New Safety Coordinator Manuals - Being Distributed!

Good morning I.D.I. Safety Coordinators,

Your current Safety Coordinator manuals are approaching being 1-years old and are probably starting to run out of safety inspection forms and toolbox talk signature rosters.  The 3-ring binders also start to get delapidated after a year's use.  We have prepared new Safety Coordinator Manuals and we are in the process of getting them distributed to our Safety Coordinators with the goal of having them in all of your hands by the end of our fiscal year which is 10/31/14 so you have them to use for the first Monday in November.  The manuals are being brought out to our Safety Coordinators at the various job sites by our Superintendents, Drivers and by Safety Pete.  If you do not receive your new manual over the next 2 weeks, please ask your Superintendent or our Safety Director about it and we will get one to you. 

We have removed some of the older toolbox talks and replaced them with some new ones that are more relevant to the types of hazards you face, equipment and/or tools that you use to offer more protection to our employees.

Safety Coordinators play a vital role in helping us to sustain our positive overall safety culture.  The 5-10 minute safety toolbox talk sessions that get performed by the Safety Coordinators on Mondays are critical in helping us in the battle against injuries.  The Monday safety toolbox talk sessions get the week started off on the right foot and help set the tone for our employees to have safety at the forefront of their minds when performing tasks.  Please take the role of being a Safety Coordinator seriously as you may prevent a fatality or serious injury and you may never know it. 

If you have any questions related to safety, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham at (847) 417-1689. 

 

Have a Safe Day!

Orange Tape on All 3-Pronged Electrical Tools & Extension Cords on 10/1/14!

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

We begin a new quarter on Wednesday, 10/1/14 for our Assured Grounding Program. We provided orange tape for distribution to the Safety Coordinators at our volunteer quarterly safety meeting that was held on 9/6/14.  To all Safety Coordinators - tomorrow, please inspect, test and color-code with orange 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 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 oulet 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 red electrical tape and install the orange electrical tape about 1" down from both plug ends. Your cord is now in compliance with our 4th quarter's Assured Ground Program. The orange tape shall remain in place from 10/1/14 through 12/31/14. You are not quite done yet! You now need to visually inspect all electrical cords and tools on a daily basis and if any defects are found, the cord 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 have any questions regarding our Assured Grounding Program, please call our Safety Director, Peter Graham, at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Consecutive Days With No Lost-Time Injuries - Exceeds 500!!!!!

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

We have reached another safety milestone regarding our consecutive days worked streak without anyone sustaining a lost-time injury.  You may recall that back on July 28th, 2014, we posted an article about our consecutive days worked streak reaching 438 days, which was a record for the past 15 years.  We have now passed the 500 day mark as today we are now 501 consecutive days worked since our last lost-time injury which had occurred in May, 2013. 

Awesome job Everyone!

Great job on looking out for each other's well being and for your own personal safety.  Let's continue to work together as a team to help us reach our next safety milestone date of November 1st, 2014.  If we can work up to 11/1/14 without sustaining a lost-time injury, we will not only have worked 533 consecutive days without a lost-time injury, but we will have also gone a full worker's compensation insurance policy year without a lost-time injury occuring.  Twice in the past 15 years, we have gone a full worker's compensation policy year with having 1 lost-time injury but never having zero. 

Please continue to do your part by making good choices and choosing to work safe.  Please continue to look out for each other's well being.  If you see one of our I.D.I. family members not making the right choice and working in an unsafe manner, you are obligated to approach them to encourage them to work safe for the sake of themselves, their loved ones and for International Decorators, Inc.  Safety is everyone's responsibility and you do have the personal choice to work safe.  If you have any questions regarding safety, please contact our Safety Director, Safety Pete at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Volunteer Quarterly Safety "Make-Up" Meeting, Wednesday, September 17th at 4:00pm

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

As you all know, we held our volunteer quarterly safety meeting on Saturday, 9/6/14. We offer a volunteer make-up meeting for those that could not attend the regularly scheduled safety meeting either due to working for I.D.I. on the Saturday of the meeting or due to unforeseen circumstances, etc.

The volunteer quarterly safety make-up meeting is being held on Wednesday, 9/17/14 at 4:00pm at our Barrington office. The main safety topic for this meeting is Aerial Lift Safety!  Two of our largest projects that we are working on require all tradesmen & women that will be working in aerial lifts to have had current aerial lift training and to be able to prove it with documentation. We will be using a numerous amount of aerial lifts at both of these large projects. By attending this volunteer safety training session on aerial lift safety, you will be qualified to work at these projects. Without having current/recent aerial lift training, it would be difficult to place you at these projects.  You will be issued an aerial lift wallet training card following the safety training session.  

