Yesterday afternoon, I.D.I. held a field safety committee meeting. One of our safety discussions involved employees showing up to job sites without safety glasses and/or gloves and asking for a new pair of safety glasses and gloves when they arrive at the job site.
International Decorators provides personal protective equipment (PPE) such as safety glasses and gloves to our employees. All we ask is that everybody treats the PPE with care and try to make the most use of the PPE that you can. If all employees treated the PPE as if they paid for it themselves, this would go along way in helping us to bid jobs more competitively to obtain more work so fewer employees are having to sit and not work. Helping us to keep our cost down by not wasting money will help to keep more employees working and this benefits everybody. We were advised that there are times when some employees want a new pair of safety glasses or new pair of gloves every day or more often then needed. We understand that PPE does not last forever. We understand that safety glasses get scratched up over time and that gloves tend to get holes in them over time and that employees need to replace them due to deterioration. We do not want our employees having to work with scratched up safety glasses or deteriorated gloves as this itself can be a safety hazard. I.D.I. requires safety glasses/eye protection to be worn 100% while at job sites and gloves are required for specific tasks and hazards so we owe it to our employees to provide this PPE. All we ask is that everybody treats the PPE with care.
Also, keep in mind that not every single job has a gangbox containing extra supplies such as PPE. An employee could show up to a project with out bringing safety glasses with them and we may not have any at that particular project. In this scenario, the employee cannot work until he/she has safety glasses. So, please remember to bring your work boots, hard hat, safety glasses and gloves with you to work everyday. Then if your PPE needs to be replaced due to deterioration, just show the deteriorated PPE to your lead field supervisor and it will be replaced. If the lead field supervisor advises that we do not have extra safety glasses or gloves immediately available, then you should contact your superintendent for further direction. I also want to remind everyone that our drivers carry extra PPE on their trucks so we can typically, under most circumstances, get the needed PPE to your site in a fairly short period of time. Under no circumstances though can we allow an employee to work without the necessary PPE and this is for your safety.
Lastly, we know that most employees care and do their best to make the PPE last. We are just trying to get everybody on the same page for the benefit of all of our employees.
We appreciate our field safety committee bringing up this matter!
If anyone has any questions about this article, please contact our Safety Director, Safety Pete at (847) 417-1689.
Have a Safe Day!
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