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The grant program is named for the former director of the Office of Risk Assessment in OSHA's former Directorate of Health Standards. "Target trainees include small business employers and underserved low-literacy workers in high-hazard industries."

District 1199C Training & Upgrading Fund, an affiliate of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, AFSCME, AFL-CIO in Philadelphia, will get $140,000. The money will be used to "build long-term health and safety capacity and provide hazard communication, identification, control and communication of infectious disease, and chemical hazards training to low literate, hard-to-reach workers, youth and supervisors in the health care industry," OSHA said.

The grants are awarded in three categories: capacity building developmental, targeted topic training, and training and educational materials development.

District 1199C and WITCC are among seven new recipients of the new capacity building developmental grants "whose past activities have demonstrated their ability to provide occupational safety and health training, education, and related assistance to workers and employers in high-hazard industries; small business employers; and vulnerable workers," OSHA said in a statement. "Organizations selected to receive these grants are expected to institutionalize organizational capacity to provide safety and health training on an ongoing basis."

A total of $1.6 million in grants went to recipients of the targeted topic training and training and educational materials development. The grants require recipients to address topics designated by OSHA and support development of materials and educational programs that identify and prevent workplace hazards. Among the 16 organizations sharing in that money are:

• Alaska Marine Safety Education Association -- $120,000 to provide ergonomic hazards training to workers on commercial fishing vessels.
• Associated General Contractors of America in Arlington, Va. -- $120,000 for training on fall protection for residential construction.
• Kansas State University -- $120,000 for a course on combustible dust generation and explosion hazards in grain handling facilities.
• Texas Engineering Extension -- $120,000 for training regarding the changes to the Hazard Communication Standardand specifically the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and labeling of chemicals to workers in high-hazard and industries with high fatality rates.
• Work Environment Council of New Jersey -- $120,000 for training workers in high-hazard and high-fatality industries, minority and hard-to-reach workers, and small businesses in New Jersey.
• Migrant Clinicians Network Inc. in Austin, Texas -- $50,000 for training on safety and health issues to limited English proficiency, non-literate, and low literacy agricultural workers.
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte -- $50,000 for a course on crane safety for engineers and supervisors, specifically targeted to general contractors, project managers, engineers, subcontractors, erector contractors, lifting crews, "and others whose responsibility includes the installation, movement, use and dismantling of cranes and lifting devices utilized on construction sites," according to OSHA.

"The programs funded by these grants provide thousands of workers and employers with critical health and safety training and education," said Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. "These programs are unique in that they provide in-person, hands-on training that will have a long-lasting impact on improving workplace safety and health."

Read more at the WorkersComp Forum homepage.

October 11, 2012

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