ABC NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH AND SAFETY COMMITTEE COMES TO BELLEVUE (08/15/2008)
The ABC National Environment, Health and Safety Committee held its June 23rd meeting at the ABC of Western Washington office.
The chapter Safety Committee was invited to join the National committee for a working lunch. Director of Safety Chris Williams briefed the chapter committee members on the activities happening on the national level.
Chris and the committee members complimented the chapter on their STEP return percentage. ABC/WW has consistently outperformed the other chapters in ABC. ABC/WW this year had a 67.77% rate of return compared to the next closest percentage of 29%. The overall rate of return for National is only 12%. The committee asked ABC/WW for tips on how the other chapters could begin to increase their return percentages. ABC National is going to shorten the STEP application for 2009. One of the questions posed to the committee regarded the size of a firm and the current method of calculating the loss ratio for platinum applicants. As presently calculated it is weighted in favor of very large firms. Another suggestion was to have the platinum STEP recipients listed on the National ABC Website.
Nationally ABC is working with OSHA on their confined space rule, an ABC/ OSHA partnership, and the cranes and derricks proposed rule. ABC National is sponsoring a crane safety summit September 25-26 in Houston, Texas. The 2009 Education Conference will be held in April in Las Vegas.
