A safe and healthy workplace not only protects workers from injury and illness, but a robust safety culture can also lower injury/illness costs, reduce absenteeism and turnover, increase productivity and quality, and raise employee morale. In other words, safety is good for business. Plus, protecting workers is the right thing to do. 2023 is here, and IMEC wants this to be your safest year yet. Here are 5 tips to start the new year and keep your organization OSHA compliant:
We are seeing large surges in COVID cases around the country and we are heading into winter when we tend to remain indoors for longer periods of time. It's important to consider optimizing your workplace ventilation to continue to provide a healthy workplace for your employees. Here is some guidance from OSHA on things you can do to optimize air flow and air turnover in your facility.
Written by Jeff Pacheco - Falcon Safety Group.
Prepare for the Visit
In preparation for an on-site OSHA inspection, OSHA compliance officers will research the workplace that they will visit, look over previous site inspections, take notes of any citations or specific areas of concern, industry operations, and various compliance that may apply to the workplace.
Written by Matthew Horn of Smith Amundsen.
Previously, OSHA issued guidance indicating that most employers only had to record or report confirmed COVID-19 cases when provided with objective evidence that an employee contracted COVID-19 at work. In practice, this put the burden on employees to submit evidence to employers establishing that their COVID-19 cases were contracted at work.
I am receiving many questions on the Illinois Manufacturing Helpline about face covering and face mask use in manufacturing facilities. Some governing bodies are requiring face coverings and not providing clear definitions or specifications on what is considered a “face covering.” Add to this the fact that manufacturers must put in place a respiratory protection program if they require fitted respiratory protection such as N95s or half face or full face respirators (take a look at OSHA regulations around respiratory protection). So, what seems simple to do becomes a multi-layered set of decisions.
Respiratory Protection Programs are a little more complicated than other aspects of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for many employers. There are annual requirements for training and review. Now is a good time to consider the current state of your program and make some goals as needed to maintain and improve.
Are your employees wearing N95 filtering facepiece respirators to protect themselves? Please Note: the information in this blog pertains only to N95 filtering facepiece respirators. Other respirator types may follow different requirements.
Yesterday we wrote about companies being essential businesses and staying open during the "Stay at Home" order. If you do remain open, here are some recommendations to help keep employees safe while they are at work:
As the Illinois MEP, IMEC’s role is to be a resource for Illinois manufacturers and advocate best practices. Helping with strategy and creating systems to solve the challenges that these businesses face is our mission.
It remains our goal with today’s challenges. To that point IMEC, has created the Illinois Manufacturing Helpline and has been accepting questions 24/7 for the past week. It is our hope that some of these answers will save you precious time and assist with the challenges that you are facing.
Workers play a strong role in keeping themselves safe due to their willingness to take personal responsibility for decisions that will keep them safe. Safety training and policies are commonly used tools to help encourage risk-free behaviors through building safety knowledge. However, these practices alone will not be enough to create a complete safety culture.
