Hatteras honored for employee safety

NEW BERN, N.C. – Hatteras Yachts has received its second Chairman’s Gold Award for Safety from Brunswick Corp., and its second Million Hour Safety Award from the North Carolina Department of Labor, each reflecting Hatteras’ achievement of more than 2 million hours worked without a lost-time injury, the company said Monday.

Hatteras’ current stretch without a lost-time injury dates back to September 2002, and at the date of the ceremony stood at 2.3 million hours and counting. During that time Hatteras also significantly reduced the number of “recordable” injuries, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, from a high of 31 in 2002 to only 14 in 2003. Only two such injuries occurred during the first quarter of 2004, the Hatteras press release reported.

George W. Buckley, chairman and chief executive officer of Brunswick, and Dusty McCoy, president of the Brunswick Boat Group, presented the Chairman’s Gold Award, along with commemorative jackets for all Hatteras employees, at a celebration and luncheon held at the boat builder’s New Bern facilities, the Hatteras press release reported.

“We have an obligation to send our employees home to their families in the same condition in which they arrived,” said Bill Naumann, Hatteras president and chief executive officer. “It’s an obligation we take seriously and work very hard to meet.”

Multilayered approach to safety
Hatteras’ said its safety effort is built around a multilayered campaign, founded on the DuPont STOP program – a behavioral-based program that encourages supervisors and employees to work together to identify and correct potential safety hazards. Hatteras also recently instituted a tiered safety organization that involves and empowers employees at every level of the company, including the company’s team of executives.

On behalf of Hatteras’ achievement and as an illustration of the importance of the achievement within Brunswick and Hatteras, two contributions were made to local charities. A $20,000 check was presented to the Twin Rivers YMCA to be used in the construction of its new aquatics center. And Hatteras employees selected the Merci Clinic, an agency chartered to provide for the health care needs of indigent and elderly individuals, for a second grant of $10,000.

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