by Carson Papke
Eckville Echo

---

Two Eckville companies are among the 697 safest employers in the province. Fred’s Trucking and Oilfield Service Ltd. and Viking Wireline Services Ltd. have been recognized as two of the safest places to work by Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Council. The awards are presented to companies that hold health and safety at the forefront and have performance records to prove it. This is the first time the two companies have received the award. They plan to continue the high standards for the future.
“This is very exciting and rewarding,” said Kari Faber, general manager of Fred’s Trucking. “There was a lot of hard work put into hiring quality staff. Training to receive the recognition shows that hard work has paid off.”
Faber said the company has been committed to replacing old equipment with new and better equipment which has helped in making it safer. The company has a high commitment to its safety program, she added.
One of the things Fred’s Trucking did was start a bonus program where safe work is rewarded. Faber said if there is no safety incident an employee will receive a bonus every quarter of a year. She said the program has done really well in helping the company maintain quality employees.
“We have the systems and people in place for us to work towards staying on the list and maintaining the high honour we received,” said Faber.
“These companies are the cream of the crop when it comes to workplace health and safety,” said Hector Goudreau, Alberta’s minister of Employment and Immigration. “They recognize the priorities of Albertans, which are to get home safe, to enjoy life and family and everything else our province offers.”
“The recognition is really good for us. It shows the really good work our employees do to maintaining a great safety record,” said Desmond Hallgren, assistant manager of Viking Wireline Services. “We are more than likely looking to strive towards being on the list every year and keep workers safe and happy.”
The Best Safety Performers Awards complement the priorities of Work Safe Alberta, a unique partnership between industry, labour and government. An integral part of the initiative is promoting workplace health and safety by increasing public awareness.
Alberta’s Best Safety Performers awards program was started in 2003 and 350 companies were recognized in the inaugural year. Criteria for the list has been revised over the years, including the use of disabling injury rates instead of lost time claim rates to recognize that an injury is still an injury even if a workers duties are modified.
A complete list of Alberta’s best safety performers is available at www.worksafely.org by clicking on health and safety.

the