Report from Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard Public Affairs – Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard won the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Shore Safety Award for large industrial activities, the Navy announced April 5. The awards recognize outstanding support and achievement in Navy safety and occupational health during fiscal year 2011.
“This recognition is a tribute to the exceptional efforts of our workforce,” said Shipyard Commander Capt. Brian Osgood, commending the nearly 4,850 civilian and military personnel at the command.
Richard Anderson, director of the Shipyard’s Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Office, said, “This CNO safety award recognizes the total Shipyard effort put forth to preventing and reducing injuries, and making the Shipyard a safer workplace for our workforce. The total Shipyard team ― management and labor ― have truly collaborated to continually strive to reduce injuries to As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA).”
The Shipyard has lowered its injury rate nine out of the last 10 years to where it is now 70 percent below the national average for the ship building and repair industry. A proactive and aggressive program to encourage workers to report safety deficiencies has resulted in low-level hazards being identified and corrected more quickly, preventing injuries and work stoppages.
Rear Adm. Brian Pindle, commander of the Naval Safety Center in Norfolk, Va., praised Shipyard workers for “significant contributions they have made toward reducing mishaps, increasing mission readiness, and preserving our most precious asset ― our Marines, Sailors, and civilians.”
The winners of the CNO Shore Safety Awards will become the Navy and Marine Corps nominees for the Secretary of the Navy Safety Excellence Award competition.
The Shipyard has received numerous awards for safety in recent years. Among the most prominent was a Navy Safety Excellence Award, the Navy’s most prestigious safety award, in 2008. In 2007, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration designated the Shipyard as a Voluntary Protection Program “Star” site, OSHA’s highest rating of workplace safety and health, and an elite status that the Shipyard continues to maintain.
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard is a full-service naval shipyard and regional maintenance center for the U.S. Navy’s surface ships and submarines. It is the largest industrial employer in the state of Hawaii with an economic impact of $925 million.
Strategically located in the mid-Pacific, the Shipyard is about a week of steam time closer to potential major regional contingencies in East Asia than sites on the West Coast.
For more information on the Shipyard, visit www.navsea.navy.mil/shipyards/pearl.