General Secretary of STUC to Give Keynote Address at Oil & Gas UK

General Secretary of STUC to Give Keynote Address at Oil & Gas UK

The general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), Grahame Smith, will give the keynote address at this year’s UK Oil and Gas Industry Safety Awards.

He will address a gathering of hundreds of the oil and gas industry’s most enthusiastic champions for offshore safety at a ceremony on 24 April, where he will also present the winners with their awards as they are announced.

Grahame Smith is a member of two government/oil and gas industry groups which aim to maximise the potential of the industry: PILOT and the Scottish Oil and Gas Industry Leadership Group.

In January 2013 he became a member of the Scottish Government’s Commission on the Development of Scotland’s Young Workforce, chaired by Sir Ian Wood.

The UK Oil and Gas Industry Safety Awards, sponsored by Maersk Oil, are now established as the top annual showcase event to celebrate the industry’s most inspirational safety achievers.

Jointly organised by Oil & Gas UK and Step Change in Safety, the awards honour the top people and companies across seven categories.

Oil & Gas UK’s health and safety director, Robert Paterson, said: “The safety awards are getting bigger every year and I’m very pleased to announce we will have a very high calibre speaker at the event in the form of Grahame Smith.

This year there will be a return of the special Ideas in Safety Prize. This will reward the winner with £5,000 for a new, perhaps unproven, concept to help prevent hydrocarbon leaks offshore. We’re looking for creative and clever ideas from our workforce in the belief that some of the very best ideas come from the people who work the plant on a day-to-day basis.

There is still time before the end of the month to nominate yourself or a colleague for what is a prestigious and highly-regarded accolade.

Step Change in Safety’s Les Linklater added: “We’re searching for the top safety representatives, safety leaders and the bright, up and coming people who could be the safety leaders of the future. We’re also looking for the quick thinkers who have intervened to help prevent an incident and the companies leading the way in safety innovation.

Workforce engagement is very much a priority area for Step Change, where we know we can improve safety performance through better engagement with the workforce. A new award category this year is open to worksites, installations or companies which have actively embraced workforce engagement.

Nominations are open until Friday 1 March 2013. Winners will receive a specially commissioned medal by contemporary sculptor, Marian Fountain, and the winner of the Ideas in Safety Prize will receive a cheque for £5,000.

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Press Release, February 18, 2013