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Michigan Drug Free Workplace

June 6th, 2007 Posted by Amelia

Are you an employer who wants to improve employee morale, reduce accidents on the job, and cut costs?

One way to do it is through the Michigan drug free workplace program. As you know, many of the accidents that happen on the job are connected with the use of drugs. This new program is entirely voluntary. It could help your business and promote worker safety. The Michigan drug free workplace program is meant for mobile worksites in the construction business.

As part of the development of a drug free environment, the Michigan program has added to itself the VPP Mobile Workforce Demonstration for Construction. Formed through OSHA, VPPs specifically for mobile construction sites were started in late 2006. They are meant to allow voluntary participation by companies in a program that involves careful scrutiny of workplace health and safety compliance. Management invites a team of safety and health experts in from OSHA. If the company passes that scrutiny, it gets official recognition for “outstanding effort.”

In order to be recognized, a site must eliminate dangers such as fall hazards and use safe trenching methods, for example. Employees must be trained in safety techniques designed specifically for the construction industry. Subcontractors’ health and safety practices must also be addressed. These are the types of steps necessary to be verified.

VPPs in general began in 1982 with the purpose of developing teamwork between management, unions, workers, and the government to encourage health and safety.

The program offers employers in the construction business with mobile sites and short term projects “the same opportunity for recognition that fixed on-site employers receive,” said Edwin Foulke, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. He said the program acknowledges companies that “should be held up as models of safety and health for the rest of the industry.” And he added that VPPs have become a sure-fire method of lowering the rates of injuries and illnesses, and eliminating worksite fatalities.