The GE Global Learning-Crotonville Campus in Ossining, N.Y., is the latest General Electric (GE) worksite to earn entry into the prestigious Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) of the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Agency officials welcomed the site into the VPP at the star level, the program's highest level of achievement, during a flag raising ceremony held October 16 at the Old Albany Post Road campus.
"GE management and employees are to be congratulated on their successful joint commitment to making safety and health a priority here at the Crotonville Campus," said Robert Kulick, OSHA's regional administrator in New York. "Their proactive efforts to evaluate, identify and eliminate hazards have resulted in zero workdays lost to injury or illness in the past three years."
The campus is used to design and deliver leadership and professional development training, conduct customer best practice sharing and host other GE management meetings. Its approval followed an OSHA team's onsite review that found GE's safety and health programs consistent with the high quality expected of VPP participants.
Among the areas of excellence that OSHA identified were the site's facility safety orientation video, contractor safety management program, bilingual safety communication and regular verification of effective checks for hazard controls. The Ossining site now joins more than 2,030 worksites in 270-plus industries that have earned entry into the VPP, including eight other GE facilities in New York.
The VPP recognizes worksites that are committed to effective employee protection beyond the requirements of OSHA standards and encourages cooperative relationships among labor, management, unions and government. Through the VPP, employers and employees have experienced significant decreases in fatalities, injuries and illnesses; associated cost reductions including lowered workers' compensation expenses; positive changes in company culture and attitudes toward safety and health; and average injury rates 50 percent lower than other employers in their respective industries.
