Reflecting its unwavering championing of safety protocols, Black & Veatch proudly announces it has received the Michigan Voluntary Protection Program in Construction (MVPPC) STAR Award – the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (MIOSHA) highest honor involving workplace safety.
The award, open to all Michigan employers, recognizes companies determined to be the “best of the best” in demonstrating exemplary safety and health systems, all evaluated by a MIOSHA review team. To be eligible, applicants must demonstrate that the injury and illness incidence rates for each of their past three calendar years are below those published for their respective North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code. The honor provides an exemption from programmed inspections for five years.
STAR sites are available to mentor other companies desiring to bolster their safety and health management system, all the while offering counsel, training, tours and additional assistance to other establishments seeking to reduce injuries and illnesses.
“For more than a century as an employee-owned company, Black & Veatch has engrained jobsite safety into its culture as we deliver critical human infrastructure solutions often in difficult work environments. We proudly accept this STAR award as validation of our commitment to making safety a core value,” said John Johnson, vice president of safety, health and security at Black & Veatch.
In a letter notifying Black & Veatch of the award, MIOSHA Director Bart Pickelman commended the global engineering, construction and procurement (EPC) leader “for demonstrating that a company culture that promotes management commitment, employee involvement, and a desire to excel in safety and health not only reduces injuries and illnesses in the workplace but can also be a positive experience in promoting safety and health for all.”
“Your involvement in the STAR program and the trust and cooperation upon which it is based continues to demonstrate that the implementation of an outstanding safety and health management system is an admirable and achievable goal,” Pickelman added.
Pickelman said national statistics show that employers with a voluntary protection program (VPP) realize 60 to 80 percent fewer lost work days due to injuries than would be expected of an average site in the same industry.” The MVPPC program, he added, “can have a huge impact on a company’s bottom line.”
At the time of the MIOSHA review of Black & Veatch operations in Michigan over three days in September, 97 Black & Veatch employees and 116 of its contractors were working on mobile construction sites throughout the state. Those projects included tasks ranging from tower erection and installation of radio towers to maintaining and servicing those tower systems.