BE&K Industrial Services Project Earns OSHA VPP Merit Status.

Business Editors

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 2002

BE&K Industrial Services announced today that their team providing maintenance services and support to International Paper in Jay, Maine was designated an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Merit Award winner. VPP participants are a select group of facilities that have designed and implemented health and safety programs that are deemed "outstanding" by OSHA. The OSHA process involves a commitment from both management and workplace employees. There are two tiers of achievement in the VPP program, Merit Status and Star level status. According to OSHA, Merit participants have demonstrated the potential and willingness to achieve Star program status and are implementing steps to fully meet all Star requirements. Star participants meet all of the VPP requirements.

The OSHA VPP application process is designed to be rigorous, to assure that only the best programs qualify. The Jay VPP committee, including Safety Manager Greg Leavitt, Committee Chair Bill Sprague, Darlene Whitaker, accounting/purchasing department, Paul Bates, Pipe Department, Jim Brown, Electrical Department, and Buster Storer, Iron Workers Department, began compiling the documentation and implementing VPP procedures in March of 2001. "It took tremendous focus and our team had to prepare what seemed to be an endless amount of data and paperwork, but I can truthfully say that the process works," said BE&K Industrial Services Operations Manager T.W. Wallace. "It drives a very high awareness of the importance of safety on our job. Getting the Merit is a fine start. Our goal for next year is to go all the way and get the Star," he added.

The International Paper mill was awarded VPP Star status from OSHA two years ago. "It takes a tremendous commitment from the client. They have to be equally invested in the effort," explained Wallace. Once a project earns Star status the site is re-evaluated on a three-year schedule. The VPP concept recognizes that compliance enforcement alone can never fully achieve the objectives of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The premise of the program is that good safety management programs that involve committed employees and management teams can go beyond OSHA standards and protect workers more effectively than simple compliance.

BE&K, through its global network of affiliate companies, provides engineering, procurement, construction and maintenance services to the process, manufacturing, industrial, power, and telecommunications industries. BE&K has been recognized as an industry leader in family friendly workplace practices, honored as a recipient of Working Woman magazine's "Diversity Champion" award, included in Fortune Magazine's listing of "Best Places to Work in America" and is on Forbes Magazine's listing of the "Top 400 Privately Held Companies in the U.S." This year marks the 30 year anniversary celebration for BE&K.