
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993                   TAG: 9312160068
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SMALL COMPANIES GET SAFETY NET(WORK)

A program formally launched Wednesday is designed to make small businesses in the Roanoke region safer places to work by providing them with the safety training and educational resources of bigger companies.

Statistics show that 90 percent of workplace fatalities occur at businesses with fewer than 200 employees and 54 percent at businesses with fewer than 20 workers.

Businesses in the Blue Ridge region paid $45.8 million in worker compensation claims last year for employees injured on the job. The region had 14.8 percent of the state's claims but 13.3 percent of the state's workers.

Carol Amato, Virginia's commissioner of labor and industry, set in motion a pilot program to address the safety problems of small businesses at a luncheon sponsored by Appalachian Power Co.

The program creates a network of partnerships through which large companies share the expertise of their safety departments with smaller outfits. It is being managed by W.W. "Skip" Griggs, retired president of Inland Motors and Industrial Drives in Radford.

Sixty-five businesses have signed up so far to be mentors in the program. A steering committee representing nine businesses, four organizations and two schools will oversee the effort.

The steering committee includes representatives from Bennett Logging of Salem, Old Dominion Insurance Services of Christiansburg, the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, Radford Community Hospital, Appalachian Power Co., American Safety Razor of Staunton, Liberty Mutual Insurance of Roanoke, Virginia Tech, the AFL-CIO and GE-Drive Systems of Salem.

The cooperative effort, called the Blue Ridge Safety Network, should help economic development in the region by reducing the cost of doing business, Amato said. The program will serve the 20 counties and 11 cities within the boundaries of the Blue Ridge Economic Development Commission.

In 1991, more than $871 million was paid in workers compensation premiums by Virginia businesses. Other costs of workplace accidents include loss of productivity, disrupted schedules, training of replacement workers and equipment damage, Amato said.

The safety network's efforts begin this fall and will run through winter 1995. Griggs can be reached at the Department of Labor and Industry's office in Roanoke, (703) 562-3580.

by CNB