Grindeks has received the Good Practice Award in work safety for the best project for improving working conditions within a company, by eradicating exposure to harmful substances.
For the competition, Grindeks submitted descriptions of four such projects that had already been completed within the company – regarding prevention of exposure to harmful substances, regarding improvement of the quality of ventilation in working spaces and non-standard methods of protecting employees against risk factors. However, the best project of the four was adjudged to be the company’s example of the replacement of harmful chloroform utilised in the manufacturing process with less harmful substances.
The change in technologies in the implementation of the latter project cost Grindeks 120,000 lats, but benefited the company – by providing better and safer working conditions for its employees.
The Good Practice Award was presented for the first time in Latvia as part of the European Week 2003 project, “Hazardous substances – work carefully!”.
The award was presented to Grindeks Quality Control Department Director, Imants Dāvidsons by State Labour Inspectorate Director, Jānis Bērziņš.
The purpose of European Week 2003 was to demonstrate to both employers and employees the benefits that are possible, by observing good practice in the area of work safety and health protection, in order to prevent the risks arising from hazardous substances in the workplace.