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AMC BE TOWER EXPANSION
PARTNERING AGREEMENT
BETWEEN
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
APPLETON, WISCONSIN AREA OFFICE
OF THE OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
ADMINISTRATION (OSHA)
AND
THE BOLDT COMPANY
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Background
The Appleton Medical Center (hereafter referred to as AMC) Bed Tower expansion
will provide additional hospital beds at the AMC. Since this is an addition to
an existing hospital, construction activities must also be planned to minimize
disruption to patients and visitors. This $60 million project will incorporate
a tower crane in the construction process.
- Identification of Partners
The following groups will participate in the Partnership:
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Appleton,
WI Area Office
- The Boldt Company
- Ahern Fire Protection
- Basset Mechanical
- Excellence Electrical
- Tweet HVAC
- Carpenters, Local 955
- Operating Engineers, Local 139
- Sheet Metal Workers, Local 18
- Plumbers & Steamfitters, Local 400
- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 577
- Iron Workers, Local 8
- Construction and General Labors, Local 330
- Wisconsin Safety and Health Consultation Program
- Purpose/Scope
The purpose of this Partnership is to reduce injuries, illnesses and
fatalities during the construction of the AMC Bed Tower Expansion. The
project will take 18 months to complete. It is anticipated that, at its
peak, the project will employ a total of 100 tradespersons onsite and
involve more than 20 subcontractors. There are labor agreements between The
Boldt Company and affiliated Labor Unions that will govern construction work
on the project. All partners have important safety roles at the project as
identified in this Partnership. A comprehensive project- specific safety
Plan (AMC Bed Tower) has been implemented, and it addresses the respective
safety roles of all employers and employees at the project.
This Partnership provides a unique opportunity to closely review the
operations of a tower crane, and will develop a model training program that
can be used for outreach. Additionally, The Boldt Company is in the process
of submitting a Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) application. The
Partnership will help Boldt apply for VPP by reviewing its program compared
to VPP criteria.
- Goals/Strategies
Goal No.1: Maintain an injury and illness rate at a minimum of 50% below the
most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) published national and
Wisconsin averages for construction. No worker fatality is also a goal.
Strategy:
- Injuries, illnesses, and fatalities will be minimized by implementing
an effective, comprehensive Site Safety and Health Program.
- Identify hazards and take immediate corrective actions.
- Contractors will conduct daily safety inspections.
- Contractors and Site Safety Representatives (SSR)/Managers from The
Boldt Company will conduct joint safety inspections weekly.
- Monthly comprehensive inspection by Partners.
- Interview employees as part of the inspection process.
- Enforce 6’ fall protection rule.
(Although providing mandatory fall protection at the 6’ level is not
required for all fall hazards by the current OSHA construction standards
and is not mandated by OSHA as a requirement for participation in any
OSHA partnership agreement, the contractors on this partnership are
committed to providing a greater level of protection to the employees
working at this site and will require protection at the 6’ level and
above).
- Implement a drug and alcohol program that includes random drug
testing, “just cause” testing, and post-accident drug testing for
employees working at the construction site.
- Arrange for medical personnel to be onsite during construction hours
when 30 or more contractors are onsite, or when based on the nature of
the work being performed.
- Implement an injury case-management (ICM) program.
- Develop and implement an emergency and accountability plan (EAP) for
the project site.
- Require that excavation permits be in place prior to any soil
penetrations.
- Require hot-work permits when necessary.
- Implement a near-miss program.
- Implement a lockout/tagout and confined space program.
- Contractors will utilize ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI) at
all times.
- Struck-by injury prevention – Loads shall not be lifted directly
over the heads of workers. All workers shall wear high-visibility
clothing when working at ground level outside of enclosed buildings
where it does not impose additional hazards. Examples of additional
hazards may include but not be limited to: welding and/or working around
rotating equipment where an entanglement hazard exits.
- Implement a safety task analysis (STA) program.
- Require all equipment (cranes, forklifts, aerial lifts, scrapers,
vehicles, bobcats, etc.) to be inspected upon arrival at the site.
- Wisconsin Safety and Health Consultation Program (hereafter referred
to as WisCon) will be requested to assess and address onsite industrial
hygiene issues/problems as needed.
Goal No. 2: All contractors will have effective written safety and health
programs
Strategy:
- Develop, implement, distribute and maintain a site-specific
comprehensive safety and health plan.
- Contractors who do not have their own safety and health program must
adopt the “Boldt’s Plan” or utilize either WisCon or the insurance company
to help them develop a site-specific plan. If these contractor companies
have more than 15 employees, they will request a visit from WisCon to
assist them in the development of their own safety and heath program.
- All subcontractors will designate a Site Safety Representative (SSR).
Goal No.3: Improve/Increase the level of safety and health training:
- SSR (contractors) will have completed or will complete the OSHA
30-Hour Construction course or equivalent.
