PHILADELPHIA –
An awareness campaign will launch April 9 so that the Defense Logistics Agency Philadelphia workforce is ready when the time comes to earn star status for the Voluntary Protection Program.
VPP is an Occupational Safety and Health Administration program. Earning the VPP star would signify excellence in safety and health management at DLA Philadelphia.
“As each of the DLA Philadelphia activities work to support the warfighter and our other valued customers, it’s important that the environment in which this work takes place comprises physical wellness and safety,” Richard Ellis, DLA Troop Support deputy commander, said.
“We owe it to our workforce to provide them with a workplace that is safe,” Ellis said. “It is also incumbent upon each and every employee to take personal interest and responsibility for a safe work environment.”
The VPP campaign is intended to make employees more aware of the safety program and their role in it. Before OSHA grants DLA Philadelphia the VPP star, their inspectors will visit the facilities here and check employees for their knowledge of the program.
“The most effective safety program is one in which all employees play a role in keeping the workplace safe,” Keith Cheng, DLA Philadelphia Safety Office manager, said.
When the campaign is complete, DLA Philadelphia will be closer to requesting OSHA to come and determine whether DLA Philadelphia will be granted star status.
How the VPP campaign works
As employees prove their awareness of the DLA Philadelphia safety program, they can help earn stars for their own teams, divisions, directorates and eventually, DLA Philadelphia.
- There will be a safety topic per month during the five month campaign to coordinate with the five points of a star.
- Information about each safety topic will be emailed to the workforce and published on DLA Today and the VPP campaign website.
- Once supervisors know that all the employees on their team are familiar with the topic, that team earns a star for that topic.
For example, when all employees in a branch prove their awareness of a safety topic to their supervisor, that supervisor grants the branch a star. When all branches within a division have their star, the division gets a star. And the same goes all the way up to the directorate level, organization and then DLA Philadelphia.
- Star charts and stars will be delivered to each directorate.
One option to complete the review is for supervisors to do so during their monthly safety inspections.
Visit OSHA’s VPP website and DLA Philadelphia’s VPP site on eWorkplace for more VPP information.