Oshkosh-based C.R. Meyer becomes first VPP member of OSHA.

Byline: Sean Ryan

C.R. Meyer on Friday will become the first contractor in the country to get statewide certification in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Voluntary Protection Program for construction.

"We wanted to establish our leadership," said Fred Rideout, director of risk management for Oshkosh-based C.R. Meyer. "We wanted to be a leader in construction safety. We wanted to also be a pioneer in becoming a VPP contractor. We felt that we had the program to do that."

The program is part of OSHA's carrot and stick approach: Participants become exempt from programmed inspections in return for following safety and training programs and demonstrating below-average injury rates.

The agency has been testing it out for construction contractors since the late-1990s in Ohio and, in October, will make the pilot program available to builders nationwide. It will then collect industry comments and revise the draft VPP rules before officially creating the program.

C.R. Meyer is the first out of that gate in the VPP Star Mobile Workforce Demonstration. As long as it can keep injury rates below the national average and enforce thorough and ongoing safety programs and policies, OSHA agents will only inspect its work sites when called upon first.

Met Challenge

Before it could apply for VPP, C.R. Meyer had to complete OSHA's Challenge curriculum, an 18-month course that helps builders establish a wide range of safety policies. After completing Challenge, contractors can apply to become VPP participants, said Nancy Mugavero, VPP manager in OSHA's Region 5, nine months. Rideout said the safety and training programs that Challenge helps contractors establish were already in place at C.R. Meyer when it started the course. C.R. Meyer went through the OSHA training that is administered by the Associated General Contractors.

"We were able to re-evaluate the programs we had in place and make corrections and improvements to that, so it became an audit," Rideout said.

Rideout...