Maliban achieves OHSAS 18001:2007

Maliban Biscuit Manufactories (Pvt) Limited became the first Biscuit Manufacturing Organization to receive the OHSAS 18001:2007 – Occupational Health and Safety Management System – from the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI). The certification was handed over to the Maliban Biscuit Manufactories (Pvt) Limited by Dr. Lalith Senaweera, Director General of Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) at a simple and elegant function attended by the Chairman, CEO, Board of Directors and employees of Maliban.

According to the Chairman of Maliban, Ratnapala Samaraweera, they have obtained this OHSAS certification to highlight their concern and commitment in the promotion of occupational health and safety of their employees. After the introduction of the system, the accident rate and occupational health hazards have reduced drastically and employee moral has improved vastly. As a result, overall productivity of the company has improved by 10% during the past financial year.

“We always believe that employees are the most valuable asset in this organization,” said D. L. Weerasuriya, CEO of Maliban Biscuit Manufactories (Pvt) Limited, addressing the gathering. “Therefore, this certificate that OHSAS has given us certifies that our employees are in a good and healthy working environment to continue their work without any accidents. This is also to prove to our consumers, our international and local business partners that Mailban is in compliance with international standards.”

“Attaining the 18001 OHSAS certification demonstrates Maliban’s commitment and its continuous efforts to act in a socially responsible manner in attaining a safe and healthy working environment for its employees, contractors, suppliers and all,” commented Dr. Lalith Senaweera, Director General of SLSI, at the ceremony. “Therefore, I believe that this establishment has set an example for other manufacturing companies to adopt occupational health and safety practices.”

Also stressing on the hard work of Maliban’s management that went into achieving this feat, Bandula Perera, Group General Manager, HR and Admin, Maliban Biscuit Manufactories (Pvt) Limited said, “in terms of employees and management, it is a great privilege for us to have the OHSAS certification. We have a very favourable work environment for our employees and obtaining this certification further guarantees the safety and occupational health of the employees.”

During the ceremony, the team that was involved in achieving this accomplishment was appreciated. Priyantha Amarasinghe, Vinoy Jayashantha, Praveen Kanagaratnam, Niroshan Prasad, Suranga Siri Kumara, Sampath Ranasinghe, Pradeep Sumith, M.H. Prasad, . Chandrala Fernando and Ms. Warna Fernando constituted the team.

This prestigious certification will be another important addition to Maliban’s already impressive achievements that include the ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 22001 certifications to name a few among the accolades that they have obtained over the years.

OHSAS 18001 is a British Standard for occupational health and safety management system comprising of two parts, 18001 and 18002. It also includes BS880 and a number of other publications. The OHSAS 18001 assists various organizations to put in place demonstrably sound occupational health and safety operations and is the world’s most recognized occupational health and safety management system standard. By adopting and implementing OHSAS system standard, an organization stands to gain the following benefits: reduction in the number of accidents and occupational health hazards, potential reduction in downtime and associated costs, legal and regulatory compliance, stakeholders commitment to occupational health and safety, demonstration of an innovative and forward thinking approach, increased access to new customers and market credibility, better management of health and safety risks, reduction in liability and risk, improvement of employee confidence and improvement of emergency preparedness.