Two Department of Energy Voluntary Protection Program Team Members Complete Occupational Safety and Health Administration “Special Government Employee” Program

In coordination with their participation at the annual Voluntary Protection Program Participants’ Association Safety+ Symposium, Mr. Moises Atiles and Mr. Matthew Ramsey of the Office of Worker Safety and Health Assistance (EHSS-12) recently completed a rigorous 2-day training course provided by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to become Special Government Employees (SGE). The SGE program was established in 1994 by OHSA to allow industry employees to work alongside OSHA personnel, particularly during Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) onsite assessments. It not only allows OSHA to supplement its onsite evaluation teams, but it also provides industry and government an opportunity to work together and share views and ideas.

Both Mr. Atiles and Mr. Ramsey support the Department of Energy’s VPP, which was modeled after that of OSHA and similarly recognizes DOE contractor participants for going above and beyond the minimum requirements of Department of Energy safety and health regulations, orders, and consensus standards. Mr. Ramsey shared that “SGE training was an excellent opportunity to benchmark good practices with peers in the OSHA VPP community. I gained valuable perspective on program administration, assessment techniques, and use of external volunteer team members.” Similar to OSHA, the DOE-VPP also uses volunteers to support its assessments, and attending the OSHA SGE training will help Mr. Atiles and Mr. Ramsey better prepare augmentees to support DOE-VPP activities. Of his experience, Mr. Atiles said “the biggest benefit will be improving how we engage with our DOE contractors, letting them interact with each other and learn from their respective best practices.”

At the conclusion of their training, and in front of the thousands of assembled attendees of the Safety+ Symposium, Mr. Atiles and Mr. Ramsey were sworn in by Ms. Jennifer Rous, Regional Administrator of OSHA’s Region 8.

More information on the DOE-VPP can be found here or you can contact the team at [email protected].