Education and training have been recognised as important components of organised health and safety programs in work places. In today’s rapidly changing workplace they are more important than ever.
Safety training and education creates consciousness and develops alertness to safety. Safety education develops safety – mindedness while training helps apply acquired safety knowledge to the specific job or task or procedure. It is a process by which employees are helped to develop critical and conscious mind to analyse safe work methods or procedure and develop skills in application of safe methods and practices in their work and activities.
Safety is being implemented by the man on the shop, his conscious efforts to be safe in every situation and at all the times is important. It must be borne in mind that the workers who have not been trained how to perform their jobs safely are more likely to have accidents. It is also a fact that a well-trained employee is more likely to be a safe employee. Therefore, safety consciousness has to be inculcated so that employees’ actions and behaviour are all the time governed by such safety considerations.
This article will focus on various aspects of safety training and various statutes applicable to safety training at national and international level, in particular to Indian contest. For the preparation of this article, many documents such as books, articles, acts, rules, codes, and standards are referred, however, due to limitation of space, the list of these references are not included in this article.
The ICWUC Center agreed to be responsible for developing site-specific curricula, providing all manuals and resources, presenting modules, and co-facilitating as much as possible with the newly authorized in-house trainers. The goal was that once the planning was completed, the in-house worker trainers would be able to present the entire course without assistance, chair the follow-up evaluation meetings, and write summary reports.
The curriculum development began with objectives for each module agreed upon by the labor-management planning group at the Stonewall plant in Elkton, Virginia. The module development aimed to create site-specific curricula, and multiple critical changes did add site-specificity to the core generic training materials that were used.
Walking and Working Surfaces
The generic health and safety curriculum included a PowerPoint presentation about walking and working surfaces. Site-specific pictures were added to the presentation, and an effort was made to focus on the plant areas most applicable to each group of trainees. A site-specific small group activity was also developed which met OSHA objectives.
Emergency Action and Fire Prevention Plans
Merck had been offering Emergency Evacuation training in-house at its Stonewall plant as an on-line module and the company provided ICWUC staff with a copy of that module to help with development of a site-specific OSHA 10-hour training module. After going through the e-module several times and comparing it to the OSHA requirements, ICWUC staff members were in agreement that the module was very good and exceeded most of OSHA’s requirements. The e-module had all the information necessary and was very detailed. However, Merck had been unhappy with the results of recent drills. It seemed that even though the electronic training module was well done, it was still ineffective in generating the needed real-life practices.
Staff from the ICWUC training center, with advice from members of Local 94C, took all the information from the e-module and created a small group exercise for this section of training. This seemed to be well received, and early evaluations were supportive of this exercise. However, the plant had a real incident during one of the training sessions and evacuation still did not go well. Even though the majority of plant employees had the necessary classroom knowledge to answer all the questions about evacuation, they still failed when it came to implementing that knowledge. The biggest shortcoming was accounting for everyone in their designated assembly areas. It became apparent that the scope of the training was insufficient to establish the necessary knowledge for this type of critical practice, so trainers adjusted the module so that everyone would conduct drills at the assembly areas and ensure that they would know where they were to report and to whom. This continuous collaboration and evaluation led to the evolution of a module that had quality hands-on training and achieved the necessary results. Employees continue to receive reinforcement of the evacuation process with semi-annual drills.
Personal Protective Equipment
Personal protective equipment (PPE) of all types was gathered from across the plant and used for training. Included were air line hoods (Versa hoods) and respirators; Saranex, Tyvek, and TyChem 300 chemical suits; polyvinyl alcohol, nitrile, butyl rubber, neoprene, Silver Shield, and Viton gloves; hard-toe shoes; and safety glasses. Thus, the PPE that were the focus of classroom sessions were site-specific to the trainees, avoiding the abstract nature of generic examples. Using PPE familiar to trainees allowed them to more easily apply what they learned.
Ergonomics
Plant-specific ergonomics issues surfaced early on in the training and received focus in subsequent sessions, using specially developed table-top exercises. Issues ranged from loading and lifting to the design of work stations that allowed technicians to sit in a comfortable position while working. Resolving some of these ergonomic issues became an outcome of training and subsequent health and safety committee work.
Outcomes of Training
Each class was given a pre- and post-test to assess acquired knowledge. The pre-/post-test protocol (available from the authors on request) was established simultaneously with curriculum development to ensure that data would be accurate and measurable. All trainees received a 24-question pre-test comprised of two questions from each of the six required modules and two questions from each of the six potential electives. After trainees selected their two electives, a 16-question post-test was assembled for each individual class. This 16-question post-test was comprised of the 12 questions from the required modules and two questions from each of the two electives the class actually covered.
