Most Michigan workers know about the dangers of workplace injuries and do their best to avoid them when they are on the job. Working hand-in-hand with their employees’ efforts, employers and business owners must also do their part and take the extra step in order to ensure a safe and clean work environment in order to prevent workers’ injuries. So when a Michigan firm excels at its efforts to provide a safe environment and wins a prestigious award from a state safety organization for the third time, state workers and residents are bound to applaud such an effort.
Recently, Pfizer, Inc. Global Supply in Kalamazoo, Michigan, won Michigan’s highest workplace safety award, the Michigan Voluntary Protection Program Star Award. The company was given the honor by the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It was the third time that the Pfizer site has received the award since 2008. Representatives from MIOSHA met with the Pfizer staff and praised the pharmaceutical company for exceeding the safety organization’s own safety standards. Pfizer has started more than 40 safety committees at the Kalamazoo plant, an indication of just how serious the drug manufacturer believes in worker safety.
MIOSHA created the MVPP program almost 20 years ago in order to recognize those companies in Michigan that worked extremely hard at developing and attaining excellent worker safety and health results. The MVPP program studies the safety mechanisms and criteria that a company has put in place and forges cooperation between the workers, management and MIOSHA.
The MVPP recognizes a company’s safety efforts two ways. The first is with the Michigan Star Program which identifies companies that have implemented an excellent safety and health management system and have worker injury and illness rates that are less than the average for their industry for the last three years. The other way is with the Rising Star Program which identifies companies that want to be part of the Star Program and have injury and illness rates that are less than their industry average for two out of the last three years.
Source: Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, “Pfizer Global Supply in Kalamazoo named Star Site a third time for exemplary worker safety,” March 19, 2015
