NEWS - Manufacturing

By Ted Carter
SBJ.com Staff

The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration, or OSHA, is likely to pay close attention to the 25 Savannah employers it notified earlier this month of having workplace-accident-and-illness rates 150 percent higher than the national average.

“Employers are responsible for their workplace safety and health,” said Mike Wald, spokesman for OSHA’s Atlanta office. “So when you find them having injury rates like this it raises a red flag.”

And it puts the employers more fully on the workplace safety agency’s radar screen, he said. “You don’t know when we’re coming to visit.”

The Savannah area employers were among about 500 manufacturers and companies in Georgia and 15,000 nationwide informed in mid March that 2008 data showed they had the highest numbers of injuries and illnesses resulting in days away from work, restricted work activities, or job transfers. 

The federal agency, a division of the Department of Labor, based the 2008 injuries reports on surveys of 100,000 workplaces nationwide.

After reviewing the surveys, the safety agency sent letters to the various employers along with copies of their injury and illness data. The letters also included a list of the most frequently cited OSHA standards for each entity’s specific industry.

The 25 local employers tallied workplace related injuries and illnesses at a rate of 4.5 per 100 employees, OSHA said. The national average is 2 per 100 workers, according to the agency.

The agency notified a range of Savannah employers, including construction contractors, a national home improvement goods retailer, nursing homes and manufacturers.

OSHA also cited Savannah-Hilton Head  International Airport, which had 177 employees in 2008 and reported 15 injuries resulting in 26 days away from work, said Lori Lynah, airport spokeswoman.

“The majority of those injuries were sustained in jobs that are no longer being handled by airport employees,” she said in an e-mail, and noted the change in job assignments should ensure the airport shows a lower rate for 2009.

She said last year’s numbers have yet to be filed.

The airport was one of only a few of the local employers to respond to questions about the letters posed by Savannah Business Journal.com and Savannah Daily News.   Most referred the questions to managers or executives who did not return telephone calls.

In addition to Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport, employers sent the OSHA letters were:
• Division 9 Contractors Inc., Savannah
• Lummus Corp., Savannah
• Erickson Associates Inc., Savannah
• Savannah Foods Industrial (de)
• Savannah; Lowes Home Centers Inc., Savannah
• Lowes Home Centers Inc., Pooler
• Lowes Home Centers Inc., Rincon
• Kennickell Printing Co., Savannah
• Azalealand Nursing Home Inc., Savannah
• Great Dane Ltd. Partnership, Savannah
• Pepsi-Cola Metro Bottling Co., Savannah
• Metalcrafts Inc., Savannah
• South Atlantic Forest Products Inc., Savannah
• United Parcel Service Inc., Savannah
• Heritage Healthcare of Savannah
• Kindred Healthcare Inc., Savannah
• Mock Plumbing and Mechanical Inc., Savannah
• Standard Concrete Products, Savannah
• Savannah Air Center LLC
• Savannah Pace Electrical Contractors Inc.
• Kerby Enterprises Inc., Pooler
• Moss Oaks Health Care Center, Pooler
• Imperial Sugar Co., Port Wentworth
• Bryan County Health Rehabilitation Center, Richmond Hill.

OSHA is offering consultation services on safety and health in the workplace for employers with 250 or fewer workers. This program is administered by a state agency and operated separately from OSHA's enforcement program. The service is free and confidential, and there are no fines even if problems are found, the agency says.

Designed for small employers, the consultation program can help an employer identify hazards while finding effective and economical solutions for repairing them, agency officials say. In addition, the OSHA state consultant can assist in developing and implementing a safety and health management system for the workplace.

Wald, OSHA’s Atlanta spokesman, said the safety notifications should lead to some self-assessment on the part of employers. “They need to find people (in their sectors) who have low numbers and ask what they are doing that we aren’t doing.”

For instance, the Savannah airport could work with other airports of its size to see what they do to limit workplace injuries and illnesses. Wald said employers should also look at safety issues in relation to their profit pictures. “If you have workers who are out because of injuries or illness, you are losing productivity. It’s absolutely a bottom line issue.”

He noted the sensitivity of workplace safety in Savannah that stems from the Dixie Crystals’ plant explosion of February 2008 that killed 14 workers and severely injured many others.

But there’s a danger that Savannah employers look at the tragedy as something unrelated to their workplaces, Wald said. “The incident was based on an explosion of sugar dust,” he said. And the companies figure that since “we don’t produce sugar, we’re not dangerous.”

Meanwhile, Savannah attorney Brent Savage, who is representing a dozen clients in suits stemming from the Dixie Crystals explosion, is encouraged by OSHA’s letter-writing effort. He said closer scrutiny of workplace safety is more important than ever in a tough economy in which employers may be tempted to sacrifice safety to save money.

“I think OSHA is doing a great thing,” Savage said.

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