OSHA Fall Protection Fines On New Jersey Project Proposed At $463,350.

Following up on OSHA’s fall prevention campaign, developed in conjunction with NIOSH and its National Research Agenda program, and intended to reduce the 250 fall related construction worker deaths and 10,000 fall related injuries in 2010, OSHA is cracking down on construction sites where construction companies fail or refuse to implement fall protection for tradespeople and laborers. This month the agency issued fall protection citations with proposed fines of nearly half a million dollars against four companies involved in a Jersey City, New Jersey project located at 837 Jersey Avenue.

The OSHA citations were issued based on a site inspection December 7, 2011 in which OSHA inspectors discovered workers on the fourth floor of the 20 story project working without fall protection. Concrete subcontractors Altura Concrete, for the foundation, and Nathill Corp., for the superstructure, face proposed fines totaling $355,000.00 for working with open sides and edges on six levels of the project, working around open holes, and other violations. General contractor White Diamond Properties faces proposed fines of $95,400.00 for willful fall protection violations, failing to have shoring drawings on site, and other violations.

The balance of the proposed fines were assessed against masonry subcontractor Blade Contracting for failing to provide fall protection, improper scaffolding use, and scaffolding inspection failures. OSHA is on the warpath, so have your workers tie off every day.

Water, Rest And Shade

According to OSHA, these three words are the key to outdoor workers’ avoiding illness and death from overexposure to heat during the summer months. As temperatures across the country increase during the summer months, OSHA’s outreach initiatives to protect workers from heat related illnesses is ramping up.

“For outdoor workers, water, rest and shade are three words that can make the difference between life and death,” according to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. “If employers take reasonable precautions, and look out for their workers, we can beat the heat.” In the last decade, heat stroke has killed an average of over 30 outdoor workers annually. Heat cramps and heat rash can turn quickly into heat exhaustion and heat stroke if symptoms go unrecognized and simple precautionary steps are not followed.

According to Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, “Agriculture workers, building, road and other construction workers, utility workers, baggage handlers, roofers, landscapers, and others who work outside are all at risk. Drinking plenty of water and taking frequent breaks in cool, shaded areas are incredibly important in the hot summer months.”

Senate Committee Investigates OSHA Foot Dragging

According to testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, OSHA takes far too long to adopt new safety standards in response to industrial and construction injuries and deaths. A report from GAO points out that promulgation of new OSHA rules takes just a little less than eight years. Washington state’s former OSHA director Michael Silverstein told the committee, “We have created barriers based on false alarms, and the need now is to lower them so that worker protection can proceed again without delay. It is no exaggeration to say that lives are at stake.”

Senate HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin echoed Silverstein’s sentiments. “It is simply unconcsionable that workers must suffer while an OSHA rule is mired in bureaucracy,” he remarked. In delivering the agency’s report to the Committee, GAO’s Director of Education, Workforce and Income Security Revae Moran testified, “Why it would take 19 years to set a scaffolding standard doesn’t necessarily make sense.” The GAO report found that a quarter of OSHA regulations approved since 1981 have taken more than a decade to complete. As one extreme example, the GAO report notes that OSHA has been studying silica dust exposure since 1974, but still has not issued even a proposed regulation.

OSHA issued 47 new safety rules between 1980 and 1999, but has issued only 11 new rules since the beginning of 2000. HELP Committee Ranking Member Mike Enzi also bemoaned the Obama administration’s reluctance to use voluntary safety programs, such as OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs, to fill in safety regulation gaps. “Voluntary programs involving employees and management such as the Voluntary Protection Programs have been shown to make workplaces considerably safer and save money,” Enzi said. “Yet under the current administration VPP has been threatened and undermined.”

OSHA Prohibited From Sleeping On Violations

The U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has sent a loud wake up call to OSHA, by ruling that the agency must proceed against injury record generation violations within six months of the injury in question, rather than waiting until OSHA’s infrequent injury log reviews to spot and issue citations for omitted injury reports. In May, 2006, the agency began a review of Volks Construction, and concluded that the company failed to record several on the job injuries to Volks’ workers in the Volks injury logs during the years 2002 through 2006. OSHA cited Volks and imposed $13,300.00 in fines on the company.

Volks moved to dismiss the citations, arguing that the Occupational Safety and Health Act requires the agency to issue citations for failing to record injuries within six months of the injury in question. OSHA defended its lack of diligence by arguing that each injury Volks failed to record constituted an “ongoing violation” of the agency’s five year record maintenance requirement, and therefore the six month statute of limitations did not apply.

While the lower courts went along with the agency, the D.C. Court of Appeals slapped OSHA’s hands, ruling that the agency must issue any citation for failing to log an injury or complete reporting paperwork on it within six months of the date of the injury, or lose its enforcement powers.

Tishman Sued Over Worker Death In Casino Lightening Strike

The widow of a concrete finisher killed when lightening struck the tower crane at the Revel Hotel and Casino construction project in Atlantic City filed suit against general contractor Tishman Construction April 4, 2012, joined by the two other nearby workers who were also hit by the lightening, but survived. The three were placing concrete on the top level of the building as a thunderstorm approached the site, but according to the lawsuit, the contractor pressed on for completion of the pour. Lightening struck the tower crane and electrocuted Bryan Bradley, who was gripping the steel concrete bucket still suspended from the rigging. The other two workers were a few feet away, and were knocked down by the force of the bolt.

Tishman’s Director of Public Affairs John Gallagher responded to the court filing with the terse statement, “Although we cannot comment on pending matters, we would note that entities investigating the incident last year, including OSHA, did not find us at fault.”

OSHA “Phasing In” New Residential Construction Fall Protection Standard

Tomorrow’s deadline for compliance with the new OSHA guidance on residential construction fall protection, which can be found at http://www.osha.gov/doc/guidance.html, will be phased in for roofers and other residential contractors who may be in violation of the new directives, but still in compliance with the old alternative standards, according to OSHA Administrator Dr. David Michaels. Between June 16 and September 15 of this year, any residential construction contractor found to be in violation of the new directives, but who does comply with the old alternative standards, will receive only a “hazard alert letter,” while contractors not in compliance with either the old or new standards will be issued OSHA citations.

This three month “phase in” effectively amounts to a one year extension of the deadline in those states north of the Mason Dixon line, where the roofing season ends around September 15. Contractors in the South and Southwest regions will have to obtain equipment complying with the new directive by September 15 to avoid issuance of fall protection citations.

Now would be a good time for roofers and other residential contractors to take a good look at the new OSHA guidance, and plan their fall protection procedures under the new guidelines, while cash flow is available to support acquisition of the required bracket scaffolds or retractable lifelines for the use of their tradespeople.