Is OHSA headed your way?

[pdqdl]

I got an offer from the State of Missouri today. Free! No obligation!
[Mo. Dept. of Labor & Industrial Relations, Division of Labor Standards]

"The State offers you a free confidential safety and health consultation for your business. The consultation could reduce the likelihood of fines from a possible OSHA compliance inspection and can even help you lower your worker's compensation costs."

"...will not be released to the public..."

"What is the catch? Only the assurance from a company representative that any serious safety violations discovered during the visit will be corrected within a reasonable timeframe."


1. Does anyone out there have any experience with this type of program?
2. I am inclined to distrust them. It does not say anywhere that they will not pass along their findings to OSHA, encouraging a review.
3. We have a pretty low workers comp record right now. I'm not really feeling the need for government oversight on how to prevent accidents.
4. It does not specify how long it takes for them to forget you. I would fear being obliged to deal with them for the rest of my life.

Your opinions on this are welcome, but please try to ovoid turning this into an anti-government rant. That belongs in another forum.

 

[Tree Pig]

I got an offer from the State of Missouri today. Free! No obligation!

"The State offers you a free confidential safety and health consultation for your business. The consultation could reduce the likelihood of fines from a possible OSHA compliance inspection and can even help you lower your worker's compensation costs."

"...will not be released to the public..."

"What is the catch? Only the assurance from a company representative that any serious safety violations discovered during the visit will be corrected within a reasonable timeframe."


1. Does anyone out there have any experience with this type of program?
2. I am inclined to distrust them. It does not say anywhere that they will not pass along their findings to OSHA, encouraging a review.
3. We have a pretty low workers comp record right now. I'm not really feeling the need for government oversight on how to prevent accidents.
4. It does not specify how long it takes for them to forget you. I would fear being obliged to deal with them for the rest of my life.

Your opinions on this are welcome, but please try to ovoid turning this into an anti-government rant forum. That belongs in another forum.

My fathers company invited OSHA to do a safety check of their own job site a few years back. $11000 in fines later they were up and running again.

In my opinion its like inviting a vampire in to you house

 

[fishercat]

OSHA can pound sand!

and take their fines with them.Big brother has a lot of nerve telling us how to do our job when they can't even do theirs without scandal,theft,and corruption.

 

[Tree Pig]

Wrong!

Any violations OSHA finds as part of this program the company owner is given time to correct.

Your father must not have corrected the problems.

No this wasnt the same program he just called them on his own to double check on his workers safety. My point was he was trying to do the right thing and got burned.

By the way this was building roads and bridges, not in the tree industry.

 

[capetrees]

While you're at it, have child welfare services check your home to see if its up to their standards and have the tax assessor over for a while to make sure your home is up to date on their records and have the police run a check on you for no good reason to see if anything comes up in their data base.

WHAT ARE YOU NUTS????????

Leave well enough alone. They'll come to your place and check you out, find all kinds of issues and then forget about it hoping you fix the problems on your own?

Gimme a break.

 

[pdqdl]

Please keep in mind that this is NOT OSHA, it is the State of Missouri offering to inspect us so as to avoid fines by OSHA, should they "happen" to show up.

 

[pdqdl]

While you're at it, have child welfare services check your home to see if its up to their standards and have the tax assessor over for a while to make sure your home is up to date on their records and have the police run a check on you for no good reason to see if anything comes up in their data base.

WHAT ARE YOU NUTS????????

Leave well enough alone. They'll come to your place and check you out, find all kinds of issues and then forget about it hoping you fix the problems on your own?

Gimme a break.

The concept behind the program is that the State will prevent you from getting fines by pre-empting a raid by OSHA.

An analogy might be if your local school district offered to review your home for possible violations, so that IF "child welfare services" showed up, you would not get in trouble. Along with that letter, presume that no promises were made to not call "child welfare services" while they were on site doing the review. ...Or to not come back every year until your kids were out of school.

 

[Rftreeman]

so as to avoid fines by OSHA, should they "happen" to show up.

they will.......

 

[pdqdl]

It's a good program. I went through it back in 1996 after talking to OSHA at a chain saw safety seminar.

Was that OSHA, or a State sponsored program?

 

[Tree Pig]

hey no big deal this is all they are going to look at

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=9862


lol they are even going to tell you how you have to make your felling cuts

 

[ozzy42]

hey no big deal this is all they are going to look at

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=9862


lol they are even going to tell you how you have to make your felling cuts

Yeah,that would be like calling up your inlaws,and asking them to come live with you for a few weeks.

Hell OSHA probably has a regulation on the propper way to drink your cup of cofee on the way to your first job of the day

 

[valekbrothers]

I worked for a company that built office furniture. They hired a company that did OSHA safety inspections like once a month, and yearly safety training for the employees. As long as they did there iwalk throughs and the company made any corrections that needed, when OSHA did show up, if there was anything not up to code, it was very minimal.

