CPWR - Alliance Renewal Agreement - July 17, 2019
AGREEMENT RENEWING AN ALLIANCE BETWEEN
THE OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
AND
CPWR – THE CENTER FOR CONSTRUCTION RESEARCH AND TRAINING
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) continue to recognize the value of maintaining a collaborative relationship to foster safety and health practices and programs to improve American workplaces. To that end, OSHA and CPWR hereby renew the Alliance signed January 11, 2017 with a continued emphasis on reducing construction-related injuries, illnesses, and fatalities, and supporting OSHA's priority initiatives. Specifically, both organizations are committed to providing construction workers, employers, and others, including members of other construction alliances and the public with information, guidance, and access to safety and health research findings, interventions, and related training resources that will help them protect the health and safety of workers, and understand the rights of workers and the responsibilities of employers under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act). Through the Alliance, the organizations will continue to address known and emerging construction hazards, and OSHA priority hazards including falls, silica, trenching, and working in hot and cold weather. The Alliance will also promote resources to improve safety culture and safety management systems.
This agreement provides a framework and objectives for the Alliance's activities. Alliance participants will summarize specific activities and timeframes for completion in a written work plan.
Through the Alliance, the organizations will use relevant injury, illness, and hazard exposure data, when appropriate, to help identify areas of emphasis for Alliance awareness, outreach, and communication activities. The Alliance will also explore and implement selected options, including but not limited, to member surveys, to evaluate the Alliance and measure the impact on improving workplace safety and health. In renewing this Alliance, OSHA and CPWR recognize that OSHA's State Plan and On-Site Consultation Program partners are an integral part of the OSHA national effort to ensure that employers provide safe and healthy workplaces, and that information about the products and activities of the Alliance may be shared with these partners for the advancement of common goals.
Raising Awareness: Outreach and Communication
The Participants intend to work together to achieve the following objectives:
- Convene or participate in forums, roundtable discussions, or stakeholder meetings, such as CPWR's virtual roundtable on reaching small contractors and their employees and webinar series, on known and emerging construction hazards to help forge innovative solutions in the workplace or to provide input on safety and health issues.
- Encourage worker participation in workplace safety and health by disseminating research findings, solutions, and training programs that address known and emerging construction hazards.
- Develop information on the recognition and prevention of workplace hazards, and communicate such information (e.g., print and electronic media, electronic assistance tools, social media platforms, and OSHA and CPWR websites) to employers and workers in the industry.
- Speak, exhibit, or appear at OSHA and CPWR conferences, local meetings, or other events, including OSHA's Alliance Program Forum and Construction Roundtable.
- Share information on OSHA's National Initiatives (Emphasis Programs, Regulatory Agenda, Outreach), and opportunities to participate in initiatives and the rulemaking process, including the National Campaign to Prevent Falls in Construction and Safety Stand-Down, the Safe + Sound Campaign, Youth Summer Job Campaign, and the Trenching Emphasis Program.
- Share information with workers and employers on employee protections from retaliation under Section 11(c) of the OSH Act, including information on procedures for workers to use in submitting a complaint to OSHA and practices for employers to use in preventing retaliation.
- Share information among OSHA personnel and industry safety and health professionals regarding CPWR research-based good practices or effective approaches through training programs, workshops, seminars, and lectures (or any other applicable forum).
- Collaborate with other Alliance participants on specific issues and projects such as elevator constructor safety, emergency response and recovery operations, and raising stakeholder awareness for safe practices when working in enclosed cabs.
OSHA's Alliances provide organizations an opportunity to participate in a voluntary cooperative relationship with OSHA for purposes such as raising awareness of OSHA's initiatives, outreach, communication, training, and education. These Alliances have proved to be valuable tools for both OSHA and Alliance participants. By entering into an Alliance with an organization, OSHA is not endorsing or promoting, nor does it intend to endorse or promote, any of that organization's products or services.
An implementation team made up of representatives of each organization will meet one to two times per year to discuss the responsibilities of the participants, to share information on activities, and to track results in achieving the goals of the Alliance. OSHA team members will include representatives of the Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs, the Directorate of Construction, and any other appropriate offices. OSHA will encourage State Plans' and OSHA On-Site Consultation programs' participation on the team.
This agreement will remain in effect for five years. Either signatory may terminate it for any reason at any time, provided they give 30 days' written notice. This agreement may be modified at any time with the written concurrence of both signatories.
Signed this 17th day of July, 2019.
Loren Sweatt
Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health
Chris Trahan Cain
Executive Director
CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training