employees participation, and evaluation in the workplace Involving and ensuring Contractors’ Safety and the workplace

Participation – Evaluation – Contractors

A safe workplace is sound business

Establishing a safety and health program in the workplace is one of the most effective ways of protecting valuable asset: i.e. workers. Losing workers to injury or illness, even for a short time, can cause significant disruption and costly as well. It can also damage workplace morale, productivity, turnover, and reputation.

The main goal of safety and health programs is to prevent workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths, as well as the suffering and financial hardship these events can cause for workers, their families, and employers. The recommended practices use a proactive approach to managing workplace safety and health. Traditional approaches are often reactive –that is, problems are addressed only after a worker is injured or becomes sick, a new standard or regulation is published, or an outside inspection finds a problem that must be fixed.

These recommended practices recognize that finding and fixing hazards before they cause injury or illness is a far more effective approach.

The idea is to begin with a basic program and simple goals and grow from there. If you focus on achieving goals, monitoring performance, and evaluating outcomes, your workplace can progress along the path to higher levels of safety and health achievement.

Some of the “Core Elements” of the Safety and Health Program Recommended Practices (among others) are:

Worker Participation

To be effective, any safety and health program needs the meaningful participation of workers and their representatives. Workers have much to gain from a successful program and the most to lose if the program fails. They also often know the most about potential hazards associated with their jobs. Successful programs tap into this knowledge base.

Worker participation means that workers are involved in establishing, operating, evaluating, and improving the safety and health program. All workers at a work site should participate, including those employed by contractors, subcontractors, and temporary staffing agencies (see “Communication and Coordination for Host Employers, Contractors, and Staffing Agencies“).

In an effective safety and health program, all workers:

• Are encouraged to participate in the program and feel comfortable providing input and reporting safety or health concerns.
• Have access to information they need to participate effectively in the program.
• Have opportunities to participate in all phases of program design and implementation.
• Do not experience retaliation when they raise safety and health concerns; report injuries, illnesses, and hazards; participate in the program; or exercise safety and health rights.

Note: Worker participation is vital to the success of safety and health programs. Where workers are represented by a union, it is important that worker representatives also participate in the program, consistent with the rights provided to worker representatives under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and the National Labor Relations Act.

Program Evaluation and Improvement

Once a safety and health program is established, it should be evaluated initially to verify that it is being implemented as intended. After that, employers should periodically, and at least annually, step back and assess what is working and what is not, and whether the program is on track to achieve its goals. Whenever these assessments identify opportunities to improve the program, employers, managers, and supervisors in coordination with workers should make adjustments and monitor how well the program performs as a result. Sharing the results of monitoring and evaluation within the workplace, and celebrating successes, will help drive further improvement.

Program evaluation and improvement includes:

• Establishing, reporting, and tracking goals and targets that indicate whether the program is making progress.
• Evaluating the program initially and periodically thereafter to identify shortcomings and opportunities for improvement.
• Providing ways for workers to participate in program evaluation and improvement.

Contractor Safety

The Communication and Coordination for Host Employers, Contractors, and Staffing Agencies element requires the action of establishing effective communication and coordination with the contractor. One action that will promote a proactive workplace is for employers to identify issues that may arise during on-site work and include procedures to be used by the host employer and contractor.

• Most companies hire contractors at some time to perform specific tasks for which their own employees may not have the time or expertise.
• It is in your best interest to ensure that contractors at your work site(s) are appropriately trained and follow all safe work practices.
• Selection Criteria
  • Establish selection criteria for hiring contractors.
  • Consider the contractor’s past performance in safety and health during the bid process.
  • This may include requesting data from their OSHA 300 Log for several years.
  • Ensure that contractors have an effective safety and health management program in place prior to entering your work site.
• Oversight
  • Establish oversight, coordination and enforcement to ensure the contractor safety and health program is adequate and implemented properly.
  • Verify that contractors comply with applicable safety and health regulations by conducting regular inspections of the area where the contractors are working.
• Establishment of Procedures
  • Develop appropriate entry and exit procedures for the contractors.
  • If cigarette smoking is allowed on your work site, establish safe locations for contract employees to smoke, keeping away from storage of flammable or dust-explosive materials.
• Prompt Control of Hazards
  • Ensure prompt correction and/or control of any hazards that are identified under the contractor’s control.
  • Consider penalties such as contractor correction and/or contractor dismissal for repeated noncompliance by contractors, vendors or individuals.
• Injury & Illness Reporting
  • Develop a system so that all injuries and illnesses that occur during work performed on a contract are reported to you or someone in your company.

  WORK TO DO

• After reading the Safety Program Management module:Create individual poster for each of the 3 topics below for training and employee assessment purpose Explain your poster / drawing(explanation 1 must be 75 to 100 words in length, explanation 2 must be 75 to 100 words in length and explanation 3 must be 75 to 100 words in length).Be creative, DO Not Copy from the Internet. Be Original. Each poster / drawing is worth 10pts x 3 posters = 30ptsEach explanation is worth 10pts x 3 explanation = 30pts Total = 60pts
  1. Workers Participation
  2. Program Evaluation and Improvement
  3. Contractor Safety