IDI's - Safety Advocates of the Year for 2020!

Good morning to all IDI employees, 

As you know, every year going back to 2008, IDI acknowledges our outstanding Safety Advocates of the Year and we typically do this by unveiling a banner at our 1st volunteer quarterly safety meeting of the new year in February.  Due to Covid-19, we have not been able to hold in-person volunteer quarterly safety meetings.  So, with that being said, below is our new banner that is hanging in our warehouse containing the names of our 2020 Safety Advocates of the Year:  

The following are the criteria to be named a Safety Advocate of the Year for 2020: 

1. Had to be a Safety Advocate for the whole year (started the year as a Safety Advocate and ended the year as a Safety Advocate)
2. Must have worked a minimum of 1,600 hours
3. Attended all 4 volunteer quarterly safety meetings
4. Turned in all toolbox talks & safety inspections by 12:00pm on 1^st business day worked
5. No injuries to themselves
6. No injuries to employees at the Safety Advocate’s job site, that were a violation of a company policy
7. No issued written safety warnings to themselves or employees at their job sites
8. Consistently performs quality Task-Based Safety Awareness Huddles
9. No positive drug & alcohol tests
10. Has an overall positive attitude towards safety

Congratulations to our 17 Safety Advocates of the Year.  Your efforts are what make us the industry leader in safety,  We are successful because of you!

When you see our Safety Advocates of the Year, please give them a good ole' attaboy!

If you have any questions about the above, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham.

Have a Safe Day!

Green Tape on All Extension Cords & 3-Pronged Electrical Tools as of 4/1/21!

 Good afternoon to all I.D.I. employees:

We begin a new quarter on, 4/1/21 for our Assured Grounding Conductor Program and we are to switch over to green tape.  To all Safety Advocates/Lead Field Supervisors - We need your help to keep our employees safe and to help keep us OSHA compliant by following our assured grounding conductor program. Please inspect, test and color-code with green tape all 3 pronged electrical tools and extension cords. All electrical tools and cords need to be visually inspected. If you see any defects in the cords such as bare wires, severe kinks, missing or damaged ground prong, the cord pulling away from the plug end-housing, etc., then that tool or cord would need to be immediately removed from service and reported to the lead field supervisor.  If your tool/cord passes the visual inspection, your next step is to test the cord with a receptacle tester.  First, you should test the outlet that you will be plugging your cord into to ensure that it is properly wired. You should see 2 yellow lights lit up on your tester and the red light should be off. This means the outlet is working appropriately. Next, plug your cord into the outlet and then test the cord with the receptacle tester. Again, you should see the same light pattern as mentioned above and this would mean the cord passed the test and it is good and safe to use. Any other light pattern means that there is a problem with the cord and the cord needs to be removed from service and reported to your lead field supervisor. If the cord passes the visual inspection and the cord tester test, you should then remove the previous quarter's white electrical tape and install the green electrical tape about 1" down from both plug ends. Your cord is now in compliance with our 2nd quarter's Assured Grounding Conductor Program. The green tape shall remain in place from 4/1/21 through 6/30/21. You are not quite done yet! All employees now need to visually inspect all electrical cords and tools on a daily basis before use and if any defects are found, the cord needs to be immediately removed from service.

If you do not have green tape, please ask your Superintendent and they will coordinate getting it to you.

Thank you for taking the time to ensure your electrical tools and cords are in safe working order. Your actions may prevent one of our family members from sustaining an electrical shock type injury or worse yet, an electrocution. If you have any questions regarding our Assured Grounding Conductor Program, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham, at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

IDI's 100% Eye Protection Policy!

Good afternoon to all IDI employees,

As you all know, IDI requires eye protection to be worn 100% of the time while on job sites. IDI provides eye protection such as safety glasses and/or goggles at no cost to our employees.  We rolled out this 100% eye protection policy in March of 2015 which was 6 years ago.  We have had tremendous results with this policy in place as we have not had a single eye related injury requiring medical care since this went into effect.  Prior to the 100% eye protection policy going into effect, IDI required safety glasses for various tasks, but not all the time, and we would get a few debris in the eye type medical injuries a year.  We also had 1 very serious eye related injury in January of 2015 involving an employee using a hammer and a very small metal fragment broke away from the face of the hammer and darted directly into our employee's eye, causing the need for immediate emergency surgery.  Fortunately, the employee did not lose his eye.  

