August 9th, 2011
More than one out of every five OSHA inspections result from employee complaints. Is your industry one of the top 10 that generate the most complaints?
Here’s the list of the top 10 industries with workplace complaints to OSHA in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 (the first number is the Standard Industrial Classification — SIC, the second is the number of complaints in the two-year period): Read the rest of this entry »
August 8th, 2011
OSHA’s intense focus and scrutiny of the residential construction industry reveals the lack of awareness and compliance amongst home improvement contractors, remodelers, builders and trades. Last year OSHA named the industry a target for enforcement and they said they will aggressively pursue contractors in this sector.
Residential contractors have never been in the cross hairs like the commercial sector. OSHA training, like OSHA 10 and 30, are usually mandated for commercial firms working on public projects. Residential contractors have not been required through enforcement to adopt the policies of the agency and have little or no experience of how to comply. The recent rash of injuries and deaths on residential work sites has led to this new focus. Read the rest of this entry »
July 21st, 2011
As a construction company began work on the shell of a three-story building, a representative of the local utility showed up and said, “You can’t continue working here with those power lines so close by. They have to be moved, deenergized, or insulated.”
Despite the warning, the construction company proceeded with the work without taking any steps to protect workers from the power line hazard.
In order to build the structure, workers hoisted rebar from ground level to the third floor through a second-floor window, and then through a hole between the second and third floors. The rebar was passed up through the hole lengthwise and then angled 45 degrees away from the power lines. Had the bars been standing straight, however, they could have touched the power lines. Read the rest of this entry »
June 17th, 2011
According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), training programs conducted during regular work hours constitute work time and must be compensated as such.
Mandatory safety training conducted outside of regular work hours (for example, on employees’ days off or before or after normal work hours) must be considered Read the rest of this entry »
June 15th, 2011
Are you ready for the mother of all phone calls?
“What phone call?” you may ask. “Short of a warning of catastrophic explosion, no phone call could possibly shake my world,” you may be thinking.
Ever hear of the OSHA complaint process? It’s where employees – yes, even your employees – contact OSHA and level charges against their employers. Federal and state OSHA officials conducted 24,490 complaint/incident-related and 16,553 referral/follow-up inspections in fiscal year 2000. While these numbers might raise the hair on the back of your neck, it’s not all doom and gloom. Honest. Read the rest of this entry »
June 14th, 2011
The CDC issues the following guidance to address safety precautions that should be adhere to when responding after a tornado has struck. With clean-up well underway in Joplin, we thought we should remind everyone of some helpful hint to stay safe.
Injury may result from the direct impact of a tornado, or it may occur afterward when people walk among debris and enter damaged buildings. A study of injuries after a tornado in Marion, Illinois, showed that 50 percent of the tornado-related injuries were suffered during rescue attempts, cleanup, and other post-tornado activities. Nearly a third of the injuries resulted from stepping on nails. Other common causes of injury included falling objects and heavy, rolling objects. Read the rest of this entry »
June 14th, 2011
OSHA can’t send people responsible for workplace safety to jail. But they can refer cases to local prosecutors who are able to seek prison time. That’s what happened in this case, and now two men will be locked up.
Sam Hyung Goo Shim, owner of roofing company California C&R, and his foreman, Jwa Young Kim, have both been sentenced to county jail in connection with the January 2008 death of an employee. Shim will serve one year. Kim will serve at least six months of a one-year sentence.
Antonio Martinez was one of several employees working on a roofing project at a four-story apartment building in San Francisco. As he was working along the roof’s edge, Martinez fell 38 feet to the sidewalk below. The fall killed him. Read the rest of this entry »
June 14th, 2011
Earlier this year, a review panel addressed OSHA’s ability to issue fines for not having injury records that date back from more than the current year. Now OSHA has used its new authority to level an additional $40,000 in fines to one company.
OSHA inspected Thomasville Lumber Co. in Alabama in December 2010 as part of its national emphasis program to prevent workplace amputations. Read the rest of this entry »
June 10th, 2011
Below is a new release from OSHA regarding a roofing contractor that has a history of ignoring OSHA’s citations and has failed to implement a safety program to protect their workers. I can assure you that they will have little if any luck reducing these citations to continue to stay in business. The investment of a safety program would be roughly 1% of the total citations that they are facing. Give us a call to find out how you can eliminate your exposure to OSHA citations, protect your workers, and lower your insurance costs today. Read the rest of this entry »
June 9th, 2011
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today announced a three month phase-in period to allow residential construction employers to come into compliance with the Agency’s new directive to provide residential construction workers with fall protection.
Read the rest of this entry »
