Winter Weather Safety Stand Down

November 5-9, 2018

During the week of November 5, worksite employees stopped work and participated 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.

This program drew participation from more than 14,900 employees on 237 job sites in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming.

Since the inception of the safety stand down program, over 400,000 construction industry jobsite employees in Georgia and states nationwide have participated in at least one Safety Stand Down. These individuals are better prepared to be safe workers after learning key safety topics AGC Georgia and OSHA provide to field supervisors who are charged with leading Stand Down tool box talks on their jobsites.

Photos provided by proud participants:


Above -- This McKinney Drilling Company, LLC crew in Huntsville, AL (and many more of their crews around the nation) had toolbox talks each morning during the week of November 5. They used various materials provided by AGC Georgia and OSHA to educate their team on the dangers of winter weather.




Above 2 photos -- Marchese Construction, LLC crews hosted toolbox talks on several of their jobsites during the week of the stand down.


Above: Crews on R. W. Allen Construction's project in Skidaway Island participated in a toolbox talk  .

The following printable posters/flyers were available to participants to promote their firm's participation in the stand down. Contractors were encouraged to hang them in the break room or in the jobsite office.

• General Information - 8.5" x 11"
• Poster - 8.5" x 11"
• Poster  - 11" x 17"

The following materials were developed by AGC Georgia and OSHA were made available for all participating firms.

• Cold Weather Toolbox Talk
• Warning Signs of Hypothermia - https://www.weather.gov/images/wrn/Infographics/hypothermia%20-%20RBG.jpg
• Cold Stress
  • Protecting Yourself from Cold Stress
  • Cold Stress Guide
  • Protecting Workers from Cold Stress - English or Spanish
• OSHA information on Winter Weather
• Safe Winter Driving
• Extreme Cold: A Prevention Guide to Promote Your Personal Health and Safety
• Georgia Power's video titled “What to do on the roads after a winter storm”
• Falls and Other Hazards to Workers Removing Snow from Rooftops and Other Elevated Surfaces
• Prepare Your Car for Winter Weather
• Working in the Cold Podcast
• Be Ready! Winter Weather

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.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.

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.