At the end of each training course, participants also completed an evaluation aimed at measuring workplace changes that workers expected as a result of the training. Three months after the last class, meetings for 80 of the 739 participants were arranged with ICWUC staff and others involved in delivering the training. The 80 participants were selected to represent every department. To the extent possible, union members and all levels of supervision were equally represented. Through a series of questionnaires and follow-up discussions, this group of 80 identified a list of safety concerns in their jobs. Many of these safety concerns were quickly resolved. This process was deemed possible only because of the common training and the mutual trust that the training had engendered.
Trainees gained significant knowledge during the OSHA 10-hour General Industry course. They learned the A material handling problem was successfully addressed because training had created an environment of shared concern for safety and a basis for collaboration. In the process of producing the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, operators had to carry 20-kilogram bags of material up several steps. This manual carrying was necessary because a tube in the vessel was not long enough for production to occur otherwise. Hearing that a similar problem had been resolved at another Merck plant, some of the operators went to the other facility to look at that solution. After returning to Elkton the operators discussed what they had seen and decided that the other plant’s solution would be more difficult to use and could possibly cause other injuries. After much discussion among workers and managers, the decision was made to reduce the weight of material being carried to 10 kilogram bags. In addition, longer tubes were made and installed to improve the process. Prior to the training, the atmosphere for making such changes had not existed. According to interviews with Merck and ICWUC staff, the joint training brought about a new cooperative atmosphere encouraging the discussion and experimentation that is seen as a crucial link in identifying problems and finding solutions. The solutions not only improved health and safety, but also made the production process more efficient.
Glass Loading in B5
For years, operators had been suffering wrist and shoulder injuries while lifting glass, as a result of poor workplace ergonomics. The post-training atmosphere and committee activities led to a work order requesting the plant tinsmith to look at the problem. The tinsmith and operators gathered feedback and the tinsmith made a new tool to help with glass loading. Operators used the new tool and found that it put less strain on their wrists and shoulders, making glass loading safer for them. Use of the new tool was implemented in December 2011.
Other Performance-Level Safety Improvements
Trainees reported a number of additional safety problems that they have been able to identify and resolve as a result of their OSHA 10-hour training. Pedestrian walkways and safety crosswalks were painted throughout the plant to address concerns over foot traffic safety. Tripping hazard signs were purchased to address concerns over temporary safety conditions whenever it was necessary to re-route hoses. At first these tripping hazard signs were in only one part of the plant, but when others saw the signs, they were adopted plant-wide. Extension handles were purchased for hard-to-open valves. A new fork truck was purchased to replace a truck that was not rated for the weight it was transporting.
Among those interviewed by the authors, these safety and health improvements were made possible by shared OSHA 10-hour training experiences of labor and management, and the relationships that developed from that process. It began with acknowledging the importance of training and gaining safety and health awareness. Then, an environment that promotes safety and health improvements at every level of plant operation emerged. It is now expected that near misses will be reported and problems will be identified and resolved because everyone, workers and management alike, recognizes the importance of the problems and the need to work together to solve them.
Across the entire plant, everyone has completed OSHA 10-hour training, and employees feel more involved in promoting safety. Everyone has the right to stop hazardous work. Union and management leaderships have collaborative and respectful interactions as a result of their shared training. Near-miss reporting is not only encouraged, it is expected. Safety is part of all new-hire orientations. Each new employee is now trained on Emergency Evacuation Procedures (Exit Routes) and Shelter in Place practices. Relevant new employees now receive the entire OSHA initial Fork Truck Operator course (Material Handling)—both classroom and practical—and the training curriculum could expand to more subjects in the near future. Since OSHA 10-hour training and the building of mutual respect between labor and management, health and safety activities have grown and are more consistently practiced.
Are all these changes due to training? It would appear that bold leadership was the first essential element in building a workplace movement toward improved health and safety—leaders from both management and labor who had the vision to try a more collaborative approach. This was followed by universal joint training and the trust-building that came with it. These all became a platform for a reactivated committee structure and more active employee involvement—all key components leading to resolving hazards and improving safety and health in the workplace.
Conclusion
This demonstrates that positive changes can happen with bold leadership, cooperation between labor and management and site-specific worker-centered training of all hourly plant employees and all managers. Following OSHA 10-hour General Industry training, labor and management were able to work more collaboratively to improve many worksite safety and health problems. The specific steps taken to improve these conditions began with a decision to provide OSHA 10-hour General Industry training plant-wide, to provide off-site training for workers, and to hold collaborative health and safety meetings between labor and management. This was followed by OSHA 10-hour General Industry training for all facility personnel and having labor and management in the same training sessions. The health and safety committee was then expanded in size and discussions led to identification of problems, and many of these were resolved. The plant hired a rank-and-file union member to become a permanent peer trainer for the company. Respect and collaboration have grown, and new and better outcomes are in progress. An environment for continuous improvement has been created along with structural changes that increase health and safety.
