33.1 - Nomination and Justification

1. Forest Safety Awards . This annual award recognizes an individual and/or a work group for making significant contributions to safety on the Forest. The award acknowledges actions taken which are above and beyond those normally expected to promote safety, and which benefit both the immediate work group and others outside of the work group.

a. Nominations. Each subunit may nominate one work group and one individual for the award. A group is defined as a working group (either formal or ad hoc) within a unit consisting of two or more people. Nominations must be received by the Forest Supervisor no later than December 31 of each year.

b. Criteria. Nominations shall consist of a narrative statement which addresses each the

following criteria, as appropriate.

(1) The work environment and the hazards encountered.

(2) Specific actions the individual or work group took to promote safety.

Examples may include, but are not limited to:

(a) How hazardous situations were encountered

(b) Specific acts or deeds

(c) Implementation of a new idea

(d) Leadership and/or active participation in addressing safety issues

(3) How the actions identified in (2) benefited the work group or unit. Examples

may include but are not limited to:

(a) Improvement of safety record over previous year's record

(b) Current safety record in light of environmental hazards and adverse

conditions

(c) Sustained safe performance

(4) The implications and effects the above actions may have for people outside of the

work group or unit (the Forest, local community, the general public, other like

units, etc.)

(5) Data which supports the four criteria described above. Data items may include,

but are not limited to:

(a) Group accident frequency rate

(b) Number of personal accidents (for the year or a sustained period)

(c) Number of vehicle accidents (for the year or a sustained period)

(d) Number of miles driven

(e) Number of employees in the group and their safety record

(f) Number of hours worked

c. Selection Process . The Forest Safety Committee shall review all nominations and select the award recipients.

2. Engineering and Timber Sale Administration Safety Awards. The objective is to establish an Engineering and Timber Sale Administration Safety Awards Program. The nomination process and award criteria are described in Exhibit 1.

1. Policy. The awards will be given annually (individually and by Unit) according to the following policy.

2. Unit Awards. The Units are:

-- S.O. Engineering -- S.O. Timber

-- Forest C&M Crews -- Unit Timber Departments

-- Zone I -- Zone II

a. Driving Award and Personal Safety Award. This award is given each Fiscal Year.

(1) Criteria. The criteria for the awards is as follows:

(a) Frequency rate (hourly rate equipment is not used in this calculation).

(b) In case of ties use the following criteria:

1. Improvement over last year.

2. New and innovative ideas.

(c) If all Units exceed (are higher than) the Forest's target frequency rate, no awards shall be given.

(2) Award. Following is a description of the awards.

(a) The awards will be a wall plaque as a traveling trophy.

(b) No cash award will be given for Unit awards.

(c) The trophies will be inscribed with the winning Unit and the year won.

(d) The trophies will be kept at the winning Unit until the next selection is made. If a Unit wins the award for three consecutive years, the trophy will permanently remain at the Unit and a new one acquired.

(e) A permanent wall mounted record with the name of each year's winning Unit will be kept in the Forest Engineer's office, for the Engineering Award, and the Fire/Timber Management Staff Officer's office for the Timber Award.

a. Driving Award

(1) Criteria. The driver must:

(a) Have no reportable accidents.

(b) Carry a valid Government identification card.

(c) Drive an average of once a week or at least 1,000 miles per year.

(d) Drive the vehicle an average of once a week or at least 300 hours annually, if driving is mostly on hourly road maintenance equipment.

(2) Awards. Following is a description of individual awards.

(a) Annually . A letter of appreciation shall be sent to each driver, including temporaries, each year that this criteria is met.

(b) Five Year . A certificate shall be presented for 5 years of safe driving to career employees. There would be no letter of appreciation the same year.

(c) Tenth Year . A plaque shall be presented to a person with a safe driving record that meets the criteria. The plaque shall be updated every 5 years afterward, and on retirement, a tag with the number of years engraved if the person's record is accident free.

(d) Then service year date will be used to establish the starting date for each person's initial award. An example would be a person with a 20-year safe driving record. This person will receive a plaque showing the number of years of safe driving. The plaque would be updated for every 5 additional years of safe driving.

(e) Individuals with more than 30 years safe driving may be eligible for a performance award. See FSM 6145 for directions.

b. Personal Injury Award

(1) Criteria. Following is the criteria for individual safe working awards.

(a) No reportable accidents. Filling out a CA-1 or first-aid treatment is not considered an accident.

(2) Awards. The awards shall be the same as individual driving awards. Certificates for Safe Driving and Personnel Injury shall be combined whenever possible.

3. Implementation

a. Costs and Impacts . The total annual costs (without cash awards), including clerical, recordkeeping, plaque costs, certificates, and award costs are estimated to be about $2,500 to $3,000 each year.

Each year it is estimated that 100 to 150 letters of appreciation for Individual Safe Driving and for Individual Working Safely shall be mailed.

b. Responsibility and Schedule . The Timber Staff is responsible for the implementation of the Timber Awards System and the Forest Engineer is responsible for the implementation of the Engineering Awards System.

(1) Individual Awards . A questionaire will be routed to each new and all temporary employees to be completed by September 15 of each year. These questionaires would be returned to the responsible Timber or Engineering Staff for forwarding to the S.O. The awards are scheduled to be presented by the end of January, each year, for the previous fiscal year.

(2) Unit Awards . The Unit Award will be presented by the end of January, each year, for the previous fiscal year, after completion of the frequency rate and assessment of the Units' standing.