PRODUCTIVITY can only be achieved if safety is assured at the workplace and when employees and allied personnel are conscious about everyone’s well-being and are always ready to respond to exigencies in an organized manner.
To ensure environment and safety consciousness, Taiheiyo Cement Philippines Inc. (TCPI) in the southern town of San Fernando, Cebu recently organized a series of activities to ensure their employees are capable of saving lives.
These activities included training on basic life support and standard first aid, then advanced fire safety and drill, and further celebrated the Construction Health and Safety Week.
Life-saving techniques
Taiheiyo Cement kicked off the series by providing 15 new employees and 23 members of its Emergency Response Team (ERT) a comprehensive training in life-saving techniques.
The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in the town and rural health unit (RHU) staff taught them basic life support, as well as cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on adults and infants.
They also coached participants on how to do rescue breathing and handle foreign body airway obstruction, also with adults and infants, and how to use an automatic external defibrillator and bag valve mask.
The BFP and RHU staff taught the 19 ERT first aiders standard first aid that included handling close and open wounds, burns, fractures and dislocations and bandaging techniques, as well as dealing with heat stroke.
Simulation exercises
Grouped into teams, the participants had simulation exercises that tackled various scenarios as part of their practical assessment, according to lead organizer Dwight Avila, head of environment and safety.
Avila said the participants earned certificates of competency for the training attuned to Section 2 of Department Order 235, series of 2022, of the Department of Labor and Employment. The order prescribes the rules on giving certificates to first aiders.
Meanwhile, TCPI’s fire brigade members joined the ERT responders for an advanced training in preventing and fighting fire to enhance their skills, competence, knowledge, and expertise.
Firefighters from the BFP gave the 23 participants practical exercises in dragging or carrying fire victims in a rescue transfer, and in using ropes and tying appropriate knots. FO3 Efhraim Alegrado, FO2 Rolly Noel Jr., and FO1s Mel Anthon Cortez and Sheenly Villaro conducted the practical assessment, and combined the application of the skills.
Safety for all
With the company building a new cement manufacturing facility, TCPI highlighted the series with the Construction Health and Safety Week.
It was intended to strengthen the safety culture among Taiheiyo’s employees and suppliers’ personnel, as well as promote awareness of the safety and health in the workplace.
During the firefighting contests, the production team emerged first in the rescue transfer relay, followed by mechanical in second, with engineering and instrumentation placing third.
Contest
In the hose and ladder contest, Sinoma construction placed first, followed by production, second, and purchasing, third; while mechanical topped in the bucket relay, followed by the packhouse team, and third, production.
The human resources and administration division won the jingle-making contest, along with the treasury and billings department at the Cebu City office.
Mary Jolina Encabo of the company’s purchasing department won the slogan contest with “Kaluwasang Iya ug Alang sa Tanan, Atong Panalipdan ug Ipakita sa Atong Binuhatan (Safety for One and All, We Defend and Demonstrate in What We Do).”