It may sound hard to believe, but an active safety program can increase business for even a small company.
Northwest Restoration, a national restoration company headquartered in Erie, Pa., has restored steeples and chimneys for more than 20 years. Owner Larry Anderson says the small company, which has fewer than 10 employees, attends client-safety training sessions and offers its own instruction.
Going above and beyond in safety training makes companies more desirable to big clients. A good safety record, along with a lack of lawsuits and investigations from Washington, D.C.-based OSHA, are qualities that help lure big clients, particularly if a company can document its safety practices, training and record. Documentation is critical to success, according to Christian Rebello of Westchester, Ill.-based American Patriot Insurance, a company that has insured roofing contractors since 1995.
“A company needs to have documentation to show it is a responsible employer providing documented safety materials to workers,” Rebello says. “A lot of insurance companies require a safety manual. If I were an underwriter, I would take all of this into consideration, especially for workers compensation.”
SAFETY BY COMMITTEE
Where does the documentation come from? In some cases, it’s a group effort that starts with a safety committee. “The committee addresses everything from hazard communications to fall protection and drug and alcohol usage,” Rebello explains. “It even discusses good housekeeping and how it affects a safe work environment.”
A committee offers a company the opportunity to delegate roles to different employees and get different views about safety issues. One person can concentrate on fall prevention while another researches environmental issues or other topics.
Safety committees aren’t new. For the most part, they came along with the industrial revolution. They are not a requirement of OSHA. Instead, OSHA authorizes states to establish their own OSHA-approved safety and health programs. Now, more than 20 states and U.S. territories set standards for safety and health services in a program called the Occupational Safety and Health State Plan Association, or OSHSPA. OSHSPA is a type of parent organization working with states that adopt OSHA-approved state plans complete with their own specific regulations. The member states share information in annual meetings.
STATE INITIATIVES
Not all states incorporate safety committees into their guidelines, but many do. In 1995, Minnesota decided to require employers of 25 or more employees to establish a joint labor-management safety committee. Employers with 25 or fewer employees must establish a committee if they have a high accident rate.
Oregon is one of the most proactive states when it comes to safety committees. In 1990, the state passed a law requiring mandatory labor/management safety and health committees for most Oregon employers. The state of Oregon makes the process easy with a full online offering of manuals, workshops and forms for documentation available on the Salem-based Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Association’s Web site, www.cbs.state.or.us/external/osha.
OR-OSHA is very specific about its rules. An employer with 11 or more employees on one shift must establish a safety committee. In situations where there are 10 or fewer employees on each shift, the employer can choose to conduct safety meetings with its entire staff because the staff is so small.
In Oregon, regular weekly or monthly meetings are required and quarterly inspections of the worksite are common. Because committees often meet before or after normal working hours, employees are paid their regular wages while participating in the meetings, regardless of when they occur. Most committees include members appointed by the employer and members selected by employees. The employee-elected members must equal or exceed those selected by the employer. The appointment is usually a one-year term but is not limited to only one term.
During the meetings, members review safety- and health-inspection reports to help correct safety hazards. If an accident has occurred, the committee evaluates the accident investigations and works to correct unsafe conditions. Commonly, the committee also evaluates accident- and illness-prevention programs and discusses recommendations for improvements.
OR-OSHA recommends documenting attendance and recording minutes from each safety committee meeting and keeping them on file for at least one year.
For a complete directory of states with approved occupational safety and health plans, visit www.osha.gov/dcsp/osp/ states.html. You can click on the state link to find out more about safety committee requirements in those states.
EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT
While a safety committee addresses some serious business, a safety program needs employees to actively participate and work toward the overall goal. That means incorporating some clever ideas into the plan, according to the Montgomery-based Alabama Municipal Insurance Corp.
The organization’s Web site, www.amicentral.org, addresses successful safety-incentive programs that include attainable goals and rewards for achieving them. These include everything from establishing safety program themes to safety slogan contests. Rewards include gift cards, trips, stock offerings and other interesting incentives that attract employee attention.
Thorough information about how to form your own safety committee is available from the Atlanta-based National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. NIOSH offers a number of reference publications and videos specifically intended to assist safety committees on its Web site, www.cdc.gov/niosh. Specific information about state plans is available on the OSHA Web site, www.osha.gov/ dcsp/osp/trainmat.html.
Pam Parker writes about construction and safety from Erie, Pa.
LEARN ABOUT SAFETY COMMITTEES
OSHA
Washington, D.C., www.osha.gov/dcsp/osp/ trainmat.html
OREGON OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ASSOCIATION
Salem, www.cbs.state.or.us/external/osha
ALABAMA MUNICIPAL INSURANCE CORP.
Montgomery, www.amicentral.org
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
Atlanta, www.cdc.gov/niosh