Mishap Prevention - Protecting the Workforce on Critical Federal Facilities: Enterprise-Wide Approach to Achieve a Goal of Zero Preventable Injury Incidents

摘要

The increased focus on national security in the past 15 years since September 11th has thrust Federal, Defense and National Security agencies to significantly improve their infrastructure and physical facilities. This has translated into investments in energy security, energy efficiency & sustainability projects, advanced building automation systems, security and lighting systems as well as global capabilities to leverage evolving technology across the enterprise. The ultimate goal is to significantly lower overall energy consumption, have more productive workspaces, healthier workforce & reduce waste. While these improvement projects have been (and continue to be) critical to our national success, they have also been constrained by resource and budget limitations. Thus, the increased intense level of activities, simultaneously at hundreds of locations, has created an increased risk for workforce safety, quite often due to a short-notice requirement for quick response as well as accelerated schedules for project implementation/completion. Consequently, workers, who must respond to the mandatory tasks, have been presented with work conditions that contain numerous hazards and risks and must therefore be provided with the appropriate protection mechanisms. A sound, systematic, multi-step approach, that leverages technology, sophisticated risk assessments, employee empowerment, audits/inspections and above all transparent communications, will be discussed. Thus, in addition to providing compliance with prevailing OSHA Standards and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers EM385 Safety manual requirements, the methods discussed have fostered a 'zero accident' culture with a large diverse workforce, including multi-tier subcontractors, at hundreds locations throughout the United States and abroad.