If you plan on attending, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham at (847) 417-1689 or by e-mail at pgraham@4idi.com, no later than Tuesday, 9/16/14. We need to know an approximate head-count for the meeting as we have to prepare materials and for chair rental purposes.

If you have any questions, please call Peter at the above-mentioend phone number.

Have a Safe Day!

How You Can Benefit By Attending our Volunteer Aerial Lift Safety Training on 9/6/14

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

As most of you know, our next volunteer quarterly safety meeting is being held on Saturday, September 6th at 7:00am. The main safety topic for the meeting will be Aerial Lift Safety.

We use aerial lifts almost daily at one job site or another and it is important to know the do's and dont's of working in aerial lifts. Struck-By and Caught-Between type injuries are 2 of OSHA's Focused Four topics as they cause a signifacant amount of fatailities in the construction industry. We will include training on how to prevent Struck-By and Caught-Between type injuries involving aerial lifts.

We feel this is a very important topic as we use a numerous amount of aerial lifts on a given day and employees are required to have had aerial lift training before they can operate an aerial lift.

Besides your own personal safety, here is another way that you could benefit by attending this volunteer safety training session.  Two of our largest projects that we are working on or soon to be working on require all tradesmen & women that will be working in aerial lifts to have had current aerial lift training and to be able to prove it with documentation.  We will be using a numerous amount of aerial lifts at both of these large projects.  By attending this volunteer safety training session on aerail lift safety, you will be qualified to work at these projects. With out having current/recent aerial lift training, we cannot place you at these projects.  Shortly after this training session, you will be provided with an aerial lift training wallet card to carry with you. 

This volunteer safety training session will be held at our usual location at our shop at 28059 W. Commercial Ave. in Barrington, IL. We will continue to advertise this meeting as we get closer to the meeting date. In the meantime, we are asking for everyone's help to spread the word of the meeting date, time and topic.
 

If you have any questions about this volunteer safety meeting, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham. Peter can be reached by e-mail at pgraham@4idi.com or by calling (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Table Saw Safety!

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

The table saws that we provide come with a blade guard that is bolted in place.  The blade guard is there for a reason.  The blade guard is there to protect you from the blade so that you don’t cut off a finger or your hand.  It also is there to help keep debris from the materials that you are cutting from flying towards you.  Our Safety Director, Safety Pete, was at a job site recently where he came across one of our table saws that had the blade guard removed.  No one was using the table saw at the time and in fact, we didn’t have any carpenters on site at the time.  On occassion, table saws are returned to the shop with the blade guard removed.   

For your personal safety, you cannot use a table saw with the blade guard removed.  Using a table saw with the blade guard removed is an OSHA violation and a violation of our company’s safety policies.  This unsafe act can lead to serious injuries and high dollar fines.  We don’t want to have to call one of your loved ones to tell them that you cut off your hand because you were using a table saw and you intentionally removed the blade guard.  In addition to the above, table saw users must wear eye protection. 

 

The photo above shows a table saw with the blade guard removed.  This in turn exposes the table saw user to the spinning blade.  Please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham with any questions.  He can be reached at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!

Next Volunteer Quarterly Safety Meeting on 9/6/14!

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

We have scheduled our third volunteer quarterly safety meeting of 2014 and it will be held on Saturday, September 6th at 7:00am.  The main safety topic for the meeting will be Aerial Lift Safety.  We use aerial lifts almost daily at one job site or another and it is important to know the do's and dont's of working in aerial lifts.  Struck-By and Caught-Between type injuries are 2 of OSHA's Focused Four topics as they cause a signifacant amount of fatailities in the construction industry.  We will include training on how to prevent Struck-By and Caught-Between type injuries involving aerial lifts.  We feel this is a very important topic as we use a numerous amount of aerial lifts on a given day and employees are required to have had aerial lift training before they can operate an aerial lift.  This safety training session will be held at our usual location at our shop at 28059 W. Commercial Ave. in Barrington, IL.  We will continue to advertise this meeting as we get closer to the meeting date.  In the meantime, we are asking for everyone's help to spread the word of the meeting date, time and topic. 
 

If you have any questions about this volunteer safety meeting, please contact our Safety Director, Peter Graham. Peter can be reached by e-mail at pgraham@4idi.com or by calling (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!