PPL Corporation’s General Office complex in downtown Allentown received a top federal safety award during a ceremony this morning for its outstanding health and safety programs.

Representatives from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration awarded the facility “Star” certification in the agency’s Voluntary Protection Program. The program recognizes companies that go beyond compliance to protect worker health and safety. The VPP Star certification is the highest safety recognition given within the program.

“PPL Electric Utilities is the first electric distribution company in the United States to have all field worksites qualify for VPP Star Certification," said Bill Hecht, PPL chairman and chief executive officer. “This honor, and others around the company, has made PPL Corporation a model for other companies throughout the country and is evidence of the success of PPL’s corporatewide safety initiatives.”

The General Office complex, which includes the company’s headquarters and the Plaza at PPL Center building, joins all PPL Electric Utilities field sites and seven PPL power plants in Pennsylvania and Montana that have achieved VPP Star status. About 2,190 employees work in the Allentown offices.

“PPL is committed to safety in all areas of the workplace, striving to go above and beyond compliance to protect employee safety and health,” Hecht said. “VPP Star certification is a validation of the company’s safety rules and processes and a tribute to the commitment employees made to increase safety awareness.”
Companies that qualify for VPP status view OSHA standards as a minimum level of safety and health performance and set their own, more stringent standards for effective employee protection. VPP participant sites generally experience 60 percent fewer lost workdays due to injury than would be expected of an average site for the industry.

Only 932 work sites have earned recognition in the program out of the more than 7 million that OSHA monitors.

OSHA evaluates the following components of a safety and health program to determine if a facility is worthy of VPP Star status: management leadership and employee involvement, worksite analysis, training and hazard prevention and control.

An OSHA team re-evaluates VPP Star sites every three to five years for recertification. To be recertified, sites must continue to show improvement in their safety and health programs.

PPL facilities that have earned VPP Star status are the Susquehanna, Martins Creek, Montour, Brunner Island and Holtwood power plants in Pennsylvania; PPL Montana’s Corette and Kerr Dam power plants; PPL Interstate Energy, which operates a pipeline that transports fuel to the company’s Martins Creek and Lower Mount Bethel Energy power plants; and PPL’s System Facilities Center, a testing, repair and laboratory facility near Hazleton, Pa.