Safety & Health Management Systems

"Why do I Need a Safety and Health Program?"

FACT: Nearly 50 workers are injured every minute of the 40-hour week

FACT: Almost 17 of these workers die each day.

FACT: These injuries cost society $127.7 billion in 1997, according to the National Safety Council figures. 

Can a safety and health program really make a difference?

Yes. An effective safety and health program makes all the difference in preventing injuries and illnesses in the workplace. The result is lower accident-related costs. Other benefits include reduced absenteeism, lower turnover, higher productivity, and improved employee morale. And it's the right thing to do. Safety does pay.

Success Stories

VPP

• VPP sites have, on average, injury rates 53 percent below their industry BLS Rates for calendar year 1999. When using the National Safety Council's estimate of $28,000 in direct and indirect costs per every lost-workday injury, it can be estimated that VPP sites saved more than $130,000,000 in direct and indirect costs in 1999.
• The longest running VPP site, a manufacturer with 600 employees, has sustained lost-workday case rates 73% below average for 15 years — preventing 600 injuries and saving an average of more than $1 million per year in direct and indirect costs.
• A chemical company member with 1,000 employees kept lost-workday injury rates 93% below the average for its industry throughout its 15 years in VPP, preventing 400 injuries and saving more than $10 million.
• Companies who have joined more recently report similar experiences:
  • A textile mill with only one lost-workday injury since 1992 and savings of $1.4 million;
  • A construction company that avoided 2,500 injuries over six years;
  • A paper products company that cut injuries by 40 percent and workers' compensation costs by 80 percent.

Erqonomics

• Fieldcrest-Cannon in Columbus, Georgia, cut musculoskeletal disorders from 121 in 1993 to 21 in 1996. They credit their success to worker involvement in designing systems to limit the need for workers to bend and reach.
• In North Carolina, Perdue Farms started an ergonomics program in 1991. It was so effective, the company expanded it to all its plants nationwide. Although the average lost-workday injuries for poultry process is about 12, six Perdue plants had no lost time injuries in 1996.
• Woodpro Cabinetry in Cabool, Missouri, saved $42,000 in workers compensation costs by bringing its injury rates down when it changed conveyor levels to reduce worker reaching and added additional conveyors to limit lifting. This is a significant amount for a company with about 100 workers.

Partnerships

• One partnership OSHA currently has underway is HomeSafe in our Denver region. Homebuilders who agree to establish a 10-point safety and health program that covers hazards causing serious accidents qualify for a variety of incentives including focused inspections and penalty reductions. The state of Colorado also offers a 5 percent reduction in insurance premiums. About 300 homebuilders are participating, and we hope to see significant declines in injuries and fatalities in homebuilding in the Denver area as well as cost savings for builders.
• The Roofing Industry Partnership recognizes premier safety contractors in Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin. Participating contractors who demonstrate outstanding safety and health programs qualify for limited scope inspections and penalty reductions. SESAC, the steel erection partnership in Colorado, implemented 100 percent fall protection and significantly cut workers' compensation costs for 38 contractors.
• The Cowtown project, which began three years ago, covers 27 Fort Worth-area sites in three high hazard industry sectors — meat processing, iron and steel foundries, and motor vehicle and accessory manufacture. Over the first two years of the project, participants self-identified and corrected more than 600 hazards and experienced 420 fewer on-the-job injuries, saving more than $2 million in workers' compensation costs.
• We have a special initiative for the construction industry in Florida where fatalities have increased nearly 25 percent over the past three years. Half of work-related deaths in Florida in 1998 occurred in construction. In an effort to stem this tide, OSHA offices in Florida have joined together to introduce Construction Accident Reduction Emphasis (C.A.R.E.). The goal of this program is to reduce construction accidents and fatalities in Florida by focusing resources on enforcement, partnership, and outreach.
• OSHA is working with ConAgra Refrigerated Foods and the United Food and Commercial Workers on a vertical partnership, creating a safety culture and establishing effective safety and health programs in all nine plants. Begun in 1997, the partnership started with a mock VPP review for a sausage-making plant in St. Charles, Illinois. OSHA staff were shadowed during the review by key safety personnel from ConAgra, and OSHA's Dr. Jerry Ryan conducted a culture change workshop to help ConAgra make the shift to a safety culture.
• The flagship plant, Armour Swift-Eckrich Brown N' Serve, which served as the prototype during the mock review, has now been approved for the VPP Merit program. This facility will serve as a model for the other eight ConAgra Refrigerated Foods facilities.