Company earns OSHA recognition

Workers at Ply Gem Siding Group in Gaffney on Friday were presented with a Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program or SHARP flag to fly outside the Gaffney plant, signifying their workplace exceeds OSHA safety guidelines. Sharon Dumit joked that most companies don't like to see her or her coworkers coming onto their properties.

Ply Gem Siding Group in Gaffney, however, is a rarity among South Carolina employers welcoming Dumit and other workers from the South Carolina office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with open arms. On Friday, Ply Gem became just the sixth company in South Carolina to receive certification from the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation and OSHA as meeting all the criteria necessary for the Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program or SHARP.

The voluntary program recognizes employers who exceed OSHA guidelines in providing safe and healthy work environments for their employees.

"This is a tremendous award," the plant's environmental health and safety manager, Hal Childers, told the workers at a special event Friday morning to mark the occasion. "It's a team effort, not done by one person or a group of people, but all of us."

Dumit told the workers, "I want to say thank you for all the work you have done to become a SHARP site. If the employees are not behind it, it would never succeed."

Dumit later explained that becoming a SHARP site is major undertaking and a commitment by a company. It not only involves continuous monitoring, employee training and close working relationship with health and safety inspectors, but also continuing assessments of how a company can make the work environment better, safer or more comfortable, Dumit said.

While the ultimate goal is to reduce and eliminate work- place accidents and injuries, Dumit said the program has many side benefits like increased employee morale and it demonstrates invaluable good will on the company's behalf. The company's efforts can even expand beyond its walls, Dumit said. People who stress safety at work will tend to be safer at home.

"It's a change of mindset," Dumit said.

As part of Friday's event, workers from Ply Gem helped raise a SHARP flag outside the plant. The Ply Gem plant in Gaffney was opened in 1969. The maker of injection molded exterior building products employs 145 people.

Among the dignitaries who came out to help Ply Gem mark the occasion were state Sen. Harvey Peeler and Gaffney Administrator James Taylor.