Having a work project recognised at the Workplace Safety and Health Council Awards 2017 under the Innovation category can be a prestigious honour for a company and the people involved.
However, for YTL PowerSeraya Engineer Tan Yian Teck, the emphasis has always been on helping his company to improve safety standards and productivity.
“Safety is my topmost priority at work and I hope to go home safely to my family every day,” said the 56-year-old, who is also a Union of Power and Gas Employees (UPAGE) branch official. Encouraged by his company’s safety manager, Yian Teck and team-mate Tan Hong Tat, 48, submitted a project they were working on for the awards.
Making Work Safer
They devised a winch-and-pulley system that eliminated the need for workers to erect scaffolds to maintain ceiling-mounted sensors. The system allowed sensors to be winched down to ground level instead.
“Feedback was very encouraging, especially from our older colleagues who no longer have to climb up a scaffolding to reach the sensors… Hong Tat and myself are in the same section and during our routine maintenance work, we are constantly looking for better and safer ways to improve our daily work process,” he shared.
As a union leader, Yian Teck also takes it upon himself to lead by example and share safety initiatives picked up through education and outreach with his colleagues. Taking safety as a way of life in his day-to-day work helps him lead from the ground up and contribute to the culture of safety in the workplace.