If you are a prescription glasses wearer, you need to keep in mind that prescription glasses are not impact resistant and can shatter if struck by a flying object such as a fastener pin. Prescription glasses do not meet the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) requirements for eye protection on construction job sites.  Also, prescription safety glasses typically do not have side shield protection.  The following are a few options to help prescription glass wearers to meet the 100% eye protection requirement.  We provide over-the-spectacle or OTS safety glasses to wear over prescription glasses.  If you need a pair of the OTS safety glasses, just request them from your Superintendent and you will be provided with a pair.  Another option that many employees already do is to buy prescription safety glasses. If you are going this route, please talk to your eye doctor or prescription safety glasses provider to ensure the prescription safety glasses are ANSI Z87.1 approved.  Also, you would need to ensure that your prescription safety glasses have side shield protection or that they are the wrap around style.  You could take a pair of our safety glasses with you to the eye doctor or provider to help describe this.  It is my understanding that you can purchase prescription safety glasses at a reasonable or very low cost through your group medical insurance vision plan as I have been told this by many employees who have gone this route.  

We cannot allow our employees to wear regular prescription glasses as their only eye protection method while on job sites and we have to enforce our policy for your protection.  

Our 100% eye protection policy was put in place for your protection.  We want for all of our employees to be able to go home from work at the end of the day, injury-free, with both eyes and no vision loss as your loved ones are counting on it!

If you have any questions about our 100% safety glasses/eye protection policy or anything else related to safety, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham at (847) 417-1689 or via e-mail at pgraham@4idi.com.

Have a Safe Day!

1st Volunteer Quarterly Safety Meeting of 2021 is Underway!

Good afternoon to all IDI employees, 

As you know, IDI typically hosts in-person volunteer quarterly safety training meetings for all employees for the past 2 plus decades.  Due to Covid-19, we have been unable to host in-person safety training meetings for large gatherings of employees so we have been having to do things a little different for a while.  

Our 1st volunteer quarterly safety meeting of 2021 that we usually hold in-person in early February will be in the same format as our past couple of volunteer quarterly safety meetings which means it will be a safety training video and a 10-question quiz.  Last Thursday, we sent an all employee e-mail out containing a 20-minute video on Ladder Safety and a 10-question quiz.  To receive credit for participating in our 1st volunteer quarterly safety meeting, you would need to score a minimum of 8 out of 10 or 80% or better on the quiz.  The quiz relates directly to the video.  The quiz needs to be submitted to our Safety Director, Peter Graham, no later than Thursday, 2/11/21 at 4:00pm.  

We also mailed safety training notice letters with all the instructions to our employees homes and that letter went out in the mail at the end of last week.  

If for some reason you didn't see the email or you don't receive the safety training notice letter at your home over the next few days, please contact our Safety Director, at (847) 417-1689 so he can get you the information.  

In the meantime, don't let your guard down in the battle against injuries.  Keep doing what you have always been doing in keeping an eye on each other and looking out for your brothers and sisters.  Make your daily Task-Based Safety Awareness Huddles matter as your Loved Ones Count On It!

As always, if you aren't sure of something, stop, take a breath and discuss with your lead field supervisor or Superintendent.  You can also call our Safety Director, Safety Pete, with any safety related questions, to consult or just to check-in.   

Have a Safe Day!

White Tape on All 3-Pronged Electrical Tools & Extension Cords as of 1/1/21!

 Good morning to all I.D.I. employees:

We begin a new quarter tomorrow on 1/1/21 for our Assured Grounding Conductor Program. We are to switch over our cords from the previous quarter's orange tape to white tape.  To all Safety Advocates & Lead Field Supervisors, please help keep our employees safe and help keep us OSHA compliant by following our assured grounding conductor program. Please inspect, test and color-code with white tape all extension cords and 3 pronged electrical tools.  All extension cords and tools need to be visually inspected. If you see any defects in the cords such as bare wires, severe kinks, missing or damaged ground prong, the cord pulling away from the plug end-housing, etc., then that tool or cord would need to be immediately removed from service and reported to the lead person. If your tool/cord passes the visual inspection, your next step is to test the cord with a receptacle tester. First, you should test the outlet that you will be plugging your cord into to ensure that it is properly wired. You should see 2 yellow lights lit up on your tester and the red light should be off. This means the outlet is working appropriately. Next, plug your cord into the outlet and then test the cord with the receptacle tester. Again, you should see the same light pattern as mentioned above and this would mean the cord passed the test and it is good and safe to use. Any other light pattern means that there is a problem with the cord and the cord needs to be removed from service and reported to your lead person. If the cord passes the visual inspection and the cord tester test, you should then remove the previous quarter's orange electrical tape and install the white electrical tape about 1" down from both plug ends. Your cord is now in compliance with our 1st quarter's Assured Grounding Conductor Program. The white tape shall remain in place from 1/1/21 through 3/31/21. You are not quite done yet! All employees now need to visually inspect all electrical cords and tools on a daily basis and if any defects are found, the cord or tool needs to be immediately removed from service.

