BBBTV12 Serving Anderson, Roane, and Morgan Counties
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. – Y-12 recently received its sixth prestigious DOE Star of Excellence Award for its Voluntary Protection Program.
The DOE-VPP program promotes safety and health excellence, with the core of VPP being a cooperative effort among all employees. The program is equivalent to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration program that recognizes employers and workers who have implemented effective safety and health management systems. Contractors whose programs meet the requirements for outstanding safety and health programs receive STAR recognition, the highest achievement level.
The Star of Excellence Award recognizes exemplary achievement of limiting injury/illness incidence rates and lost workday injury/illness rates to at least 75% below the Bureau of Labor Statistics national average for the applicable comparison industries; completion of annual DOE-VPP goals; and demonstration of strong involvement in the VPPPA, VPP mentoring and community outreach.
“Hitting the 75% better than comparison industries is the driving qualifier,” said Vaughn Hooks, Integration Manager for Y-12 Environment, Safety and Health. “But we also have been able to demonstrate significant accomplishments in employee participation programs such as Top Gun, Site Manager Safety Challenge Achievement Awards, Walking is Working Program, LiveWise Total Worker Health programs, Safety Pauses and Weekly Principle Shares.
“Additionally, Y-12 is very strong in Community Outreach Programs,” Hooks said, such as Community Safety Forums in coordination with the Oak Ridge Business Safety Partnership.”
The most far-reaching example of Y-12’s successful efforts in promoting safety is perhaps the annual Safety Fest TN. “CNS is the largest single sponsor of SafetyFest TN, in terms of money contributed for sponsorship, facilities being provided for use, personnel actively engaged in planning and running the events, and in numbers of attendees to the training courses and demonstrations,” said ES&H Director Gene Sievers.
“The influence of SafetyFest TN in the region has been significant. There is no other ES&H conference that provides free training on this scale to anyone who wants to attend. Small businesses and organizations send people to SafetyFest TN year after year because they can afford the costs of their people’s time but not the high costs of travel and conference fees,” Sievers said. “As a result, people who wouldn’t otherwise receive ES&H training are provided high quality and potentially lifesaving instruction and the opportunity to learn about hazards that can impact them.”
DOE-VPP activities reflect DOE’s focus on the safety and health employees through cooperative efforts among labor, management, and government at DOE contractor sites. Similar to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s VPP program, DOE-VPP provides several proven benefits to participating sites, including improved labor/management relations, reduced workplace injuries and illnesses, increased employee involvement, improved morale, reduced absenteeism and public recognition.
