Enter the MCAA Safety Advantage Awards

Words: Zach EverettSubmissions are now open for the 2017 MCAA Safety Advantage Awards, sponsored by Federated Insurance.

Safety is overlooked by some contractors for several reasons: cost, time, resources, compounded focus on production, simple ignorance, or possibly many other things. Our goal is for the MCAA safety awards to help draw attention to the need and benefits of performing safely.

The MCAA Safety Advantage

The safety awards are just one part of a larger plan: The MCAA Safety Advantage program. There are mammoth benefits to working safely. From moral to money and from workers comp premiums to OSHA penalties. The MCAA safety awards program is being rolled out with the MCAA Safety Advantage Newsletter, the weekly safety meetings, the written safety program, the monthly safety forum webinars, and several other Safety Advantage benefits not to mention joining a network of safety professionals working in the masonry industry. All this is free to members of the MCAA.

Safety Award Judging

The awards will be presented based on a company’s Incident Rate. This seemed to be the most equitable and best way to judge between contractors. The Incident Rate will be the only criteria at the present. There could be many other guidelines thrown into the mix; OSHA citations, comprehensiveness of safety policy, superseding of OSHA compliance by company policy, peer review of policies, job site inspections, volunteer safety work, using biodegradable earplugs, non-concrete block, utilizing anti-alien abduction hardhats or a gamut of other qualifiers and disqualifiers, but we thought that starting simple would be best for the moment. Someone will now ask for specifics, so here it is:

OSHA Recordkeeping

The Incident Rate, by which the safety awards will be judged, is calculated off of the OSHA logs. ALL OSHA recordable injuries and illnesses are logged for that year. The number of illnesses and injuries are multiplied by 200,000 then divided into the total number of hours worked by all employees for the year. This equation gives you the company’s Incident Rate. This should not be confused with the DART Incident Rate which only takes into account the incidents that result in days away from work.

Get in the Hunt

To get your company considered for the MCAA Safety Advantage Awards simply go to www.masoncontractors.org/safety/awards and fill out the sign up form and return it with your 2016 OSHA 300 form. MCAA Safety Advantage Awards submissions are due by June 30, 2017. All entries will be tabulated and the awards will be presented at the 2017 MCAA Midyear Meeting.

We look forward to this event and hope that there is huge participation. Safety is extremely important! It's important to help get more work, to keep WC cost down, but most importantly, because families need their parents and spouse to come home healthy! Join with us in this small way to reach that goal.
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