New York construction contractor agrees to pay $750,000 and take comprehensive jobsite safety steps in settlement with U.S. Labor Department

This one is HUGE! (see the story below) Even with a settlement agreement, this fine was only reduced by $127k – this contractor must really have been in trouble. The really sad thing is that had they done most of the terms of the settlement agreement ahead of time (as they should have) they wouldn’t have had to pay the fine or put their people at risk.

The difference between having a real safety professional at the helm of your loss prevention program vs. that guy who has been a good employee for many years that you want to keep working even though he has limited or no safety experience, is enormous. Having spent the past five years working as the safety director for a general contractor that subcontracts all of its work, dealing with a subcontractor who has a full time safety professional on staff (or a good safety consultant on retainer) is so much better than dealing with a subcontractor who just hopes he can get lucky and have no accidents or OSHA inspections.

Having a good, full-time corporate safety professional on board – a safety professional who has the real backing of management – sets the tone of the “safety culture” of the construction firm. Constant attention to safety communication with field personnel let’s them know that ONLY the safe way is acceptable!

A good solid safety program saves big dollars for any company. That commitment to safety and loss prevention shows your insurance company that you are on top of things and will probably result in significant savings on your General Liability Premiums. Reduced workers compensation claims will save big bucks on your workers compensation premiums. To say nothing of the savings in improved production, lost time, loss of materials due to accidents, etc. A well provisioned safety program will not cost a company anything. A good safety professional on staff will let you keep all of the money that you make in the field. I’m sure that Broadway Concrete will find that in a few short years, they will recover all of that $750k that they paid out.

New York-based concrete construction contractor 160 Broadway Corp., doing business as Broadway Concrete, has agreed to pay a $750,000 fine as part of a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) addressing hazards cited last summer. The company also will take comprehensive steps to upgrade employee safety and health at its worksites.

In June 2008, OSHA cited Broadway Concrete and proposed $877,000 in penalties against the company for fall hazards at the 77 Hudson condominium construction project in Jersey City, N.J. The company initially contested the citations and penalties but withdrew its notice of contest as part of a settlement agreement, signed Jan. 26, 2009, which reclassified 13 of the 15 willful citations as repeat violations.

Under the agreement, Broadway Concrete and its sister company, Regal Construction, have agreed to abate all the cited hazards and take the following additional steps beyond what is required under OSHA standards:

· Select and employ a full-time chief of construction operations and a corporate safety director to oversee construction operations and have authority over senior job superintendents in safety and health related issues.

· Employ a full-time site safety director on each large project and have a safety director inspect smaller projects at least once a week; the safety directors will have authority to stop work and direct changes to ensure site safety.

· Reduce the salary of senior job superintendents who fail to comply with applicable OSHA and job safety practices.

· Complete a comprehensive review of current construction means, methods and safety procedures, including a crew-based, task specific hazard assessment for every phase of current construction operations.

· Develop a new corporate safety and health plan.

· Finalize a site specific safety and health plan for each new project before work begins, ensure the job superintendent reads it and provides copies to onsite employees.

· Provide safety and health management training to superintendents and supervisory personnel working on each site, and train company and subcontractor employees on each site's safety and health plan.

· Provide OSHA officials with information on major projects and access to all jobsites without need of a warrant for the next four years.

"This settlement commits and challenges these employers to take broad, effective and long-lasting steps to make employee safety and health a vital and ongoing business priority," said Robert Kulick, OSHA's regional administrator in New York. "Active and engaged safety and health management is a critical tool for reducing worksite hazards and their associated human and financial costs."