- Supervisory personnel will complete a 10-Hour OSHA construction
course. (Subcontractors can show a valid certification card.)
- At least 50 % of the construction workers will have completed the
10-Hour OSHA construction course.
- All employees will receive a site safety handbook and complete the new
employee site- specific safety orientation.
- Provide hazard-specific training as necessary.
- Develop a tower crane operating procedure that can be used as outreach
for training others.
Strategy:
- Conduct training as needed.
Goal No. 4: Link the Partnership to VPP
- The Partnership will be a stepping stone for Boldt to submit a VPP
application.
Strategy:
- Safety and health programs will be evaluated against VPP criteria.
- A VPP onsite evaluation will be conducted for this worksite. That
evaluation will be counted as one of the sites needed for approval when
the VPP application is submitted and approved.
- Performance Measures
- Collect the following injury and illness data and compare the
incidence rates to the national latest published BLS average and Wisconsin
average:
- TCIR – Total Case Incidence Rate
- DART – Days Away, Restricted and Transferred incidence rates
- DAFWI – Days Away From Work Incidence rate
- Measure the number of contractors who:
- Have their own safety and health programs;
- Adopt The Boldt Company’s safety program;
- Receive assistance from WisCon with onsite consultation and/or receive
assistance developing a safety and health program;
- Receive assistance from the insurance company to develop a safety and
health program; and
- Improve their safety and health program as a result of this
Partnership.
- Measure the number of employees trained in the :
- OSHA 10-Hour and OSHA 10 +;
- OSHA 30-Hour;
- Site-specific orientation training; and
- Hazard-specific training.
- Annual Evaluation
The annual evaluation, as described in Appendix C of Directive CSP
03-02-002, will be completed by OSHA with input received from other
partners. The Boldt Company’s Safety Manager will collect and maintain the
following data specified in the measurement factors:
- Injury and illness information.
- A record of training conducted relative to the measurement factors
(including the number of employees trained). The training may have been
conducted by the The Boldt Company or others (State Consultation, labor
unions, OSHA, and contractors).
- Copies of the subcontractors’s safety and health program plans, as well as
name of the designated SSR.
- Number of contractors who adopted the Boldt site safety program.
- Number of contractors referred to WisCon or the insurance company for
assistance in developing their own safety and health programs.
The Consultation Program managers will report the number of consultations
conducted at this worksite and the number of contractors that developed or
improved their safety and health programs through consultation.
- Benefits
OSHA Non-Enforcement benefits:
Outreach, technical assistance and training are available to OSP
participants. Examples include:
- Priority consideration for free onsite OSHA-funded safety and health
consultation.
- OSHA and OSHA Consultation personnel may be available for a variety of
onsite/offsite activities such as review of safety and health management
systems, guidance in conducting workplace audits and evaluations, and
assistance with training
- Informational material such as safety and health brochures, pamphlets and
electronic tools.
OSHA Enforcement Benefits:
- An additional 10% reduction for good faith beyond reductions provided in
the FIRM when calculating initial penalties. Maximum good faith would be
35%.
- The Area Director, under the authority delegated by the Regional
Administrator (RA), has the authority to negotiate the amount of penalty
reduction as part of an informal settlement agreement.
- OSHA Verification
Onsite non-enforcement verification:
Onsite non-enforcement verification reviews will be conducted as part of the
monthly Partnership meeting. At this time, the partners will be divided into
groups and assigned a portion of the project to inspect. OSHA will accompany
one of these inspection groups. A union representative can choose to be part
of the OSHA inspection group. OSHA will make a referral for an enforcement
inspection if management refuses to correct a serious hazard identified
during the non-enforcement verification visit.
Onsite enforcement inspections:
One unannounced OSHA focused enforcement inspections will be conducted
annually. These inspections include the potential for issuing citations and
assessing penalties for violations. Enforcement inspections may be combined
with other unprogrammed inspections, for example, a complaint inspection.
- OSP Management and Operation
Each partner will designate at least one representative to the
monthly Partnership meeting.
The partners will discuss safety data such as hazards as well as trends and
corrective actions taken.
The following data/information will be provided by the Boldt SSR for OSHA’s
review at the monthly meetings (this information will be updated monthly).
- Total number of OSHA recordable injuries and illnesses, number of lost and
restricted workday cases.
- Accident investigations and WC-12 forms. Only the WC-12 reports from the
start of the project to present need to be provided for the initial meeting.
- First aid log.
- Near miss log.
- Hours worked (total for all contractors) and hours for Boldt Construction.
- Findings of safety audits and corrective actions taken.
- Safety trends.
- Disciplinary actions taken.
- Number of employees trained by targeted category.
- Copies of contractor’s safety and health programs available for review.
The Boldt Company will:
- Manage the safety and health of the construction project.
- Implement and maintain a site-specific comprehensive safety and health
plan. The plan will be written and distributed to site contractors.
