NAHB - Alliance Annual Report - June 15, 2004

Occupational Safety and Health Administration and
the National Association of Home Builders(NAHB)
Alliance Annual Report
June 15, 2004

  1. Alliance Background

    Date Signed

    May 8, 2003

    Overview

    The Alliance focuses on providing NAHB members and others in the residential construction industry with information, training opportunities, and guidance that will help them protect employees' health and safety, particularly in reducing and preventing exposure to residential construction industry hazards. The Alliance's goals include:

    Training and Education

    • Developing and presenting training and education programs and workshops on residential construction industry issues, with specific emphasis on the Spanish-speaking work force.
    • Exploring the feasibility of developing a comprehensive safety training course specific to residential construction that is similar to OSHA's 30-hour construction course.

    Outreach and Communication

    • Assisting OSHA in identifying safety and health issues that can be addressed in eTools and other electronic compliance assistance products specific to the residential construction industry.
    • Developing and disseminating information through print and electronic media, with specific emphasis on the Spanish-speaking workforce, including NAHB's Nation's Building News and affiliated local associations' newsletters, electronic tools, and links from OSHA's and NAHB's Web sites.
    • Providing construction safety training and/or presentations on current construction activities within OSHA, and/or host an OSHA informational booth at the International Builders' Show and affiliated local association functions.
    • Encouraging companies or local associations to identify resources for providing training in English as a second language, as appropriate, to the Spanish-speaking workforce in the residential construction industry.

    Promoting the National Dialogue on Workplace Safety and Health

    • Working with the various Hispanic contractors associations and other Alliance Program participants to establish a dialogue on residential construction safety issues affecting the Spanish-speaking workforce.
    • Working to raise others' awareness of, and demonstrate their respective commitments to, workplace safety and health whenever NAHB and OSHA leaders address groups, with specific emphasis on the Spanish-speaking work force.

    Implementation Team Members

    NAHB:

    Rob Matuga - Director, Labor, Safety & Health Regulatory Affairs
    George Middleton - Program Manager, Labor, Safety & Health Regulatory Affairs

    OSHA:

    Todd Briggs - Office of Outreach Services and Alliances (OOSA)
    Cathy Cronin - Office of Training and Education
    Felipe Devora - Office of Construction Services
    Jess McCluer - OOSA
    Joe Reina - Assistant Regional Administrator, Region VI
    Lisa Ramber - OOSA
    Nilgun Tolek* - OOSA

    Contributors

    Bill Brough - -Contractor for OSHA, Salt Lake Technical Center

    Evaluation Period

    May 8, 2003 - May 8, 2004

    * Nilgun Tolek was Alliance Coordinator until November 2003

  2. Implementation Team Meetings

    • June 17, 2003 - Kick-off Meeting, OSHA, Washington. DC
    • July 22, 2003 - Meeting, OSHA, Washington, DC
    • September 15, 2003 - Meeting, OSHA, Washington, DC
    • January 16, 2004 - Meeting, OSHA, Washington, DC
    • May 3, 2004

  3. Events and Products

    Outreach and Communication

    Products:

    • Residential Construction Safety and Health Topics page

      NAHB is working with OSHA to provide expertise in development of a Residential Construction Safety and Health Topics page which will provide users with relevant reference materials including standards, directives, training materials and links to other informative Web sites related to the residential construction industry. The Safety and Health Topics page is under development and is expected to be completed by the end of FY04.

    • OSHA and NAHB Alliance Web Page

      The OSHA and NAHB Alliance Web page on OSHA's Web site contains information on the Alliance, Products and Resources, Activities and Events, and Milestones and Successes. The page is updated regularly.

    • NAHB Web page - Link to Alliance agreement on OSHA's Web page.
    • May 8, 2003 - OSHA distributed a news release announcing the Alliance.
    • May 15, 2003 - OSHA included information on the OSHA/NAHB Alliance signing in its bi-weekly e-newsletter, QuickTakes.
    • May 15, 2003 - "OSHA Signs Alliance Agreement with Home Builders, HVAC Contractors," Occupational Safety and Health Reporter

    Promoting the National Dialogue on Workplace Safety and Health

    Specific activities have not yet been planned to meet the promoting the national dialogue on workplace safety and health goal of the Alliance. This goal will continue to be discussed by the implementation team during the Alliance's second year.

  4. Results

    Once the Residential Construction Safety and Health Topics page is posted on the OSHA public Web page, one of the Outreach and Communications goals of the Alliance will be accomplished. This includes making employers and employees in the residential construction industry aware of industry hazards along with relevant reference materials including standards, directives, training materials and links to other informative Web sites related to the industry in order to help reduce exposure to hazards in the residential construction industry.

