OSHA rolls out ‘Safe and Sound’ campaign to encourage employer action

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
March 16, 2017
Dive Brief:

  • The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has rolled out its “Safe and Sound” initiative, which asks employers to review their safety programs and identify areas for improvement, according to an agency press release.
  • OSHA said that aside from work-related injuries being detrimental to workers and their families, they also cost businesses money, which hampers company growth and job creation.
  • The agency highlighted the inspection areas of Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri – which saw a significant rise in fatalities related to trenching and excavating, confined space entry and struck-by motor vehicle incidents last year – as examples of the need for heightened attention to safety on job sites.

 

Dive Insight:

OSHA announced late last year that trench fatalities doubled from 2015 to 2016, confirming the agency’s position that construction excavation and trenching operations are among the most dangerous work site activities.
Last year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that fatalities in the private construction industry rose 4% between 2014 and 2015, from 899 to 927. The injury rate for construction declined 0.1% in 2015 but still far outpaced the U.S. average across industries.

Minnesota OSHA – Excavation Safety Stand-down – April 17 through 21, 2017

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

For the first time, Minnesota OSHA, along with other safety professionals, will promote and participate in a statewide Excavation Safety
Stand-down from April 17 through 21.

The goal of the stand-down is to raise awareness among employers and workers about preventing excavation accidents, which have resulted in three fatalities to Minnesota workers since 2015, due to trench collapses.

During the stand-down, employers and workers are asked to pause their workday to talk about excavation safety and discuss topics like how to properly slope, shore or shield workers from hazards during excavation projects. Employers are encouraged to make a plan to protect workers and prevent accidents.

(Read More)

OSHA fines MA contractor $1.5M for 18 violations in fatal trench collapse

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
April 17, 2017
Dive Brief:
  • The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a Massachusetts contractor with 18 safety violations and fined the company $1,475,813 in relation to a Boston trench accident that killed two workers in October 2016, according to an agency press release.
  • Employees of Atlantic Drain Service Co., Robert Higgins and Kelvin Mattocks, were killed while working in a 12-foot-deep trench that collapsed and broke a fire hydrant supply line. According to OSHA investigators, the trench filled with water within seconds.
  • OSHA said Atlantic did not provide basic trench safeguards and did not train employees to recognize hazardous conditions. The company and its owner, Kevin Otto, were charged earlier this year in a Suffolk County court with two counts of manslaughter and other charges related to the worker deaths.Dive Insight:

    OSHA has reported that two workers are killed every month in trench collapses, and last November, the agency found that 2016 trench fatalities had doubled since 2015.

    Aside from Atlantic’s almost $1.5 million fine, another notable element of this case is the fact that there is a press release at all. This marks the first public “shaming” citation and penalty announcement that OSHA has posted to its news releases page since President Donald Trump took office in January. While it once actively posted releases about enforcement action to that page, it now is largely reserved for announcements of safety initiatives and partnerships. However, the agency has included certain news of enforcement actions in its QuickTakes newsletters.

    (Read More)

OSHA finalizes beryllium exposure rule

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Kim Slowey
Jan. 9, 2017

 

Dive Brief:

  • The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Friday that it has finalized its new beryllium exposure rule.
  • In this latest regulation, OSHA has further limited contact with beryllium’s cancer-causing dust from 2.0 micrograms per cubic meter of air over an eight-hour period – a standard established in 1949 – to 0.2 micrograms per cubic meter. The new rule also requires protective measures and equipment, as well as changing rooms and showers for at-risk employees.
  • OSHA included the construction and shipyard industries in its final rule after excluding them from its initial proposal in 2015, according to The Hill.

 

Dive Insight:

Employers have been given three years to put into operation all of the protective aspects of the regulation. They have one year to bring exposure limits within the new boundaries, two years to furnish changing rooms and showers and three years to enact engineering controls. OSHA said compliance will cost employers approximately $74 million a year but that medical and death-related expenses will drop more than $560 million a year. OSHA estimated that the new limits will protect approximately 62,000 workers, preventing 46 new cases of beryllium-related disease and 94 associated deaths each year.

(Read More)

OSHA fines MA roofer $125K after company ignored fall hazard warnings

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Kim Slowey
August 12, 2016

Dive Brief:

  • The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Massachusetts roofing company Roof King for three willful, one repeat and nine serious violations related to falls and other hazards and fined the company $124,960.
  • According to an agency press release, Roof King’s onsite supervisory personnel ignored an OSHA inspector’s instructions as to how fall hazards could be remedied, and a subsequent inspection revealed that the company continued to put its employees at risk.
  • OSHA said that among other violations, its inspector observed Roof King’s employees working without fall protection at heights of more than 45 feet off the ground, on a lower, sloped roof and on ladders that did not extend at least 3 feet above landings.