- Assign an experienced Safety Manager.
- Oversee safety and health for the entire construction site, enforce safety
and health rules and regulations, and have the contractual obligation to
stop and correct all unsafe conditions and acts. Actions taken to address
on-compliance with the site’s safety and health plan will be in accordance
with contractual agreements.
- Conduct safety inspections of designated areas within the project
construction site utilizing WisCon, insurance carriers, and contractor
safety representatives, as well as employee involvement.
- Implement the following training provisions of the safety & health
programs.
- Provide on-going safety training;
- Provide the OSHA 10-Hour or OSHA 30-Hour construction safety and health
course for supervisory personnel of the participating contractors.
- Provide new-hire safety orientation training for all employees prior to
work.
- The Boldt Company’s Safety Manager will be responsible for the following
activities:
- Facilitate Contractor Safety Team meetings.
- Investigate events with contractor representatives.
- Publish “Safety Alerts/Toolbox Talks” to communicate safety issues to site
employees.
- Utilize “Task Analysis” to track safety trends, and report on trends at
monthly Partnership meetings.
- Audit the required OSHA logs of injuries and illnesses for all contractors
at the site.
- Maintain a record of all safety and health-related inspections with
documented corrective actions.
- Provide OSHA with requested data and information.
All Contractors will:
- Perform safety and health responsibilities as provided by contract, or as
stated in the Partnership.
- Submit a safety and health plan to The Boldt Company prior to beginning
work, or adopt the site-specific project safety plan.
- Designate a SSR.
- Conduct daily inspections, and participate in weekly and monthly jobsite
inspections.
- Utilize WisCon for consultation inspections and industrial hygiene
services.
Prime and Designated Contractors will:
- Designate a SSR to be the liaison to the Boldt Company Safety Manager.
- Assign a SSR (or a designate) to attend the monthly Contractor Safety Team
meetings and provide a means of information distribution to employees.
- Conduct and document onsite safety inspections, review trends at
contractor monthly Safety Team meetings, and suggest potential corrective
actions.
- Require designated SSR to address safety issues and hazards for their
employees and any subcontractors who may report to them.
- Require designated contractor SSR to accompany the jobsite Safety Manager
on job site inspections of their respective work area.
- Ensure that OSHA-required training is completed and documented.
- Ensure that assigned personnel (responsible for safety topics at the
weekly contractor coordination meeting) complete the requirement.
- Designate a union representative to the onsite Labor/Management Safety
Team (when it is formed), and support the representative’s involvement.
WisCon will:
- Participate in monthly inspections of the construction work site.
- Participate in monthly Partnership meetings.
- Review site safety and health program and provide recommendations for
improvements, as appropriate.
- Continuously monitor and evaluate the Partnership and make
recommendations, as appropriate for improvement.
- Assist contractors and subcontractors that do not have adequate safety and
health plans to develop comprehensive, written safety and health plans that
(at a minimum) incorporate the provisions of the AMC Bed Tower site-specific
safety and health plan (when so requested by the contractors and/or
subcontractors).
- Provide assistance to those Partnership members conducting OSHA 10-Hour,
OSHA 30-Hour, or other safety and/or health training relevant to the AMC Bed
Tower project (when so requested).
- Provide industrial hygiene services as requested to support the
Partnership. This could include atmospheric monitoring and noise
measurement.
- All identified hazards are to be corrected onsite.
OSHA will:
- Prepare the annual Partnership evaluation.
- Review and compile data provided by the Boldt SSR.
- Participate in monthly Partnership meetings and onsite non-enforcement
walk-around.
- Provide hazard identification and technical assistance as needed.
- Conduct annual enforcement inspections.
- Conduct focused enforcement inspections when applicable.
- Assist The Boldt Company with their VPP application process.
- Employee Rights
This Partnership does not preclude employees and/or employers from
exercising any right provided under the OSH Act (or, for federal employees,
29 CFR 1960), nor does it abrogate any responsibility to comply with rules
and regulations adopted pursuant to the OSHAct.
- Term of the OSP
This agreement will terminate on October 30, 2009, which is approximately
one year from the date of the signing. If OSHA chooses to withdraw its
participation in the Partnership, the entire agreement is terminated. Any
signatory may also propose modification or amendment of the agreement. If
any of the other signatories wishes to withdraw their participation prior to
the established termination date, a written notice of the intent to withdraw
must be provided to all of the other signatories.
For Non-Signatory Participants:
For non-signatory participants of the strategic Partnership, OSHA may
terminate the participant’s involvement at any time with written notice.
Additionally, the participant may withdraw their participation from the
strategic Partnership at any time, and provide OSHA with a written notice of
their intent to withdraw.
- Signatures
Signed this day of _____________.
_______________________________
OSHA
____________________________
The Boldt Company
_______________________________
WisCon
______________________________
Other partners
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