Good Monday morning and welcome to the dog days of August,

August is sleepy time down in D.C., with Congress heading out for recess and POTUS and family taking ten days for a Martha’s Vineyard vacation August 19-29.

MERCY KILLING: Adding to the lull, it appears the BP Gulf leak finally will be “killed” and/or plugged for good this month.

But BP’s recovery work is far, far from over.

BP announced it has hired Witt Associates, and its CEO James Lee Witt, to support BP’s work to restore Gulf Coast communities in the wake of the oil and gas spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Witt Associates, a public safety and crisis management consulting firm, founded by former FEMA Director James Lee Witt, has experience in emergency response, recovery, and mitigation. BP will draw on Witt’s expertise and strategic counsel on all aspects of BP’s long-term recovery work.

OVERHEARD:

Quotes such as these, from the House Labor Committee web site, will haunt and tarnish BP’s long-term brand image recovery:

“…BP has a long history of getting rid of people who try to raise safety issues. I was one of those victims.”

- Ken Abbot, former project control supervisor, BP Atlantis deepwater oil rig, fired in 2009

“Safety is only convenient for them when they need it. You know, you're pressured and pushed to do things. And if you say, hey, you know, everybody has the right to call time out for safety. But you do it you're going to get fired.”

- Daniel Barron, BP Deepwater Horizon explosion survivor

WINDOW SHUTTING ON OSHA REFORM

Time is running out for Congress to act on OSHA and MSHA reforms. The full House has yet to vote on the bill passed by the House Labor Committee, and in the Senate, the bill has yet to be voted on in committee, let alone by the full Senate.

OSHA OVERVIEW

No summer doldrums over at OSHA’s offices in the Frances L. Perkins Department of Labor building. OSHA deputy administrator Jordan Barab, who seems to take turns giving speeches with OSHA chief Dr. David Michaels, presented this summary of OSHA’s current activities at a meeting of the Associated General Contractors of America safety and health conference in July:

Quotas have been eliminated for cooperative programs…

more personnel has been moved into enforcement…

stimulus funds have been used to hire more inspectors…

the recently introduced Severe Violator Enforcement Program includes increased OSHA inspections of recalcitrant employers, mandatory follow-up inspections, and inspections of other worksites managed by the same employers…

in the last nine months, OSHA tripled the number of egregious cases that we issued in all of the previous year…

administrative modifications to OSHA’s penalty calculations have been implemented, which will raise OSHA penalties. The policies will consider various factors, including an employer's overall safety and health program, the number of workers, and previous inspection history…

a recordkeeping National Emphasis Program continues with a special focus on ensuring that injury incentive or discipline programs do not discourage workers from reporting injuries and illnesses…

national HQ has informed the State OSHA Plans that they are to adopt all National Emphasis Programs…

OSHA has changed its focus in compliance assistance to target workers and particularly hard-to-reach and immigrant workers who suffer much higher injury and illness rates than other workers…

Whither VPP?

Alliances anyone?

to paraphrase BP CEO Tony Hayward, OSHA proceeds with a “laser focus” on the proposed Injury and Illness Prevention Program rule…

employers would be charged with finding safety and health hazards present in their facilities that might injure or kill workers -- and then fix those hazards…

workers would participate in developing and implementing the safety and health plan, and have a role in evaluating the plan's effectiveness in achieving compliance…

piecemeal standards are so 1970s, says Barab. “We need to think and act in broader, more conceptual terms. This is what (I2P2) is intended to do.

ON THE WEB THIS WEEK

“Reinforcing Excellent Safety Performance: Rewards, Recognition & Incentives”

August 4, 2010 at 12:00 PM EDT, 11:00 AM CDT, 10:00 AM MDT, 9:00 AM PDT (90 minutes)

This session presented by the American Society of Safety Engineers will cover reinforcement strategies for safety performance. Common problems with the use of rewards and incentives will be discussed, as well as guidelines for making reward and recognition programs more effective. Brief cases and examples will be provided of effective strategies for maximizing individual and team recognition and the use of safety metrics that motivate and reinforce performance.

Speaker: Dr. Earl Blair