State Workplace Safety Partnerships Celebrated on Workers’ Memorial Day

MIOSHA’s partnerships highlighted to emphasize the importance of Workplace Safety

Detroit, MICH. — As we continue to celebrate Workplace Rights Week, we recognize Workers’ Memorial Day to honor hardworking Michiganders who lost their lives on the job and highlight the vital role Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) plays in helping employers protect their workforce.  

Workers’ Memorial Day marks the day that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was founded in 1970 and is observed across the nation every year on April 28. It is a day to honor those who have lost their lives on the job, to acknowledge the suffering experienced by families and communities and to commit to ensuring safe and healthful workplaces for all workers.   

To highlight the importance of these commitments, LEO leadership visited the site of the Wayne County Criminal Justice Center (WCCJC) today — an extensive MIOSHA partnership project in Detroit — to emphasize the value and importance of collaboration between the state, employers and workers to foster on-the-job safety.  

“Every worker has the right to workplace safety, and we’re proud of the partnerships in place that help ensure those rights are afforded to them,” said Deputy Director of Labor Sean Egan. “This is a group effort to ensure the collective safety of our state’s workers, as we remember those who have fallen on the job to make sure fatalities in the workplace are minimized as much as possible.” 

The WCCJC is part of a Wayne County Commission development agreement with Rock Ventures that consists of five state-of-the-art buildings, each conjoined by an underground tunnel: the adult detention center, juvenile detention center, sheriff’s office, courthouse and central utility plant. MIOSHA entered into a Partnership agreement with Barton Malow and collaborating employers and unions for the construction of the new WCCJC in midtown Detroit in October 2019, and the project is expected to be completed by fall 2022. 

The goal of all MIOSHA partnerships is a significant and measurable reduction in workplace deaths, injuries and illnesses, and Barton Malow has effectively leveraged its partnership to achieve these important reductions. As of April 2020, WCCJC contractors have worked more than 1.5 million total hours on the project. During this time, there have been 19 OSHA recordable incidents, with a current Days Away, Restricted or Transferred (DART) rate of 0.7 – less than half of the 2020 national average DART rate of 1.7. 

Some of Barton Malow’s key partnership strategies for a safe worksite include: 

• Goal setting — working safely without a recordable injury 
• Effective communication between trades  
• Reporting near misses 
• Frequent safety orientations, toolbox talks, pre-task plans and inspections 
• 6S Methodology — safety, sort, straighten, sweep, standardize and sustain 

“Decreasing workplace fatalities and injuries in Michigan not only protects the hard-working men and women on the job, but also helps us retain and attract top skilled employees in the trades,” said Steve Claywell, President of The Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council. “Every Michigander who enters a worksite for a living deserves to do so in an environment that has the right measures in place to ensure they’ll return home safe to their families at the end of the day.” 

MIOSHA Partnerships and Consultations

MIOSHA partnerships provide employers and organizations in construction and general industry with the opportunity to work closely with MIOSHA, learn from one another and gain recognition for their voluntary efforts. Since the program’s inception in 2004, the agency has entered into more than 45 partnership agreements. These cooperative relationships have helped to maximize MIOSHA’s impact on worker safety and health across a wide range of projects and workplaces, while expanding options for employers that enable them to focus on greater worker protections.  

As of December 2021, MIOSHA’s active construction partnerships showed a 1.81 Total Case Incident Rate compared to the 2020 national rate of 2.5. 

In addition to partnerships, MIOSHA also offers a number of other cooperative and recognition programs to help employers and employees develop and implement safe working conditions and practices. All employers, regardless of industry, can utilize these tools. 

Find the program that meets your workplace wherever it stands on work safety. 

Pictured above: Sean Egan joins electrical workers on the job at the Wayne County Criminal Justice Center