Wooster, OH – Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) Administrator/CEO Steve Buehrer recently visited Wooster’s Rayco Manufacturing, Inc. to recognize the company’s exceptional efforts to maintain a safe workplace. Rayco CEO John Bowling hosted Buehrer to demonstrate the safety improvements the company has made with the assistance of a $21,000 BWC Safety Intervention Grant.
“We are pleased to support Rayco’s mission to make workplace safety a priority and protect workers from preventable injuries,” said Buehrer. “Rayco serves as proof that BWC safety grants and safety services can go a long way toward ensuring workers return home safely each day, and also positively impact a company’s bottom line. I hope more employers will seek assistance from BWC to improve safety in their workplaces.”
Rayco Manufacturing is an independently owned manufacturing facility established in 1978 and serves the needs of the tree and landscape industry. The company builds and services specialized stump cutters, wood chippers, as well as forestry mulchers. The company received a $21,266.66 grant in 2011 to purchase weld tables to reduce the risk of injury related to moving suspended equipment weighing between 200-1300 lbs while building large forestry chippers.
Before receiving the grant, welders building the equipment used an overhead crane to lift and then weld parts together. The process often required workers to bend and stretch awkwardly, and crawl underneath objects to ensure the parts were welded correctly. The purchase of the specialized weld tables eliminated the use of cranes, and reduced the risk of injuries associated with crawling, lifting, and awkward postures required to position drums.
Employees previously had to handle the drums a total of seven times throughout the process. Following the purchase, the number of times employees have to handle the drums was reduced from seven to two, further decreasing the chance an employee will lift improperly. Production time for an individual drum has decreased by one to 2½ hours depending on its size.
“Rayco is pleased to partner with the Bureau in continuing everyone’s goal of providing a safe workplace for our employees,” said Jim Pindell, Rayco Human Resources/Safety Manager “The weld tables purchased with the help of the safety intervention grant have been such a success that we purchased a third table when it became available. We will certainly be looking for more opportunities in the future to work with the safety grant program.”
BWC’s Safety Intervention Grant Program assists Ohio employers in reducing illnesses and injuries and to create a partnership with them to establish best practices for accident and injury prevention. Ohio private and public employers are eligible for safety intervention grants, which include a 3-to-1 matching amount up to a maximum of $40,000. Quarterly data reports and follow-up case studies help BWC determine the effectiveness of employers’ safety interventions and establish best practices. The total amount of available money was recently tripled to $15 million as part of the bureau’s Billion Back plan, which also included $1 billion in rebates and steps to modernize BWC’s billing processes.
Source: Ohio BWC