President Extends Workplace Safety Initiative for Federal Employees

Bush Extends Workplace Safety Initiative for Federal Employees

Due to the success of the Labor Department's Safety, Health and Return-to-Employment (SHARE) initiative in making strides to reduce workplace injury and illnesses cases among federal employees, President George W. Bush has given the program a 3-year extension through 2009.

Originally launched in 2004, the SHARE initiative also has helped reduce lost production-day rates and substantially improve timely filing of injury and illness notices, according to the Labor Department.

The Labor Department said the federal government is on track to exceed all four of its workplace safety and health goals for the first time since the start of the initiative. If third-quarter results hold, the agency said the federal government (except for the Postal Service) is on track to end the year with the following accomplished goals:

An overall 16.7 percent decrease in the total case rate from the FY 2003 baseline.
A 12.4 percent reduction in the lost-time case rate.
A 44.4 percent increase in timely claim submissions.
A 6.6 percent decrease in the rate of lost production days.

In extending the initiative through 2009, Bush challenged executive branch agencies to "establish more ambitious performance targets" than the minimum goals established under the initiative.

"Fewer federal employees were injured, became ill or died on the job over the past 3 years as a result of the SHARE initiative and a greater awareness of workplace safety and health," OSHA Administrator Edwin Foulke Jr. said. "We look to build on these tremendous results, which benefit not just federal employees and their agencies, but all American taxpayers."

Contributed by Robert Myers, CSP - Atlanta Federal Safety and Health Council