3M Camarillo Named Employer of the Year

3M Camarillo has been named Employer of the Year by the Ventura County/Santa Barbara County chapter of the California Assn. of Rehabilitation and Reemployment Professionals.

The award was given “as a result of a decade-old pledge to return employees back into the work environment,” said Bob Michels, the plant’s manufacturing manager.

Also honored was the facility’s health care nurse, Darlene Rose. She said 3M’s disability management program provides both physical and emotional support.

Health problems at the plant tend to be “strains and sprains which are the result of cumulative trauma, not an injury that can be pinpointed to one day,” Rose said.

She added that a variety of jobs at the plant make it possible to ease trauma by modifying employees’ duties.

3M Camarillo, now in its 31st year of operation, produces magnetic tape and cartridges for storing computer data. The facility is 3M’s largest in California, with a payroll of more than 600.