A Tauranga charitable trust is basking in the workplace health and safety limelight with an ACC sponsored national award after spending 22 years working behind the scenes.

Supported Individualised Lifestyle Choices was presented with one of seven national ACC Workplace Safety Award's for highlighting workplace safety and helping other businesses improve.

SILC chief executive Terese Germon and business support manager Shirley McCombe with the company's two awards.

SILC provides support for people who live with intellectual, physical and acquired disabilities as well as complex health, sensory and age-related challenges.

Operating in Tauranga since 1991, this is the first year the charitable trust entered the awards and as a bonus they were awarded Bay of Plenty Polytechnic's Community Organisation Award.

'For us it's about recognising the commitment that everybody makes to health and safety,” says SILC chief executive Terese Germon.

'It's [BOP Polytechnic award] a nice cherry on the top. It's really exciting to be recognised as we have been here 22 years and until now we have chosen to be invisible.”

A total of 21 companies were selected as finalists, with the ACC awards going to businesses that were able to demonstrate excellence or innovation in workplace safety systems, practices or culture.

Along with SILC, this year's winners include engineering and manufacturing companies, a skydiving operator and a sawmilling and timber processing company.

ACC chief executive Scott Pickering says the judging panel of ACC injury prevention management consultants, and independent health and safety experts were impressed with the level of commitment and leadership shown by SILC's management.

By creating a 'safety first” culture in the workplace SILC is striving for continual improvement both in safety and preventative measures, says Scott.

SILC business support manager Shirley McCombe says the awards show they are going beyond standard workplace procedures and requirements as staff's safety is essential.

'It recognises that health and safety is not just about what happens at work, it impacts on all parts of our [employees] lives. For us it's about taking a holistic approach to wellbeing.”

ACC Insurance and Prevention Services general manager John Beaglehole says the high calibre of entrants suggests the safety message is starting to take root across the spectrum of Kiwi businesses.

'New Zealand has a higher rate of work-related injuries than comparable countries such as Australia and England, so it's great to see Kiwi businesses where a safety-conscious approach is the norm, not an exception.”

This year's winners of the ACC Workplace Safety Award were:

• Dimond Ltd (Canterbury)
• EIS Ltd (Southland)
• MBC Contracting Ltd (West Coast)
• Northpine Ltd (joint winner, Northland)
• Skydive Ballistic Blondes Ltd (joint winner, Northland)
• Supported Individualised Lifestyle Choices (Tauranga)
• Transdev (Auckland Central)
• Wellington Airport (Wellington).