National Occupational Safety and Health Awards 2014

The Ministry of Labour and Labour Relations annually organises special activities during 'National Safety Week', which falls in the second week of October, to raise the awareness on occupational safety and health among employers and employees in the corporate and public sectors and to create a safety culture within the world of work which will lead to enhanced productivity through a healthy work force.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) was commissioned by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2009. The mandate of the institute is awareness creation, training and research on occupational safety and health with a goal of becoming a self financing institution within three years.

To achieve this goal, the Ministry of Labour and Labour Relations, The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and the Department of Labour will launch the National Occupational Safety and Health Awards to minimise occupational accidents and diseases, benchmark the best occupational safety and health practices, reward the best practitioners and to develop and promote safety culture in industries.

Awards will be presented to the winners in the manufacturing, apparel and textile, food, tourism, hotels and related industry and agriculture sectors and 15 runners-up will also be selected.

The best Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) practitioners among multinationals and local industrial sectors will also be rewarded.

The large, medium and small scale industries in the said sectors are eligible to participate and benchmark their OSH status.