 

[Tree Pig]

the problem lies in the little things. Let say you run a small company and OSHA comes out and says, You cant use that chipper it has no safety bar and its dangerous (this is a totally fictional example). So they tell you have a week to have the chipper adapter with a safety bar or get a new chipper with a safety bar.

Now a few weeks goes by and OSHA roles by and finds him still using the same chipper because he couldnt afford a new one. They shut him down, fine him a crazy amount of money. Now he cant afford the fine or the chipper and the hole just keeps getting deeper.

again I am using the chipper safety bar just as an example and have no idea if it is something they would consider a problem, so everyone running an old chipper dont go crazy and hijack this thread and go off about a safety bar.

My point is big companies with deep pockets may be able to survive an OSHA inspection with out much of a problem. But The little guy could be severely hurt by them. No one knows better how to run a tree service safely better then the people who run tree service companies. As you grow and get employees working for you, job site safety should be your #1 concern.

 

[John464]

Training for OSHA regs is a good investment. Inviting OSHA to your job is probably the worst idea I've heard in a long time.

 

[treemandan]

The concept behind the program is that the State will prevent you from getting fines by pre-empting a raid by OSHA.

An analogy might be if your local school district offered to review your home for possible violations, so that IF "child welfare services" showed up, you would not get in trouble. Along with that letter, presume that no promises were made to not call "child welfare services" while they were on site doing the review. ...Or to not come back every year until your kids were out of school.

That is basically it so you have to commit to fxing whatever they say. They have private contactors do that too. Since you pay them they are your friend and will come out and do speeches and training and take away all the spliced extension cords. I would feel better if a private contractor did it, when you are looking good that is when they will tell osha, they will say " Yo, osha, this guy looks good"

 

[pdqdl]

My fear is that perhaps the State knows something I don't. Like maybe I am on a list likely to get a visit.

If that is true, then I would want to have them over. Otherwise, I am more likely to take my chances.


We had a fatality about 9 years ago. We never heard from OSHA, the police, the fire department, my insurance company. NOBODY came out to see if we were just idiots with chainsaws. I would hate to think that they were just now getting around to us.

 

[AOD]

Remember that old story from the bible or something about the dude carrying the snake across the river?

Once a snake always a snake, even if it tries to tell you otherwise.

 

[John464]

An employee died and OSHA didnt investigate? In my area OSHA usually shows up after something happens along with workers comp whether it be a complaint or an injury it normally something that calls their attention. They will very rarely bother you on a small project in a residential area. In a commercial lengthy project they will show up un announced. Not fun.

 

[Slvrmple72]

Have all of your documentation in order, all of your workers in PPE on the job site ( No PPE, No Work for you today, Go back home and get your safety gear or don't come back at all!) All equipment working properly and not jury-rigged. Anything at the shop that isn't right locked out/tagged out. MSDS sheets at the shop in a binder where they are accesible to all employees as well as job procedures, emergency procedures, and stuff. First aid kits and fire extinguishers. Oh yeah, make sure you only answer what they ask. Example: " Are you the driver for this vehicle? No, this one with the airbrakes."
You say "No" not "No, Jimmy over there in the blue shirt is the driver" cauz then he goes over there to talk to Jimmy and finds out Jimmy doesn't have a CDL or even his wallet that day. Big Fine! Ouch! So with that stated make sure everybody gets a heads up. I would think of this as a warning if anything. The number of fatalities in our line of work have been increasing and have warranted the involvment of OSHA whether we want them or not. Having the state take a look? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

 

[outofmytree]

Have all of your documentation in order, all of your workers in PPE on the job site ( No PPE, No Work for you today, Go back home and get your safety gear or don't come back at all!) All equipment working properly and not jury-rigged. Anything at the shop that isn't right locked out/tagged out. MSDS sheets at the shop in a binder where they are accesible to all employees as well as job procedures, emergency procedures, and stuff. First aid kits and fire extinguishers. Oh yeah, make sure you only answer what they ask. Example: " Are you the driver for this vehicle? No, this one with the airbrakes."
You say "No" not "No, Jimmy over there in the blue shirt is the driver" cauz then he goes over there to talk to Jimmy and finds out Jimmy doesn't have a CDL or even his wallet that day. Big Fine! Ouch! So with that stated make sure everybody gets a heads up. I would think of this as a warning if anything. The number of fatalities in our line of work have been increasing and have warranted the involvment of OSHA whether we want them or not. Having the state take a look? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Amen.

I am own the business and am in the process of requesting an OSH inspection of all our equipment. It is sound business practise to be safe and keep your guys safe. If you live in fear of an OSH inspection then maybe you need to look long and hard at the standard of your gear and how you use it. If you have anyone come to your site you should be able to give THEM a lesson on safe operation. After all, arent you the tree expert?

The idea that you need to cut corners on your safety or anyone elses to be profitable is bull####. Pure unadulterated bull####.