By Foday Moriba Conteh
NP Sierra Leone Limited joined the world to commemorate ‘World Day for Safety and Health at Work’ on the theme: “A Safe and Healthy Working Environment as a Fundamental Principle and Right at Work”. As part of commemorating the day, the company, on Saturday 28th April, 2023, held a Float Parade or March Pass which was geared towards raising awareness from Shell Personage Street to the company’s Kissy Terminal facility situated in the East End of Freetown.
In his address, the General Manager of NP-Sierra Leone, Saidu Mansaray, stated that the World Day for Safety and Health at Work was set aside by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to create awareness about observing safety in the world in limiting the cause of accidents by avoiding dangerous practices in the work place.
He said that safety is very important in the work place and that as a company they deemed it fit to embark on a Float Parade and sensitization exercise as a way to raise awareness on safety at the work place.
The General Manager maintained that safety in the work place means that there are limitations and elements put in place by institutions in order to limit the causes of incident at work places of which he stated that one of the roles Management of NP-SL is playing is to put mechanisms in place in order to limit the causes of incidents going further to state how these mechanisms include policies and precautionary measures stressing that the company has been working in the direction of creating a safe working environment for its staff.
He admonished everyone present to imbibe safe work habits both in the office and at home, adding that by practicing safety habits, NP workers will help reduce injury and prevent accidents especially fire outbreaks.
On his part, the Safety Officer at NP Sierra Leone, Steven Koroma averred how safety should not just be observed on a day like this, rather, it should be observed on a daily basis of which he advised NP-SL drivers to maintain responsible driving and respect road signs.
He said that the responsibility of safety at the work place rests upon on every employee adding that with concerted efforts, issues of safety at the work place will be addressed.
Steven Koroma called on everyone to normalize the saying; “Your Safety is My Safety”
The Chief Driver of NP-Sierra Leone, Alie Kanu, expressed appreciation to NP Sierra Leone for holding the Float Parade March and embarking on a sensitization exercise on safety at the work place which he described as very important to them.
He said that through the sensitization exercise they have been schooled on how to ensure safety at the work place is enhanced and called on his colleagues to make good use of the knowledge acquired during the exercise.
The event was climaxed with the demonstration of the use of a fire extinguisher by a representative of the BRV drivers to show everyone that fire extinguishers are not difficult to use.
