May 9, 2007—The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) welcomed several new facilities into its Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) at the highest, or “Star,” level in recent weeks, and renewed the membership of two others.
Among the facilities highlighted by OSHA are:
- Entergy Operations Jonesboro Service Center in Hodge , LA , with an injury and illness rate 77 percent below the national average for the industry;
- US Postal Service’s (USPS) Mail Handlers Annex in Pocatello, ID, with such best practices as: an employee “Right to Know” station with immediate access to all employee safety and health programs; a central vacuum system for easier cleaning of and better access to equipment; and modified heavy mail hampers to reduce the lifting of heavy packages;
- SW&B Construction Corp. of Jay, ME, (Star in 2000; renewed)—the resident industrial construction and maintenance services contractor for Verso Paper’s Androscoggin Mill in Jay—with illness and injury rates “well below” the industry average;
- The Covanta Mid-Conn, Inc. trash-to-energy plant in Hartford, CT (Star in 2004; renewed), with illness and injury rates “well below” the industry average. The plant joins Covanta’s other VPP sites in Connecticut: Covanta Bristol in Bristol and Covanta SECONN in Preston;
- ExxonMobil Process Research Laboratories in Baton Rouge, LA, with an injury and illness rate 73 percent below the national average for the industry;
- US Postal Service (USPS) in Fenton, MO, for its excellence in safety and health management; and
- L’Oréal USA’s Florence, KY, manufacturing plant—fulfilling ahead of schedule L’Oréal’s pace-setting 2003 promise to obtain VPP status for all six of its US manufacturing plants within five years.
OSHA’s VPP recognizes worksites committed to effective employee protection beyond the requirements of OSHA standards and encourages cooperative relationships among labor, management, and government. The VPP currently comprises more than 1,700 worksites in more than 270 industries nationwide. VPP companies average injury rates at least 50 percent lower than other companies in their industry, with associated cost reductions and positive changes in company culture and attitudes toward safety and health, says OSHA.
