Monday, September 28, 2015
Preparing for a Visit from OSHA
NAHB Now | The News Blog of the National Association of Home Builders: Curious about what happens during an inspection conducted by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and how to get ready for one? If so, here are some tips and guidelines that may come in handy.
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5 comments:
I feel like the intention here might be wrong. The goal seems to be "lets not get in trouble for the things we usually do wrong." How about instead of focusing on preparing for what happens if you get inspected, you just do it safely the rest of the time to. This highlights why accidents in the work place are so common. Its easier to adjust what it looks like you are doing as opposed to what you are actually doing. I realize there is upfront cost to changing your ways but.... really? Jim, our lovely retired OSHA instructor, made the very valid point that its generally cheaper to fix incorrect procedure or shoddy equipment than it is to pay all the lawyers when you get sued. But above that there is a moral question here. How can you knowingly do something unsafe and just go back that as soon as the OSHA guy leaves. I am not really sure what the solution would be to get managers to properly fix things but articles like this never fail to baffle me.
This isn't really my forte to be commenting on, and reading this article I learned how little I knew about OSHA regulations in theatre. It seems like this article is pointed more towards a crowd of people that haven't done the specified list of things you're supposed to do to keep a theatre safe, and these are a few tips and tricks to get over and done with before the OSHA people come to your door. And that doesn't seem like the best way for going about things, especially when concerned with safety. In any case, I find it sort of embarrassing that I didn't know much about this process or safety within a theatrical shop at all, which is why I'm thankful for the year and a half of general education we get at this school. If it wasn't required I might not have taken Tech Management or Basic PTM, and missed out on a lot of extra bits of information that contribute to my understanding of theatre as a whole.
Ah, OSHA inspections. The rumored misery of theatre technicians everywhere. This guide is enlightening, however, to the untold mystery that is an OSHA inspection. I thought all OSHA inspections had to be announced and scheduled, but according to the article, some OSHA inspections can be completely random, which is pretty terrifying. Something cool to learn about, too, is the process of receiving and resolving citations, since as rumors go, they tend to be the end-all be-all of a company. The process outlined in the article seems pretty straightforward, however. It claims to just be a simple appeal process through the legal department of OSHA. The final thing about this article, which I find rather humorous, is that the ending statement, “Builders can and should reduce or eliminate the chance of being cited by OSHA by making sure they have their “house in order” long before an inspector arrives at the job site.” Basically just says to get your shit together long before they come.
I don't know if I necessarily agree with Isaac that the jist of the article is to help construction sites dodge citations. I do think it is telling construction sites the rights and obligations they have during a surprise OSHA visit in addition to ways to CYA when there is a disagreement. I think in particular taking the same pictures and videos as the inspector is a good one to make sure you have visual evidence to back up your claim, if it comes down to that. I also think the idea of having a set procedure for when a CSHO comes onto your job site to calmly and professionally accommodate the site visit is also a wise idea. I would wager that the faster the CSHO can do their job and leave, the happier everybody is.
I'd like to believe that most job sites are not in violation of OSHA, but I guess the fact of the matter is not if you are in violation, but to what degree.. I'm sure there are plenty of sites in non-compliance in very minor ways, such as workers not having 3 points of contact on a ladder. I would hope there are significantly less sites with major, major violations..
I agree with Ben, this article focuses more on what actually happens during an OSHA inspector visit and what the the responsibilities and rights of the company are than on the precise content of the inspection. Operating under the assumption that the workplace has done everything they can to follow OSHA regulations, it is also important for them to know what to do once their company is being reviewed, whether it's a planned visit or an impromptu one. Accountability is a big part of this, and having records updated and available to inspectors is a good way to show compliance, and a commitment to respecting OSHA regulations. The advice about following the inspector and taking the same pictures is especially important, to ensure that the evidence is not swayed by one of the parties. I also didn't know that an OSHA visit encompassed an opening and closing conference; this type of information is valuable to have in advance, as it will make the visit much smoother.
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