Winter Weather Safety Stand Down

During the week of January 22, 2018, worksite employees were encouraged to stop work and participate in AGC Georgia and OSHA's Stand Down focusing on winter weather. 

Winter weather presents hazards including slippery roads/surfaces, strong winds and environmental cold. Employers must prevent illnesses, injuries and fatalities by controlling these hazards in workplaces impacted by winter weather. Since the inception of the safety stand down program, over 243,000 construction industry jobsite employees in Georgia and dozens of other states have participated in at least one Safety Stand Down. These individuals are better prepared to be safe workers after learning key safety topics provided by AGC Georgia and OSHA. Project managers and superintendents are in charge of leading Stand Down tool box talks on their jobsites. 

The following materials developed by AGC Georgia and OSHA are available for all participating firms in the Safety Stand Down.  

• Safety Stand Down Registration Form
• Promotional Poster to Display in Corporate Offices and on Jobsites
• OSHA's Winter Weather Training Materials

What is a Stand Down?
Construction companies who know the value of safety training use a Safety Stand Down to stop all work and provide a focused safety toolbox talk meeting on all their jobsites, on one day, at the same time, on one particular topic. This meeting provides effective communication of safety policies, goals and expectations to all levels of a construction team and workplace employees. 

While stand downs are commonly used in the military, they are not new to the construction industry. Fellow AGC chapters across America regularly organize them for their contractor members and many national contractors also include these in their safety program. 

AGC Georgia and our Stand Down partners, OSHA and CompTrust AGC Mutual Captive Insurance Company (MCIC) believe there is tremendous value in committing 5 minutes to one hour of your day's work to talk about safety, leading to increased employee safety morale. Stopping to talk about safety brings it to the forefront of everyone's mind! It is very important to communicate your firm's safety message to front line workers who constitute the largest group of our industry's workforce.

For more information on AGC Georgia's Safety Stand Down Programs, please contact Cherri Watson, AGC Georgia's Director of Safety, Education and Workforce Development at 678-298-4104.