Erland / Erland participates in OSHA’s Safe + Sound Week 2022: August 15-21

By Clarence Reid, Safety Director & Laurie Webber, Assistant Safety Director

Safe + Sound Week is a nationwide event held each August that recognizes the successes of workplace health and safety programs and offers information and ideas on how to keep America's workers safe. This year, all 16 of our jobsites and our home office participated in the weeklong recognition event.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate of worker deaths and reported injuries in the United States has decreased by more than 60 percent in the past four decades since the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act was passed. However, every year, close to 5,000 workers are killed on the job (a rate of 13 per day), and more than 2.7 million suffer a serious job-related injury or illness. A troubling statistic for our industry.

Safe + Sound Week provides us the opportunity to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to safety and to recognize recent project safety successes. By participating, we hope to better engage our employees and subcontractor partners—getting them more involved in finding solutions to potential hazards as well as being comfortable with reporting injuries or hazardous conditions.

During Safe + Sound Week, our employees and subcontractor partners in the field participated in various safety toolbox talks that pertained to their project. They, along with our home office, were also asked to share their reason for working safely by writing it down on our “Why I Work Safe” posters. Here are a few of our favorites:

• For my family
• For my community
• For one another

Worker participation engages workers at all levels in establishing, implementing, evaluating, and improving safety and health in the workplace. Our team looks forwarded to recognizing Safe + Sound Week again next year. Together, we will continue to build a safer tomorrow for the construction industry.

For any questions regarding this topic, please contact Clarence Reid at creid@erland.com.