 

Dive Insight:

“Employees should never have to risk their lives for a paycheck,” said Anthony Covello, OSHA’s area director for Essex and Middlesex counties, in a press release. He said preventable falls make up approximately 40% of all construction industry deaths and that Roof King must take action to avoid serious employee injuries or death.

OSHA targets Philadelphia with new campaign after 5 fall incidents in 1 month

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Kim Slowey | July 14, 2016

Dive Brief:

  • In the wake of five fall-related incidents in a one-month period, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has made a public plea for Philadelphia construction companies to take greater measures to prevent fall-related accidents, the agency said in a press release.
  • OSHA said the July 7 death of roofer Roy Chacon marked the fifth fall-related area accident since June 13.
  • In effort to combat these incidents, OSHA said it has joined forces with the City of Philadelphia’s Licenses and Inspections and the Philadelphia Project on Occupational Safety and Health to implement the “Grassroots Injury-Illness Prevention” campaign, which will host several forums addressing the city’s safety issues and how to tackle them.

 

Dive Insight:

OSHA Philadelphia Area Office Director Nicholas DeJesse said that if the dead or injured workers’ employers would have provided adequate fall protection, the accidents could have been avoided.

(Read More)

Building Trades, Community Orgs Make Final Push for a Just Sentence in 23-Year-Old’s Workplace Death

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

June 15, 2016
By Chaz Bolte

A coalition of community groups, labor unions, and worker centers are calling for a conviction during the final days of arguments in a case against Harco Construction, LLC. The case centers around the death of 23-year-old Carlos Moncayo, who was killed in an excavation collapse in New York City’s Meatpacking District in April of 2015.

The Ecuadorian immigrant was crushed when the walls of the site collapsed around him. Prosecutors brought charges against two construction managers – Wilmer Cueva of Sky Materials and Alfonso Prestia of Harco Construction – noting that they had ignored repeated warnings from private inspectors that treacherous conditions existed at the site.

As the duo faces the reality of doing time for their neglect, worker advocates are ramping up efforts to ensure justice is served for Moncayo while seizing an opportunity to call for stronger regulations and enforcement henceforth. More frequent jail time for hazardous behavior is one way the groups say this type of end result can be avoided.

[New York] City Council wants to track bad building contractors to stop construction accidents

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY GREG B. SMITH / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, May 11, 2015, 8:51 PM

With construction accidents on the rise, the City Council Monday pressed the Buildings Department to aggressively pursue “bad actor” contractors.

“People who are doing bad things are not being stopped,” Housing & Building Committee Chairman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn) said. “We want to make sure we’re doing a lot more of connecting the dots.”

From 2013 to last year, the number of building permits rose 10% while the number of accidents jumped by 24%, Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler said at a housing committee hearing.

Labor and Employment Federal Regulatory Reporting and Other Requirements in the First Quarter of 2015

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

1/14/2015 by Robert Lian, Brian Glenn Patterson

 

There are several important dates that employers should keep in mind during the first quarter of 2015. While some are long-standing requirements, others are the product of recent regulatory action by the Obama administration.  Key dates appear below.
Effective January 1, 2015
Occupational Safety and Health Administration/U.S. Department of Labor Expansion of injury and illness reporting requirement

 

Historically, employers have been required to report to OSHA within eight hours any occupational fatalities and occupational injuries and illnesses resulting in the hospitalization of three or more employees. OSHA’s updated recordkeeping and reporting rule expands the list of injuries that employers must report to OSHA.  As of January 1, 2015, all employers must report the following:

Within 8 hours:

All work-related fatalities; and

Within 24 hours:

All work-related inpatient hospitalizations to any employee (no longer limited to three employee hospitalizations);

All work-related amputations; and

All work-related losses of an eye.

(Read More)

 

OSHA announces new requirements for reporting severe injuries and updates list of industries exempt from record-keeping requirements

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced a final rule requiring employers to notify OSHA when an employee is killed on the job or suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye. The rule, which also updates the list of employers partially exempt from OSHA record-keeping requirements, will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015, for workplaces under federal OSHA jurisdiction.

The announcement follows preliminary results from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2013 National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries*.

“Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 4,405 workers were killed on the job in 2013. We can and must do more to keep America’s workers safe and healthy,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez. “Workplace injuries and fatalities are absolutely preventable, and these new requirements will help OSHA focus its resources and hold employers accountable for preventing them.”

(Read More)
(*Copy of BLS News Release)