Wearing safety glasses, lifting heavy objects as a group, painting pipes bright yellow so workers don’t trip over them-the Physical Plant has been making major efforts to ensure that its workers stay safe.
In fact, in the past three years, injuries have decreased 50 percent, with 31 injuries reported from Jan. 1 to June 1, according to Hope Thomas, safety coordinator for the Physical Plant.
In 2005 the Physical Plant implemented a formal workplace safety program to put a renewed emphasis on safety.
“It took a while to get the wheels rolling and moving in the right direction,” said Thomas, who has headed the program since 2006. “We now have real data that safety is improving.”
Seventeen departments within the Physical Plant reported no injuries or time lost for 2008, including the supplies and materials warehouse, grounds landscaping, the grounds sign shop, the masons and plasterers shop, the central steam plant, the cabinet shop, the key shop, the floor covering shop and the maintenance staff at the animal health research facility.
The 17 departments had a total of 133 employees who worked an estimated 277,704 hours. Those departments have all been recognized with framed certificates to display in their respective shops.
An additional eight shops reported no time lost during 2008 for an additional 197,000 hours worked.
Ongoing training is a major component of the workplace safety program. Shops hold monthly safety training for all employees. The topics differ month to month, but include ladder safety, fire safety or how to clean up hazardous spills.
The program has established written policies and protocols that are being enforced. New employees go through a safety orientation and training. They learn about personal protective equipment, potential job hazards and how to report unsafe conditions or acts.
“I think the training has made people more aware,” said Don Shaw, a grounds foreman in landscaping. “There are more safety issues out there than what you think, and the monthly training that we have makes people more aware of what can ‘bite us.’ And they pay more attention to what they do on the job.”
Jim Olbrych, mechanical superintendent in the steam shop, said that the employees aren’t taking short cuts.
“They don’t want to be a statistic,” Olbrych said. “They want to put in their eight hours and go home in one piece.”
Much of the new safety protocol is common sense: not wearing hanging ID badges around rotating pumps, not touching anything that might be hot and wearing safety glasses and steel-toed shoes.
The program does more than just keep employees thinking about safety. In this recession, workplace safety makes financial sense.
“Every time you pick up the phone to file a workman’s compensation claim, it’s at least $180 in administrative fees,” said Thomas. “Costs could go exponentially [higher] with medical treatment, rehabilitation and potentially months of lost time. This program is going to save the university money.”