One injury on the job is one too many. That’s why IBEW/NECA is a leading force in improving safety on construction projects. The need for this constant vigilance on safety is reflected in the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) which reported in September 2015 that the number of construction fatalities increased five percent in 2014 to 885, its highest total since 2008. Always anticipating the needs of the industry, IBEW/NECA pioneers and adopts “best practices” in safety and risk management, including:

• Fall protection — According to the BLS, the rise in construction fatalities in 2014 was largely due to an increase in catastrophic falls from 595 in 2013 to 647 in 2014. In the spring of 2015, IBEW/NECA launched a new cell tower safety training program at its renowned Electrical Industry Training Center in St. Louis. Spotlighted by the national construction trade publication, Engineering News Record (ENR), it features a 25-foot tower on site as a training tool for certification in tower climbing and rescues. Students in the program must complete 32 hours of training and renew their certification every two years. To date, 35 trade workers have completed the training and are ready to safely serve an ever growing need to upgrade cellular services nationwide. On any project, IBEW/NECA members diligently enforce 100 percent tie offs with elevated work, including proper use of lanyards.
• Trenching — Laying underground conduits and other electrical needs requires special attention to shoring up and stabilizing trenches to avoid a collapse that could bury a worker. Appropriate flagging is also important to warn of open trenches.
• Preventing electrocutions — On many projects, protocols must be place to avoid accidental electrocutions. These include lock out/tag out procedures to prevent workers from coming in contact with energized circuits and equipment or accidentally activating a machine while it’s being maintained. According to OSHA, compliance with the lock out/ tag out standard prevents an estimated 120 fatalities and 50,000 injuries each year. In some cases, workers must be specially trained in high voltage to work on power installations.
• Overhead hazards — In many cases, electricians will be working in areas where materials and other workers may present an overhead hazard. Well planned sequencing of work to mitigate the chances of injury from falling materials is essential. Appointing a safety monitor in areas with potential overhead hazards is also important.
• Tripping hazards — A construction site accumulates a lot of discarded materials that can become tripping hazards. IBEW/NECA contractors and their workforce look for ways to mitigate this hazard by keeping sites clean and discarding waste into appropriate receptacles.
• Personal protective wear — This includes hard toe shoes, hardhats, using high visibility colors, safety glasses, gloves and specialized personal protective clothing and gear around hazardous materials.
• Prefabrication — In some cases, it makes sense from an efficiency and safety standpoint to prefabricate materials. On large industrial projects, IBEW/NECA contractors will install fixtures, equipment and cable tray on conveyer sections safely on the ground and hoist them into place for the final installation. Anything that can be done to minimize the hazards of working high above the ground should be considered, especially when it can also deliver greater precision in the installation.

An experienced safety manager is also important. The safety manager is typically tasked with walking the site every day to look for risk management issues. He or she or the general foreman also leads communications when potentially hazardous equipment, such as a crane, is introduced to the site or high voltage testing will take place. Above all, IBEW/NECA emphasizes instilling a culture of safety in the entire team so both contractor and worker take joint responsibility to ensure no one gets injured on the job.