EMCOR Group Safety Excellence Award - Electrical Operating Company

Even while facing a difficult labor market, Forest Electric New York (Forest NY) has completed multiple challenging projects with a sterling safety record, earning them a 2022 Safety Excellence Award.

Forest NY’s safety program has strong backing from upper leadership, who provide a visible ongoing commitment to implementing a transparent safety culture for all their employees.

Management reviews all accident/incident reports to help ensure necessary resources are in place to make corrections in the future, and they hold regular safety and health meetings where they get valuable feedback from their team.

Employees are encouraged to participate in Forest NY’s safety culture through several channels, including a safety committee, regular meetings and discussions, the creation of job hazard analyses, a safety observer program, and more.

Forest NY has also developed a robust, six component injury prevention program that engages everyone from estimators and project foreman to superintendents and technicians in the identification and mitigation of hazards.

Stringent commitment to these programs has helped Forest NY overcome turbulence in their labor market. They have a collective bargaining agreement with a union that guarantees employment. This has created huge employee turnover and forced Forest NY to put extra efforts into creating anticipated, sustainable safety outcomes.

Over the past year, these efforts have helped Forest NY maintain exceptional safety standards while working on several complex projects. For example, their work at Citi Field in Queens, NY involved harsh winter weather conditions, as well as significant overhead lifting. For a major civil project on Staten Island, their team had to handle unfamiliar hazards encountered working in deep trenches, while at the United Bank of Switzerland, they dealt with an elaborate scaffolding system.

At each of these jobsites, Forest NY’s safety program has been key to helping work flow as smoothly, efficiently, and safely as possible.

Injury and Incidence Frequency Data:

Total recordable incidence rate, 2022: 0.93
Total recordable incidence rate, 2021: 1.21

DART rate, 2022: 0.93
DART rate, 2021: 0.97

Total employee hours worked, 2022: 862,824.00
Total employee hours worked, 2021: 823,242.00