Thank you for taking the time to ensure your electrical tools and cords are in safe working order. Your actions may prevent one of our family members from sustaining an electrical shock type injury or worse yet and electrocution. If you need a roll of white tape, please contact your Superintendent. If you have any questions regarding our Assured Grounding Conductor Program please call our Safety Director, Peter Graham, at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Happy Thanksgiving to the IDI Family!

Good afternoon to all IDI employees,

We want to wish our IDI family and all of your families a happy Thanksgiving.  We hope that everyone has a nice relaxing day spending time with those that matter the most and giving thanks for everything we have. 

Have a Happy & Safe Thanksgiving!

IDI's Covid-19 Daily Job Site Safety Plan

International Decorators, Inc (IDI) is working hard to keep our employees safe and to prevent the spread of Coronavirus (COVID‐19) in our workplaces. We remain vigilant in keeping up with governmental agency and public health organization recommendations and requirements.  We want to provide as healthy an environment as possible for our employees, trade partners, suppliers, and clients.  IDI is providing guidance based on recommendations from the Centers of Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), the Department of Health (DOH), and the U.S. State Department.

 

Safety Advocates/Lead Field Supervisors – Every morning or shift during your Task-Based Safety Awareness Huddle ask the following questions to your whole crew and advise them that they can talk to you in confidence after the huddle.

·      Do any of you have a fever, cough, shortness of breath or flu-like symptoms?

·      Has any individual tested positive for COVID‐19?

·      Has any individual had exposure/close contact to someone known to have tested positive for COVID-19?  (What is close contact? - You were within 6 feet of someone who has Covid-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more.  You provided care at home to someone who is sick with Covid-19.  You had direct physical contact with a person who has Covid-19, such as you hugged them or kissed them.  You shared eating or drinking utensils with someone who has Covid-19 or they sneezed, coughed or somehow got respiratory droplets on you.)  

·      Has any individual traveled outside of the United States or gone on a cruise ship in the past 14 days?

 

If the answer is yes to any of the above, have that affected employee leave the job site immediately and immediately notify our human resource manager, Katie Clark (224) 279-8478.  Provide Katie with the affected employee’s name, symptoms and job site location.  Katie will then notify our job site Superintendent and will provide direction back to the Superintendent. 

 

PREVENTATIVE MEASURES 

Cleaning/Disinfecting 

·      All employees should routinely clean/disinfect their frequently touched work surfaces, such as
workstations, desk/countertops, door knobs, tools and equipment. 

·      IDI has spray bottles of disinfectant.  You can request this through your Superintendent.

·      No communal food will be permitted on the project site until further notice.

 

Worksite Hygiene 

·      We have disposable latex gloves in stock.  You can request them from your Superintendent.

·      Avoid touching your face, especially with dirty hands.

·      Sneeze and cough into a tissue (which is immediately disposed of), or the crook of your
arm; avoid using your hands.

·      Employees should wash their hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, where facilities exist to do so.  If there are no hand wash facilities at your job site, you can request hand sanitizer through your Superintendent.  

·      Put physical distance between yourself and other people (6 ft whenever possible).  Social distancing is a key element in the prevention of Coronavirus and in spreading Coronavirus.

·      Wear a face covering when 6’ social distancing is not feasible or when required by the job site.

 

Discuss COVID‐19 Symptoms with employees (may appear within 2‐14 days after exposure): 

*   Fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle or body aches, recent loss of taste or smell.

Employees should call their doctor if they: 

1. Develop symptoms and have been in close contact with a person known to have COVID‐19.

2. Have recently traveled from an area with widespread or ongoing community spread of COVID‐19, such as out of the U.S. or went on a cruise ship. 

Have a Safe Day!