close supervision for contractors to effectively reduce occupational accidents. Also, they value and care for the physical and mental health of their employees and are committed to building a strong safety and health culture. They have achieved outstanding results, and each one of them is a good example for the industry to follow.
The winner of “the Small-Medium Enterprise Special Award”, Taiwan Cogeneration Corporation has established “the Occupational Accident-Free Incentive Mechanism” with nearly 800,000 hours of work without injury in the past 23 years since it was built, which is not easy. The winner of the Traditional Industry Investment Special Award, Ton Yi Industrial Corp, has invested nearly NTD 400 million in occupational safety and health in the past eight years, and has achieved good results in improving noise, high temperature, and ergonomic hazards. Kaohsiung Municipal Siaogang Hospital, CECI Engineering Consultants, Inc., Taiwan, Ditmanson Medical Foundation Chia-Yi Christian Hospital and Sin-Lau Medical Foundation, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan are deserved recognition of “the Labor Health Special Award” this year for their exemplary labor health promotion, friendly workplace, and maternal health protection measures.
Two professors received “the Individual Contribution Awards”. Professor Ho, Chi-Kung is the first full-time occupational physician in Taiwan. He has devoted himself to the field of occupational medicine for more than 30 years and has actively trained occupational medicine and industrial hygiene personnel, significantly influencing the development of emerging occupational disease prevention and labor health services.
Professor Tsai,Perng-Jy , a former labor inspector who later turned into a faculty member has assisted the government in refining the hazardous chemical management system for a long time. He was also the president of the International Occupational Hygiene Association and has promoted international cooperation to showcase Taiwan's occupational hygiene profession. At the same time, he has spared no effort to foster occupational safety and health in colleges and universities, which is admirable.
The Ministry of Labor stress that the sustainable operation of enterprises must be supported by a safe and healthy workforce. It is hoped that every enterprise will treat the workers as family members attentively and actively work to ensure workplace safety and worker health. The Ministry of Labor will continue to work with all sectors to build a safe, stable and secure working environment for workers.
