Kentucky Labor Cabinet to launch monthly safety report

Frankfort, KY – The Kentucky Labor Cabinet has launched a “Monthly Workplace Safety Report” program to highlight the number of free onsite safety consultations the agency conducts each month.

Announced March 9, the program aims to increase awareness of workplace safety. The cabinet’s Division of Education and Training will perform the consultations, identifying hazards in an effort to help employers improve their injury and illness rates.

In February, the cabinet conducted 15 onsite visits and identified 68 serious hazards, saving $476,000 in would-be penalties, the release states.

“For years, employers across Kentucky viewed the issuance of penalties and citations as the cornerstone of the cabinet’s workplace safety efforts,” Secretary of the Kentucky Labor Cabinet Derrick Ramsey said in the release. “My goal is to change this perception by increasing the ease of access that employers and employees have to the expert workplace safety education and training that we provide and hopefully prevent a serious injury or illness from occurring.”

Kentucky’s nonfatal occupational injury and illness rate for 2015 was the lowest in state’s history at 3.7 injuries and illnesses per 100 equivalent full-time workers, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. That mark, however, still ranked higher than the national average of 3.0.

“Staying safe and healthy on the job each day begins with a strategic initiative to ‘Plan, Prevent, and Protect’ Kentucky’s two million workers – and my hope is that this monthly report reminds everyone that the Labor Cabinet is ready to partner with our employers to accomplish this task,” Ramsey said in the release.