Photo By Sgt. Ashley Phillips | The color guard marches during the Voluntary Protection Program’s Star Site Ceremony...... read more read more
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Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort held a ceremony for the acceptance of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Voluntary Protection Program award and star site presentation at the Lasseter Theater, Feb. 2.
During the ceremony, Col. Peter Buck, the commanding officer of MCAS Beaufort, accepted the flag and plaque from OSHA representative, Margo Westmoreland, the area director, OSHA Savannah Area Office. Buck congratulated the air station on its diligence in sustaining the high-level of safety excellence and encourage all personnel to continue to cultivate the safety culture Team Beaufort created for future generations .
The VPP Star Site recognition is the OSHA’s highest honor, reserved for worksites that exhibit an elite level of safety excellence and have a comprehensive safety and health management system.
“Before we adopted VPP, the air station was noted by the Department of Defense as an installation with a high number of injury and illness rates,” said Ron Lanoie, the safety director of MCAS Beaufort. “We were at a point in time where not a lot of people seemed to care about that fact. It was simply how we conducted business. We needed to change our culture, and we initiated VPP to do just that.”
The air station adopted VPP in March of 2009 under the command of then Col. Jack Snider, now retired. Since then, the program has been supported by each successive commanding officer. Snider directed Lanoie to begin assessing every process and job aboard the air station for physical and environmental hazards.
“We gave the employees on base a tool called Job Hazard Analysis,” said Lanoie. “We had the employees at the lowest levels fill out those JHAs. From there it had to be assessed and signed off by each successive supervisor until it reached me. It opened a lot of eyes, because a lot of
supervisors had no idea their employees were exposed to physical risks when working with their equipment, noise and environmental hazards.”
According to Lanoie, after completing the JHA the employees and supervisors then came up with a plan to mitigate the hazards to a low level. This also gave a clear set of priorities that enabled the workers to constantly assess and mitigate threats in the work place. Having a JHA for each process on base was one of the requirements of VPP.
“It was at the lowest level where we needed to facilitate the shift in culture, but it starts at the top with a leadership team that is aware and cares about the safety of their employees,” said Lanoie. “As we got the ball rolling, it was my job to implement the four elements and the 243 sub elements of VPP into the air station orders and directives for the commanding officer.”
The four elements of VPP are Management Leadership and Employee Involvement, Worksite Analysis, Hazard Prevention and Control, and Safety and Health Training. According to Lanoie, as these safety steps were implemented into the air station’s work flow employees were
required to take the OSHA ten-hour course and supervisors were required to take the OSHA 30-hour course.
“With the VPP program we have significantly less injuries and illness,” said Lanoie. “We also cut down the amount of time employees need to recover and the cost of workers compensation by 55%. At the end of the day we are making sure our people are safe and their supervisors care enough to understand the risks and mitigate them.”
VPP is an ongoing process. The air station will be visited by OSHA as a part of yearly inspections to maintain VPP Star Status. The VPP flag that now flies over the MCAS Headquarters building serves as a reminder for every Marine and civilian Marine aboard the air station to stay diligent and keep safety as a top priority.
“It was a proud moment yesterday receiving the award, but that doesn’t mean our job is done,” said Lanoie. “Today we come back to work and continue to train employees, asses risks with every new piece of equipment used on base and keep our people safe. Yes, we fly the VPP flag but it’s a continuous process. It’s the way we do business now.”
“Thank you for holding us to high standards, for challenging our assumptions, and pushing us to excel in service to our nation, our community, and our fellow service members and employees,” said Buck.
| Date Taken: | 02.09.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 02.09.2017 15:31 |
| Story ID: | 223090 |
| Location: | BEAUFORT, SC, US |
| Web Views: | 84 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, OSHA recognizes Team Beaufort as a VPP Star Site, by Sgt Ashley Phillips, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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