Once a company has established a total commitment to a zero-incident jobsite, where both leadership and craft employees believe that every incident is preventable, the next step toward achieving world-class safety lies in the systems and processes that a company employs to identify and prevent hazards from becoming incidents. This is where the rubber meets the road—the processes you put in place are what puts the core value of safety into action.

In the second article of a four-part series on achieving world-class safety written by ABC’s Director of Safety, Chris Williams, we explore what it means for a company to consider safety a priority versus a core value. When safety is a core value, it’s the basis of all major decisions made by company leadership and all employees. This article highlights how to get from thinking about safety when it’s necessary to thinking about safety during every aspect of the job.

Good leaders are liked by their subordinates because they maintain a relative peacefulness and calmness—people are happy to work for these leaders.  Great leaders, however, understand that in order to motivate a group of individuals to achieve a common set of goals, they must lead by example and never compromise on their core beliefs. Great leaders foster a culture of excellence, where everyone not only believes in the organization’s core values, but practices them in every facet of their work—and sometimes personal—lives. 

OSHA has released an updated list of almost 500 industry groups that are exempt from programmed safety inspections for FY2015; the list includes five construction-related North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes. An employer would be exempt from a programmed inspection when there are 10 or fewer employees at a worksite.

With the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moving forward with a rulemaking to expand its existing Lead Renovation and Repair Painting rule to include public and commercial buildings, ABC, as a part of the Commercial Properties Coalition, submitted comments on EPA’s framework for identifying and evaluating lead-based paint hazards from renovation, repair, painting activities in public and commercial buildings.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) placed into effect an interim enforcement policy until Oct. 31 which delays enforcement of most new requirements  of the Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution and Electrical Protective Equipment final rule for employers who are complying with the existing General Industry rule.

On April 21, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published a proposed rule that aims to clarify the definition of “waters of the U.S.” under the Clean Water Act which would significantly expand federal control of land and water resources across the nation – creating additional permitting and regulatory requirements. The public has until July 21 to submit written comments on the proposal; ABC as part of the Waters Advocacy Coalition (WAC) requested the agency grant an extension on the comment period.

STEP Platinum and Diamond recipients that would like to participate in the 2014 Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) Construction Industry Safety Excellence (CISE) awards must submit their applications to ABC by July 7.

In an informal public hearing May 19, Steve Wiltshire, vice president and director of corporate safety at ABC member company, ECS Corporate Services, LLC, testified on behalf of ABC on the issue of a proposed rulemaking to extend the compliance date for the crane operator certification requirement by three years to Nov. 10, 2017.

U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Thomas Perez faced tough questions from House appropriators on two ABC-opposed Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) actions at an April 2 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee hearing.