RICHMOND, VA  -  There were  thirty-seven fatalities at all Virginia workplaces in 2018 which represented an 8% increase over the prior year. The VMA's safety program is intended to proactively address workplace fatalities and injuries. One major part of that program is the recognition of outstanding safety performance by contractors to manufacturers. VMA Safety Awards were presented to forty-nine contractors during an awards ceremony at the 17th annual Virginia Environmental Health and Safety (VEHS) Conference on September 18.

 

This year's VMA Chairman's Safety Award was presented to: 

Scaffolding Solutions

 

The VMA Safety Committee's Technical Advisory Panel selected this candidate based upon the following criteria.  

The VMA Safety Awards are awarded in three categories: Gold, Silver and Bronze. The VMA presented twenty-seven gold, ten silver, and twelve bronze medal awards at this year's awards ceremony. Gold level recipients had 75% or more of their qualified workforce successfully complete the ISRT certificate on an annual basis. Silver level winners achieved 50% and bronze level winners achieved 25%. This year's winners by category were:

        

Gold Level

Silver Level

   

Bronze Level 

The VMA Safety Award recognizes contractors that provide services to Virginia manufacturers and 25+% of their qualified workforce has obtained the Manufacturing Skills Institute's  Industrial Safety Readiness Training (ISRT) certificate with no fatalities or significant recordable injuries or illnesses reported to Virginia Occupational Safety and Health (VOSH) during the past year. ISRT provides core concepts of safety awareness for industrial workplace training, and an individualized learning plan that addresses the most common hazardous situations faced in the industrial environment. It is presented through a cloud-based, interactive, multimedia platform that is also available in Spanish. Participating companies are also provided a free learning management system to manage the ISRT certificate training for their employees so that it can be integrated into their own safety training program. Manufacturers have access to a cloud-based identification system that will verify training credentials for every contractor employee entering their sites.

 

"In the last year, over 19,323 ISRT safety courses were completed and over 2,000 certificates were issued to employees of participating contractors," said Brett Vassey, VMA President & CEO. "The VMA is proud of this year's winners, they exemplify the safety culture and exceptional investments in worker safety that we are proud to promote to Virginia's manufacturers" said Vassey.

 

At this year's VMA Safety Award ceremony, the VMA also announced its newest safety training programs - BeSafe2Work and Pre-Employment Evaluation.   The BSafe2Work program provides the core concepts of safety awareness for industrial workplace training and an individual learning plan that addresses the most common hazardous situations faced in the industrial environment. This highly adaptable program supplements company safety training with material which employees can access from home on a tablet or smart phone. Each course is five minutes or less and comes with an incentive package for completion of all five courses.

The Pre-Employment Evaluation being offered by the Manufacturing Skills Institute includes three assessments designed to give employers an objective view of the potential success of a new employee. Behaviors necessary for success in handling work pace, job pressure, work habits and attention to detail are a few of the behaviors measured. Safety knowledge and ability to work safely is measured through the online Dupont Sustainable Solutions courses and assessments. In addition, each candidate is given the nationally recognized PreMT1 assessment to benchmark their knowledge of the 12 skills needed for success in manufacturing.