Training-Training-Training

I have been pontificating for years about the critical need for training of workers. In my opinion, the lack of adequate training is the single biggest cause of jobsite injuries and fatalities. Well, if you didn't "get it" before, you had better start paying attention because OSHA has finally caught up.

Last week, during a speech to the National Action Summit for Latino Worker Health and Safety, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis addressed worker training. She stressed the need for training in a form that can be understood by our Hispanic workforce - nothing new there. But she also stated that, effective on Workers Memorial Day (April 28th), "OSHA will also assure that its Compliance Officers check and verify not only that the training has been provided, but that it was provided in a format that the workers being trained can understand."

WARNING: you subcontractors that think that you are not responsible for the training of those "independent contractors" to which you "subcontract" the work (you know - piece workers), you had better rethink that idea. It is up to you to assure that every one of the workers in your workforce has adequate safety training. You might even want to review you subcontracts - you may find language in there that says you will assure that the workers for whom you are responsible, will be adequately trained in jobsite safety.

Don't know what training is required, Click here for assistance.

Construction Worker Injured in Building Collapse

New York City must be a pretty dangerous place to work if you are in the construction business. The New York Times reported on the 29th that a worker was critically injured in the collapse of a Brooklyn building being renovated.

The cause? Nobody knows for sure yet.

Cranes Again?

Well, it looks like we just don't know how to operate cranes safely in New York City. Do you remember all that flap about tower cranes a couple of years ago? If you had cranes on your construction sites back then, you probably re-visited your crane safety policies and procedures. I know that I did. We were okay, but it certainly put the spotlight on how often I checked crane records. And I also found out that the State of Florida didn't require crane operators to be licensed. I also found out that the same was true in many parts of the country. But, that's another story.

To get back to the point, a couple of days ago in NYC, another crane collapsed into a building (read about it in the New York times of 3/27 and again on 3/28. Officials don't know what happened yet, but they believe that a contributing cause was that the crane operator did not lower the boom far enough before he left the site at the end of the workday. And, although they are not sure that there isn't another contributing cause, NYC officials suspended the crane operator's license.

Conclusions? Read the articles and you decide. But if I had a crane on my site, I'd be re-visiting my crane policies again.