Minutes from August 16, 1999 VPP Steering Committee Meeting
VPP Steering Committee Meeting
Monday, August 16, 1999
EMSL Conference Room
The meeting commenced at 1:05 p.m.
Introduction of Roby Enge
Vern Madson introduced Roby Enge, who replaced Dick Watkins as
PNNL Director of ES&H.
- Roby indicated that worker involvement in safety is essential to VPP. Roby
is from the Pantex Plant and is aware of the role unions must play in VPP.
Roby also indicated that we have a lot of good ideas on paper, but we need
the final piece to bring the safety culture to the bench-top level and --
and VPP is the way to achieve this level. Roby is working with management
to promote staff involvement in the VPP process, and he believes that management
commitment is essential to the success of VPP.
- When asked how much he will be involved with VPP, Roby stated that he would
not tell the committee what to do. He will facilitate and has no agenda. He
stated that he needs to know what the problems are and will not hide information.
He will always be a champion of VPP.
- When asked where we are at with VPP today, Roby stated that he has not yet
had time to make an assessment. When one committee member stated that he was
trying to figure out where we had been and where we are at now, Roby said
that each site adopts what works for them. At Pantex, they had dedicated people
who developed plans of attack. Getting researchers involved is the first step
-- the committee has to go out and get them involved. Vern stated that some
individuals have shown interest in getting involved, but have no work package
number for their time. Roby indicated that he would look into this.
The committee members informed Roby about trips they had taken to other sites
who were rolling out VPP to their staff.
- The trip to INEEL in June. The attendees indicated that they were
impressed. They felt that INEEL had the same problems at first with management
commitment, and it took 3 years to resolve this issue. INEEL is very strong
on VPP, they have a large budget and a lot of programs, procedures, and packets
related to the program. A number of VPP posters were noted onsite, and their
newsletters were full of information. INEEL also has five fulltime VPP staff
onsite, and independent VPP consultants were hired to determine where INEEL's
VPP was at. INEEL uses a behavioral-based safety system, where one worker
audits another. One committee member indicated that he passed out information
that he brought back from his trip to INEEL. Vern suggested that we secure
a room to store data and a logbook ofr checking the material in and out. Drue
Collins also mentioned that he had copies of the applications for Kansas
City and INEEL.
- Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory visit. Vern mentioned that PNNL is ahead
of LBL as far as VPP is concerned. At LBL, Integrated Safety Management has
just begun, there is no enhanced worker program, and VPP is on hold. Their
behavioral-based safety program is not yet Lab-wide (not yet to the researchers),
and before they started, their accident rate was very high. The union staff
were told to make it work; as a result, LBL has dramatically reduced injury
and accident rates through their behavioral-based safety program. One story
shared that occurred during the visit was when a forklift tipped over. The
driver was seat-belted and was not hurt. The next day the committee member
noticed another driver not wearing his seat belt. The committee member was
puzzled as to why the safety problem was not made more apparent. Another committee
member noted that LBL had a lot of money invested in this program. The program
consists of coaches (Hazard Identification Teams) -- starting with 10 and
will soon be up to 50. Observations were performed on individuals for 1 hour
at 10 per week. This gave the workers ownership of the program.
- Kansas City visit. This site was really busy, as the following week
they were undergoing reaccreditation and the start of labor negotiations.
This is a secure site (they work on security weapons), so the committee members
were stuck in a room for 2 days. Kansas City has a $65K budget and meets weekly.
They have had their share of problems -- the VPP and Union members have threatened
to pull out twice. However, they worked out their problems, since both sides
want to succeed. Kansas City has a triangle theory for VPP to succeed: Union,
management, and DOE. All three must work together for VPP to succeed. They
were extremely agreeable to share anything that they have documented, as they
saw no reason for PNNL to reinvent the wheel. They gave us a copy of their
application for guidance purposes. Our committee members brought back booklets
on the processes that they underwent to have their staff become acquainted
with VPP. Prizes for their staff included safety glasses, auto windshield
shades, flashlights, and emergency road kits. They used gadgets and people
to spread the message. When DOE performed the audit, Kansas City encouraged
the auditors to ask specific questions about employee involvement and stop
work authority. The intent was to not have the auditors ask staff members
to recite the tenets of VPP. In the planning process, PNNL is farther ahead
than Kansas City in worker involvement and lessons learned. Our safety as
a whole is better than Kansas City. They will give us an online version of
their application to help us with our application.
Subcommittee Reports
Todd Hart reported that the Worksite Analysis subcommittee was holding
an "email" meeting the following day to work on outline and final
draft. Among the discussion was using the WebReq capabilities and providing
links to other sites for support. This idea is being looked into.
Rich Garretson, Safety and Health Training subcommittee, stated that
June 20 was their last meeting. The subcommittee met with an individual from
the Emergency Preparedness office. The subcommittee is trying to locate the
building emergency plans.
Russ Meicenheimer of the Employee Involvement subcommittee has everything
but needs computing on the Web. They need to figure out how to obtain employee
involvement and how to do it. There seems to be a high turnover on the VPP steering
committee; there is a problem with keeping people interested. Deanna Colley
and Pat Wright of ES&H Directorate have been invited. The problem is finding
people who will become involved after business hours.
Cliff Wynn of the Electrical Safety Committee reported that they have
a new charter. The committee is getting close, and outside people need to provide
their input. Sharon Dossett, Manager of Safety and Health, has been instrumental
in getting past problems solved.
Bruce Madsen Presentation
Joy Rosscup reported that Bruce Madsen, owner/operator of Hi-Tech Sports, will
be presenting to the Transportation group (who have the highest incidence of
accidents) in the EMSL Auditorium at 12:30 on September 24. She also reported
that the Ergonomics staff want to observe to get a better understanding. The
janitorial staff would also be a good target audience but there is not enough
funding. Vern agreed that Bruce Madsen is expensive ($2200 on a tier-based plan).
Washington D.C. Trip
It was reported that a lot of committee members wanted to attend, but we couldn't
send as many as we would have liked to.
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Date: January 6, 2000
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