The annual event, which this year was on the theme: "Health and Safety Our Number One Core Value", is aimed at promoting the safety and well-being of its staff by enhancing their awareness and safety while on duty and other trends as pertains to the operations of the company.

The company operates vessels which carry passengers and goods along the Volta Lake.

 It also operates a vessel which provides health services for communities along the Volta Lake.

Core value

Addressing staff on the premises of the company at Akosombo last Tuesday, the Managing Director of the VLTCL, Rose Appiah Okyere, said health and safety which was the priority of the company for its workers was also its core value which the workers must practice.

To make it a reality, Mrs Okyere said the company had instituted a safety awareness day to be observed annually.

hat, she explained, was to remind the workers of the company that it had signed on to protect them.

Mrs Okyere, who said the safety awareness day celebrations started last year, indicated that it would be held each year.

She said the company’s station officers who were the safety coordinators had to go through safety training each month, after which they gave the head office at Akosombo periodic report on safety issues.

The managing director said the company had not recorded any death of its workers through accidents and that the company was number one in terms of safety measures.

She further stated that last year some loopholes in safety measures were identified in the company’s operations which were being addressed to ensure maximum safety for the employees.

Mrs Okyere stated that safety gadgets needed to ply the Volta Lake had been procured for the workers.

She urged the workers not to take their health and safety for granted and hide behind cultural and religious beliefs that God would protect them, but instead play key roles in ensuring that they were safe.

The Security and Safety Coordinator of the VLTCL, Gideon Budu Aleawobu, outlined safety measures that would be taken next year.

That, he indicated, included improvement in safety standards, policies and controlling of job-related hazards, provision of personal protective equipment to all staff members, training in safety related issues, safety audit of all ports and stations, as well as developing the engineering and administrative control system to help protect workplace related hazards.