Company Name: Chemco Electrical Contractors Ltd.
City: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Number of Employees: 1,100

Nomination Essay:

Chemco Electrical Contractors Ltd has a strong focus on safety beginning with the owners, passed along through supervision down to the work force. The company has representation on the Construction Owners Association of Alberta, Alberta Construction Safety Association (ACSA) and Regional Safety Committees that report up to the ACSA. Chemco supports training for the industry and does so through their involvement with the Electrical Contractor Association and the IBEW. This is all part of a strong focus on worker safety and driving needed changes for industry in the name of safety. Chemco was apart of a team of industry stakeholders and building trades to work on a worker training program to follow the newly created CSA Z462-08 standard to improve worker protection not only for their workforce, but for the entire province.

Chemco along with a health, safety and wellness consulting firm lead the way with developing a stretching and education program to reduce strains and sprains as musculoskeletal injuries were on the rise. After many companies utilized these services, it brought about increased awareness to the general workforce on working smarter and reducing potential for injury.

Chemco is a strong supporter of supervisory training. All supervisors are encouraged to go through Better Supervision to assist them with the challenges of changing from technicians to leaders. Chemco was also involved with the roll out of the Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training's new designated occupation Industrial Construction Crew Supervisor certification. This is a provincial initiative that we supported some of our leadership to take part in the pilot project before being offered to the rest of the province.

Chemco recognized that trending was increasing on worker's getting cut with knives. They developed a knife along with a training video that is supplied not only to their workforce, but to their competitors in industry as well for the prevention of incidents with knives. Chemco also worked with another contractor in developing a training video on the use of grinders. Both of these training videos are available to industry showing Chemco's dedication and commitment to overall worker safety.

Chemco is very committed to their workforce and as the company continues to grow, focus remains on the basics of safe execution of the work to be completed.