Linbeck Group wins Willis Towers Watson Construction Safety Excellence Awards grand prize as 43 other companies win awards for quality construction safety programs

Linbeck Group was honored for having the nation’s best construction safety and wellness plan in 2020 by AGC of America. The association, which oversees the Willis Towers Watson Construction Safety Excellence Awards, an annual ranking of construction safety programs, noted that 43 other companies were also selected as winners for the quality of their safety programs.

The AGC Construction Safety Excellence Awards (CSEA), sponsored by Willis Towers Watson, is the industry’s elite safety excellence awards program. The CSEA recognizes companies that have developed and implemented premier safety and risk control programs and showcases companies that have achieved continuous improvement and maintenance of their safety and health management systems. For more information on the CSEA program, please click here. The deadline for submitting applications is Wednesday, December 15, 2021.

The 2022 AGC Construction Safety & Health Conference will take place at the Renaissance Phoenix Glendale Hotel & Spa, January 12 – 14, 2022, in Glendale, Arizona. We are excited to resume in-person meetings and hope you will be able to join us for the same superior educational content and peer-to-peer engagement that you have come to expect from AGC. The conference website, including the agenda, launches on October 18.

Safety Management in the Construction Industry: 2021 SmartMarket Report, published by Dodge Data & Analytics with support from CPWR and Newmetrix, examines how COVID-19 and new technologies are creating significant changes in how contractors manage safety. The report also shows stark variations in how companies of different sizes are responding, with small employers lagging their larger peers.

As you may already be aware, President Biden has announced that his administration will soon require direct federal contractors and subcontractors to vaccinate many, and possibly all, of their employees. AGC of America has begun to assess its legal and other options. To support AGC’s ongoing efforts to inform the decisions being made, and possibly challenge the new mandate, please take a few moments to participate in an AGC survey of its federal contractors. The survey should only take a few minutes to complete, and the information that it seeks could well affect AGC’s response to the president’s action.

This AGC survey only seeks to inform AGC’s response to the coming mandate that direct federal contractors and subcontractors vaccinate their employees, without exception for employees willing to be tested. This survey does not relate to an OSHA standard which is also in the works, and which will make an exception for employees willing to be tested on a weekly basis.

 

AGC continues to wait for more information from OSHA on an emergency temporary standard (ETS) expected to require employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested for infection on least a weekly basis. There is little clarity as to exactly when agency will formally issue this ETS testing mandate or when it will take effect. AGC has also retained outside legal counsel—and is asking some of the brightest legal minds within the industry—to help it review its legal options. Previously, AGC conveyed its serious reservations about such an ETS. The association and its members have encouraged voluntary COVID-19 vaccination for their employees since the vaccines became available.

 

On Sept. 24, the Safer Federal Workplace Task Force issued guidance on the president’s executive order calling for a broad vaccination mandate for direct federal contractors. The guidance raises many questions without clear answers, including but not limited to how the mandate will be enforced and employer liabilities stemming from the mandate; the precise (but clearly broad) applicability of the mandate to federal contractors’ employees (whether or not they are working directly on a federal project); and whether there will be provisions for testing employees who do not receive exemptions for medical or religious reasons. AGC has retained outside legal counsel—and is asking some of the brightest legal minds within the industry—to help it review its legal options. AGC cannot, however, complete its review until the FAR Council issues a contract clause, which would, unlike recent guidance, be legally binding. The association has directly spoken with the White House Office of Management and Budget, and key federal construction owner agencies to explain the significant disruptions this mandate will cause the construction of federal projects, among other things.

AGC of America, in partnership with the Time for Change Consortium, is proud to support the inaugural Construction Inclusion Week, beginning Monday, October 18, in an effort to advance diversity and inclusion in construction. The goal of Construction Inclusion Week is to foster conversations that create alignment around diversity and inclusion.

Each day of Construction Inclusion Week there is a theme to enhance the conversation around diversity and inclusion in construction. To support these daily themes, there is a host of resources that you can use to engage your staff, trade contractors, subcontractors, and partners. There is also a guide to help you plan activities. We also encourage you to make a public commitment to diversity and inclusion by signing AGC’s Culture of CARE pledge.

Please let us know if you will be participating in Construction Inclusion Week by completing this form.

For more information or if you have any questions, please contact AGC of America's Director of Diversity & Inclusion, Brynn Huneke, at brynn.huneke@agc.org or 703-837-5376.

Standard Registration Rate: $995

The AGC Safety Management Training Course (SMTC) provides attendees three days of training on the basic skills needed to manage a company safety program in the construction industry. Held just a few times per year at select locations around the country, the SMTC program builds on focus four training and prepares attendees to manage key safety issues on the job site and provides techniques for delivering basic safety training to field personnel. Participants will receive intensive instruction and training that will allow them to return to their firms with readily applicable new skills to positively impact their company’s safety and health program.

December 6 – 8, 2021 | Cincinnati, OH 
Standard Registration Rate: $1195 

 

This unique three–day course provides construction safety and health professionals with the next–level knowledge required to successfully manage a company–wide safety program. Moving beyond the basics of Focus Four training, AGC’s Advanced Safety Management Training Program will give participants a more holistic view of safety’s role in project and company success, as well as advanced tactics and best practices for managing all aspects of a corporate safety program.

AGC of America, supported by a Susan Harwood Federal Training Grant, developed the Trenching & Excavation Hazards in Construction Safety Training. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), from 2015 to 2018, the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) reported 103 total trenching and excavation-related deaths, an average of 25 per year over this 4-year period. Also, the OSHA Information System (OIS) Accident Investigation Report shows that between FY 2013 – FY 2017, there were a total of 156 incidents reported in the construction industry. Moreover, between October 2018 and September 2019, there were 1,499 citations and more than $7,000,000 in penalties issued to construction employers for failing to meet their compliance obligations under Subpart P.  AGC of America is pleased to offer this one-day training program based on OSHA standards and best practices to answer the need for quality training within the industry.

Companies need guidance on how to investigate a job site accident properly. This program helps you better prepare contractors for investigating accidents on their jobsite, including root cause analysis. Accidents occur on construction jobsites every day. The failure of people, equipment, supplies, or surroundings causes most of them. Incident investigations determine how and why these failures occur. By using the information gained through an investigation, a similar, or perhaps more disastrous, accident may be prevented. It is important to conduct incident investigations with prevention in mind and not blame. Package includes a twenty-two minute DVD video and one booklet.This video is now available for licensing. If interested, please contact us at marketing@agc.org.