Online Safety Contest for Construction Workers in Canada

I have never been a believer in safety contests or safety reward programs, but they seem to work for some operations. TMC News reported on one contest that seems to have worked. According to the article, "The Construction Safety Association of BC (CSABC) has developed a winning formula to reach construction workers with the information they need to stay safe in the workplace."

" Thanks to an innovative online contest introduced by CSABC and its industry partners, safety in the workplace in now even more 'top of mind' for construction workers across the province."

" In September 2008, the Construction Safety Association of BC partnered with the Toyota BC Dealers Association and BC Construction Association (BCCA) to offer an exclusive, online contest. Designed to test the construction industry's safety knowledge through WorkSafeBC Toolbox Talks, the contest generated an immense online response, attracting more than 77,800 entries from across the province."

To read more, click here.

Obama Pledges to Increase Safety Enforcement

According to the Kansas City Star, "Asserting that mounting workloads and dwindling staff have hindered the government's ability to protect workers, President Barack Obama is pledging to increase the enforcement of workplace safety.

Obama's budget blueprint, released on Thursday, seeks to increase funding to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. More precise funding details for the job safety agency and other federal programs won't be released until April."

For those of you who have listened to me since the presidential election, this is exactly what I predicted. And I believe its a good thing too. Uninformed employers might get the message that safety on their jobsites IS important. I hope some of the subcontractors "get religion" - it'll make my efforts more effective.

And, it might also eliminate the necessity of OSHA's "inspection blitzes." You know, those things that OSHA says don't exist. I think they call them "saturation." Anyway, if the area offices are better funded, we'll have more consistency from OSHA and get the support we need in the prevention of workplace accidents.

To read the whole story in the Kansas City Star, click here.

Union Crane-Safety Teacher Admitted to Oversight Lapses

After two fatal tower crane accidents last year, New York City instituted a series of reforms to increase safety and oversight in the construction industry, including requiring a 30-hour class for crane operators and other workers on the safest way to raise and lower a tower crane.

But some sessions of the city-mandated class are being taught by a union official who has admitted that he helped unqualified people, including organized crime figures, get into his union, according to sworn testimony and investigative reports. He and other union officials helped some of those men secure licenses to operate smaller cranes at construction sites across the city, the testimony and the reports say.

Click Here to read the article in the New York Times

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."

EPA Expected to Regulate Carbon Dioxide

According to an article in the New York Times, "The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to act for the first time to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists blame for the warming of the planet, according to top Obama administration officials.

The decision, which most likely would play out in stages over a period of months, would have a profound impact on transportation, manufacturing costs and how utilities generate power. It could accelerate the progress of energy and climate change legislation in Congress and form a basis for the United States’ negotiating position at United Nations climate talks set for December in Copenhagen.

The environmental agency is under order from the Supreme Court to make a determination whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant that endangers public health and welfare, an order that the Bush administration essentially ignored despite near-unanimous belief among agency experts that research points inexorably to such a finding."

To read the whole article, click here. I'm not sure what this may mean for the average Safety Practicioner - especially those of us who must also deal with clean air regs - but you can be sure that it will have an impact. What happens when carbon dioxide becomes a pollutant? Will we be required to test for its presence and then what will be the required response? Anyway, we need to keep an eye on this new development.

Construction Worker Killed

The Coastal Courier reports that "A construction worker was killed and another was hospitalized Friday after they fell about 35 feet from the platform of an extended forklift on Liberty County's Hampton Island. The victim, James Shanks, 46, was from Bluffton, S.C., authorities said. The second worker was identified as Jay Smith, 43, also from Bluffton. He was taken by ambulance to Memorial Health University Medical Center. His medical status was not immediately known.
The construction accident occured shortly before 1:30 p.m. on an exclusive resort island just outside of Riceboro.

Film actor Ben Affleck and his wife, actress Jennifer Garner, own a home in the gated community. Riceboro Fire and Rescue Chief Earl McGinley said the two men fell from a platform that had been raised about 35 feet into the air by a forklift at the site of a home under construction on the island’s Retreat Road. Liberty County Sheriff’s Office Detective Brian Barnes said Shanks was pronounced dead at the scene.

Barnes said four men working for Sailer Stone & Stucco LP of Bluffton were applying stucco to a chimney while standing on the elevated platform.
As the four were being lowered, other workers in the area said they heard a popping sound, and the forklift jerked, throwing two of the men off.
Work at the construction site was halted immediately and was not expected to resume until at least Tuesday, Barnes said.

Authorities at the site said they did not know what kind of safety record Sailer Stone & Stucco LP has."

Facebook for Safety Guys

Ok, I know that Facebook is what your kids use, but there's more to it than that. I have had a facebook presence for some time now for my hobby - genealogy. It has allowed me to connect with other people with the same hobby and has been helpful in the pursuit of my family genealogy. So why not a similar on-line community for Safety Pros? Anyway, I came across a press release about a Facebook page for Safety People and signed up a few moments ago - there are 1,149 of us using this tool already. I scrolled through the list of "members" of this on-line community and recognized a few names of safety pros that I have had contact with at some time in my 30+ year career.

Anyway, if you want to read more about it, click here to read the press release. If you want to visit the Facebook page directly, click here.