California-based global engineering services firm, Parsons Corp., ended up reapproved for participation in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP).
The VPP program is all about businesses that implement effective safety and health programs and maintain below-average injury and illness rates for their industry.
RELATED STORIES
Auto Parts Maker Settles Whistleblower Case
Top OSHA Safety Citations for 2016
OSHA Releases Safety Best Practices
Bacon Maker gets SHARP
Parsons, which has 14,000 employees, is one of five companies in the nation with Corporate VPP status, under which companies make a significant commitment to the program.
In addition, 23 Parsons facilities across the country achieved VPP Star status, the highest level in the program. In addition to emphasizing safety and health for its employees, Parsons also is sharing the safety and health culture with its contractors.
“Our Environmental, Safety, Health, and Risk Program presents the framework for developing, implementing, and maintaining a world-class Safety, Health & Environment system designed to achieve and sustain zero incidents,” said Dean Harwood, Parsons executive vice president, operations.
VPP corporate is for corporate applicants who demonstrate a strong commitment to employee safety and health and VPP. These applicants, typically large corporations or federal agencies, adopt VPP on a large scale for protecting the safety and health of its employees. VPP corporate applicants must have established, standardized corporate-level safety and health management systems, effectively implemented organization-wide as well as internal audit/screening processes that evaluate their facilities for safety and health performance. Under VPP corporate, streamlined processes eliminate redundancies and expand VPP participation for corporate applicants in a more efficient manner.
Other than Parsons, the current participants are:
• Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.
• Morton Salt Corporation
• Delta Air Lines
• General Electric Company
To be a part of VPP, a company would have to submit a VPP corporate application describing policies and programs consistent with VPP criteria that apply to all facilities across the organization. In addition to meeting the traditional VPP criteria, the applicant must have effective internal pre-screening processes to evaluate their candidate facilities’ level of preparedness for participation in VPP.
Following OSHA’s review and acceptance of the VPP corporate application, a comprehensive onsite corporate evaluation at the corporate office/headquarters ends up conducted by OSHA to verify the application contents. The evaluation will include interviews with senior leadership and safety and health staff to verify commitment; evaluation of prescreening processes; and comprehensive review of corporate level policies and programs.
Upon acceptance of the participant into VPP corporate, all eligible participant facilities will follow the streamlined application and onsite evaluation process when applying for VPP participation as described below:
Corporate — Facility Application Process (C-FAP) — The facility applies for VPP using an application that will cover the safety and health management system and include facility-specific information. Information submitted in the corporate application does not need to end up repeated.
Corporate — Facility Onsite Process (C-FOP) — The facility onsite evaluation will focus on the implementation of the standardized corporate safety and health policies and programs and any facility-specific programs. Also, the duration of the onsite evaluation under C-FOP ends up shortened.
VPP corporate ends up limited to applicants that make a top-level commitment to reducing injuries and illnesses through implementation of a comprehensive safety and health management systems that achieves exemplary employee protections organization-wide.
Other eligibility criteria include:
• Significant corporate participation in VPP and a commitment to strengthen VPP participation
• Effective internal pre-screening processes
• VPP knowledge and dedicated resources
• Commitment to outreach and mentoring
• Community leadership in safety and health
• Participation in the special government employee program