Workplace Safety Awareness Council Blog

I just arrived back from a presentation in Fort Lauderdale Florida for a group of Facility and Maintenance Managers. My presentation was entitled "Top 10 OSHA Violations in a Built Environment" and I'm happy to say it was a rousing success!

I had the opportunity to speak with a number of building managers and chief engineer types and one of the common issues was "cryptic nature" of the OSHA regulations. . .

I hear this a lot. In fact it seems that this perception is what keeps most organizations from developing a sustainable safety program.

The good news is that OSHA compliance does not need to be difficult, time consuming or expensive. In fact we've just announced a new webinar which will provide you with a roadmap for OSHA compliance in 6 easy steps.

http://tinyurl.com/ABC-OF-OSHA

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OK, so Where do I Start and are There Only 6 Steps?
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Like any big project, you have to break it down into bite-sized steps. . .
We can breakdown OSHA compliance into 6 major steps:

(1) Conduct "Job Hazard Analysis" of potentially dangerous tasks

(2) Develop written safety programs that address these hazards

(3) Train employees on proper safety procedures when working around these hazards

(4) Conduct regular safety inspections so dangerous items can be corrected

(5) Be sure to remember the "Administrative Requirements" like OSHA recordkeeping and posters

(6) Get familiar with the OSHA regulations that speak to your hazards

Once we examine each of these six steps and develop a system for completing each, the goal of OSHA compliance gets easier.

How many of these steps has your organization completed?
Do you understand and have you mastered each of these steps?

If you're finding OSHA compliance to be difficult of time-consuming, why not join our webinar on the ABC's of OSHA Compliance. . .

http://tinyurl.com/ABC-OF-OSHA

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The 5 Reasons we Are Not OSHA Compliant and Our Rebuttal
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(1) This responsibility was dumped in our lap with no warning, much less any training

Rebuttal: Deal with it! If your name is going to be attached to it, you better protect yourself (and your job) and figure this out.

(2) I'm too busy with my "real job" to spend time on safety

Rebuttal: You need to organize your safety program so its on "auto-pilot". That way you're not taking too much time from your "real-job". See also rebuttal #1.

(3) The regulations are too complicated and I'm lost

Rebuttal: This is true until you learn how to look up the OSHA regulations.
Remember the first you went to the library to check out a book?
I do - I was in first grade and was utterly lost - until I learned the Dewey Decimal System.
Learn OSHA's system and this become a non-issue.

(4) My employer doesn't care about safety and compliance issues

Rebuttal: Your employer doesn't understand the potential return on investment a safety program can bring. Typically for every $1 spent on safety programs, organizations get a $3 - $4 return. That's pretty good right? Wouldn't it be nice to turn your safety program into a "profit center"?

(5) OSHA won't bother us so why worry about being compliant

Rebuttal: You've been lucky! The fact is under our new Administration OSHA has been given
more authority and is better funded. In fact they are in the process of hiring additional compliance officers. Beware of complacency. . .

http://tinyurl.com/ABC-OF-OSHA

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You're Invited to the "ABC's of OSHA Compliance" Webinar
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Are you responsible for OSHA compliance in your organization?
If so you’ve probably realized its not always easy to understand the often confusing OSHA standards. Many people in this scenario simply give up resulting in unsafe work practices and non-compliance.

Learning Objectives:

By attending this webinar you will learn:

• 6 easy steps to a safe and compliant worksite
• Administrative requirements (paperwork) that is often overlooked
• Lean how to look up OSHA regulations (it’s not as hard as you think)
• A 5 step process for answering any OSHA question
• Understand what training you are required to provide employees
• The MBWE formula for safety inspections – this is critical!
• How to quickly create the written safety plans that OSHA requires

This webinar is a must for organizations who want to be proactive in their safety programs. By attending you’ll learn how to quickly and easily become OSHA compliant while protecting your most valuable resource - your employees!

http://tinyurl.com/ABC-OF-OSHA

Labels: OSHA Training, Training webinar, workplace safety

Ever been to a post-Thanksgiving sale? One of the really early ones where a crowd of people storm the doors at 6:00am and pick apart a store? I did once, and that was quite enough. . .

Well Walmart is now feeling the pain from their November 28, 2008 sales blitz. During this sales blitz Jdimytai Damour of an employee at a Valley Stream, N.Y. store was trampled to death and about 11 people sustained injuries, according to the DA's office.

Now OSHA doesn’t protect shoppers per se, their mission is to protect workers and in this case an employee died, so OSHA comes on board. Interesting enough, the 11 members of the public are not protected by OSHA but the pressure OSHA put on Walmart to create better crowd control policies and procedures will serve to protect employees and public alike.

OSHA's concluded employees were exposed to being crushed by the crowd of 2,000 because the store failed to implement reasonable and effective crowd management principles. OSHA maintained that the store should have provided its employees training and tools to safely manage that crowd.

"Effective planning and crowd management could have prevented this incident and its grave consequences," said Robert Kulick, OSHA's regional administrator in New York. "Wal-Mart must now take steps to ensure that a situation such as this one never happens again."

So the question begs to be asked: What foreseeable hazards exist in your workplace, and more importantly, what will you do to better protect the workforce?

Labels: 10 Hour OSHA Card, Crowd control, Walmart, workplace safety