ASA Staffing Success - November

In February of 2013, I received a phone call from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The call delivered an urgent request for a meeting with the head of OSHA, David Michaels, Ph.D., MPH, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. The timing of the call was not coincidental. That same day, OSHA had issued a news release about the death of a temporary worker at a Bacardi bottling plant.

In that release, Michaels is quoted as saying, “A worker’s first day at work shouldn’t be his last day on earth.” When ASA general counsel Stephen Dwyer and I met with Michaels and a large group of OSHA officials, we told them we agreed wholeheartedly and promised to demonstrate to them just how important employee safety and the promotion of employee safety are to ASA and its member staffing companies.

Advocating for Worker Well-Being

As many ASA members will remember, in October of 2010 newly elected ASA chairman Bill Yoh, TSC, CSP, announced that his top priority— and that of the ASA board of directors—would be a new talent advocacy initiative focused on developing best practices to promote the interests and well-being of staffing employees. Employee safety was, and is today, at the heart of that ongoing initiative.

The initiative launched with the formation of an employee safety committee comprised of individuals from member firms of all sectors and sizes as well as several safety and risk management experts. Working closely with ASA staff liaisons Dwyer and Kelly Verberg, vice president of membership and sections, the committee developed safety best practices that were published in 2011. That year ASA also produced the first in an ongoing series of safety-focused webinars, designed for both staffing firms and their clients.

Safety committee members and ASA staff
continue to dedicate significant time and effort
to safety education, which includes promoting
client awareness of employee safety issues and
accident prevention.

During the past two years, committee members have traveled to Washington, DC, on several occasions at their own expense to participate in ongoing meetings with OSHA, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health. The staffing industry and ASA member companies are fortunate to have such a dedicated group of professionals working on their behalf.

Collaborating for Tangible Results

The formal alliance agreement signed by ASA and OSHA earlier this year is the most concrete example of how far the two organizations have come in aligning themselves around a common goal. As a result of that alignment, ASA has played a key role in shaping OSHA products, including the agency’s new record-keeping bulletin and new recommended safety practices document. For its part, OSHA is reviewing new employee safety language that will be included in updated ASA model contracts.

Michaels says OSHA has been impressed by the results of the ASA–OSHA alliance, and that he and his team look forward to working with ASA on finding new avenues for advancing workplace safety at staffing client worksites.

The ASA safety committee, board of directors,
and staff are proud of what has been accom-
plished but also recognize that a lot of hard work
lies ahead. As ASA immediate past chairman Dan
Campbell, CSP, so aptly put it earlier this year:
“When it comes to safety, there’s no finish line.”
On behalf the ASA board and staff, thank you
for your commitment to employee safety and well-
being. Thank you for helping ASA deliver on its
promise to OSHA. Best wishes for a prosperous and
safe year ahead. n

The formal alliance agreement signed by ASA and OSHA earlier this year is the most concrete example of how far the two organizations have come in aligning themselves around a common goal.