    It has taken some time for Implementation Team to develop a productive working relationship. After many discussions, the development of this productive relationship is demonstrated through the many programs and objectives that the Implementation Team is currently working on or has identified. Some examples include, the development of a one to two day Residential Construction Set-Up Training Program for Compliance Assistance Specialists, distribution of copies of NAHB's Scaffolding, Job Site and Toolbox Safety Handbook to OSHA representatives and a tour of a residential construction site to OSHA staff.

    The Residential Construction Set-up Training Program for Compliance Assistance Specialists is currently under development. The Implementation Team is working on developing an agenda for the course and determining a date and location for the event. The team has expressed interest in holding the tour of the residential construction site in conjunction with the training course.

    In addition, the Implementation Team has decided to distribute copies of NAHB's Scaffolding, Job Site and Toolbox Safety Handbook to OSHA Regional Hispanic Coordinators, Compliance Assistant Specialists, Regional/Area Offices, State Plan State and Consultation Program staff. OSHA will send an e-mail to OSHA staff to determine how many copies of each publication they would like to have. Once all of the requests have been processed, NAHB will distribute the publications to appropriate contacts.

     

    Type of Activity (Conference, Training, Print and Electronic Distribution, etc.) Number of Individuals Reached or Trained
    OSHA and NAHB Alliance Web page on OSHA's Web site 850 (Note: The count includes data from Oct. 2003 to Apr. 2004)
    NAHB Web site - Link to Alliance Agreement Data Not Available
    May 15, 2003 - "OSHA Signs Alliance Agreement with Home Builders, HVAC Contractors," Occupational Safety and Health Reporter Data Not Available
    May 15, 2003 - OSHA includes information on the OSHA/NAHB Alliance signing in its bi-weekly e-newsletter; QuickTakes 38,000
    May 8, 2003 - OSHA distributed a news release announcing the Alliance 25 News Services
    TOTAL 38,850

     

  5. Upcoming Milestones

    The OSHA/NAHB Alliance implementation team has discussed a number of activities that will be undertaken in the upcoming year. Once the Residential Construction Safety and Health Topics page is posted on the OSHA Web page, NAHB and OSHA plan to issue press releases. NAHB would also like to develop a one to two day Residential Construction Set-Up Training Program for Compliance Assistance Specialists. They would like to have a pilot training program in Region II.

    Further, NAHB would like to collect data on the number of people trained and write a success story on the 6-Hour Residential Construction Training Course. The training course was developed through the Susan Harwood Training Grant program and since May 2003 the course has been offered twenty-three times. Ten of the courses were offered in Spanish only. The courses were held all throughout the country in places such as Atlanta, GA; Dallas, TX; Laredo, TX; San Antonio, TX; Minneapolis, MN; Phoenix, AZ; Philadelphia, PA; Tampa, FL and Missoula, MT.

    The Office of Small Business Assistance expressed interest in the data since a majority of NAHB members are small businesses. NAHB has also offered to develop a success story describing the how the 6-hour residential construction training course worked and the results of the course. NAHB said they would try to get comments from Joe Reina, Deputy Regional Administrator, Region VI, since he attended one of the courses.

    NAHB would also like for OSHA to review and provide comments on a draft residential construction training video script that is based on the NAHB 6-hour training course.

    Once complete, the video would be a product of the Alliance. NAHB would like to work with OSHA to develop a Fall Protection Fact Sheet in both English and Spanish, for residential construction workers who do framing work. NAHB said that they would like for OSHA to contribute articles on residential construction safety issues to the Nations Building News Online newsletter. Finally, NAHB would like to offer a tour of a residential construction site to OSHA staff including members of the Implementation Team and Executive Staff including Assistant Secretary John Henshaw. The tour will be held in conjunction with the previously mentioned 6-hour training course.

    OSHA will also work with NAHB to have exhibits at upcoming NAHB conferences in order to promote the products of the Alliance. Events under consideration include the November 4-6, 2004 State and Local Government Affairs Conference in Biloxi, Mississippi and the January 13-15, 2005 International Builders Show in Orlando, FL.

    OSHA and NAHB will work together to distribute copies of NAHB's Scaffolding, Job Site and Toolbox Safety Handbook to OSHA representatives including Regional Hispanic Coordinators, Compliance Assistant Specialists, Regional, State Plan State and Consultation Program staff.

    Finally, NAHB has expressed interest in participating in the upcoming Construction Roundtable for construction-related National Alliances scheduled to take place in July 2004. The Roundtable is designed for the construction-related National Alliances to discuss how they can work together to address issues such as ergonomics, silica and motor vehicle safety, which many of them are addressing individually through their Alliances.

Report prepared by: Jess McCluer, Alliance Coordinator, Office of Outreach Services and Alliances, June 15, 2004