Is OHSA headed your way?

[TreeTopKid]

The Health & Safety Executive in the UK spot check, but they come without any notification. There will be no problem as long as everything is in order. They are good people to be on the right side of.

My fathers company was checked twice. There were one or two small short comings on the initial visit but once they were rectified everything carried on as normal, and no days were lost because of it.

In this day and age everyone should be towing the line. I doubt if it has anything to do with an incident that happened years ago. Any action taken would have been pretty much immediate.

Try and use it as an opportunity to shine, i.e ; polish up those chainsaw boots!

 

[capetrees]

Would be nise if they gave you a sticker or a certtification you could carry one you or your truck stating that you've been inspected by OSHA so LEAVE ME ALONE. But no, today you're ok but tommorrow, its a whole new set of rules.

 

[Slvrmple72]

The rules do not change that extensively. Sure a sticker or license, money under the table for that sticker to the corrupt inspector.... is it that hard to be safe? Come on all that we are asking for is that the pintle hitch has a lock pin on it so the chipper can't get away and working brake lights, and chainsaw chaps on the groundies running them saws and donuts, well no, not donuts just kidding on that one.

 

[fishercat]

lucky me,i have no employees.

this is all conditioning for future government over stepping it's boundrys.if you think i'm crazy,you have been conditioned successfully.

 

[KD57]

I'm in the OSHCON program, free and funded by a grant from OSHA. They do yearly inspections, and advise you on problem areas. You still have to fix them, but no fines are levied, You get a certificate if you do things correctly, called a SHARPS certificate. If OSHA shows up, show them the paperwork and they leave. The only time OSHA will investigate, is in a death, or failure to comply w/ OSHCON, otherwise they keep away.
It's not easy to qualify and maintain the certificate, that's why OSHA respects the certification and leaves you alone.

OSHA has come by here twice, and both times I showed them the Sharps cert, and they sd. thank you good work, and they left. It's a free program and a good one I think.

The purpose of this program was to get companies to make things safe on their own, and adhere to them, w/o the real OSHA having to step in. They were under staffed, so it lets them tend to more important issues, while keeping companies safety awareness up.

 

[Raymond]

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.

Man they ever show up on my job site, they better be ready to hang out awhile.
We do very good work with NEVER an accident. And yes we're safe but not in the eyes of guys in suits who never ran a chainsaw before, I'm sure.

 

[pdqdl]

I'm in the OSHCON program....

That's the kind of answer I've been looking for! Please tell me more about this program.

Is it a private business, or is it state funded; Texas I presume?

Do you have to pay them for the visit?

What kind of things do they make you do to get the certification?

 

[pdqdl]

Nevermind the first question, I found the answer to that myself:

http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/wc/safety/oshconfaq.html#how

 

[KD57]

Sorry about that, I forgot to post the link, but I see you have found it.
If you have a good safety record, and fix the issued they find, you will normally get the certification, it's not hard, that's why it's a good program. The only thing that can really keep you from getting it is if you have more than industry standards number of worker comp claims.

 

[capetrees]

Man they ever show up on my job site, they better be ready to hang out awhile.
We do very good work with NEVER an accident. And yes we're safe but not in the eyes of guys in suits who never ran a chainsaw before, I'm sure.

Couldn;t have said it better.

 

[treeclimber101]

Osha has a hard time regulating residentual tree work because we are not in one place long enough to track. For one you need to be reported they cannot show up without a report of unsafe behavior, the easiest most simple solution is to stop working and take a break ,for hrs. if need be we were visited by a very nice well spoken woman last year on a municipal removal. She nicely advised us to put on our hardhats and safety glasses and left. I would be very weary of inviting anyone in for any type of inspection there is nothing to be gained .

 

[bonker81]

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.

I work for a heavy construction company in New England and we have the state OSHAs out onsite all the time. They are very good to work with and the state OSHAs are not related to the Feds. The Feds only come out for direct complaints or incidents. We've had very good success identifying hazards and discussing/interpretation of the laws. I would encourage you to do it. Our company has 2000+ employees and 50(?) jobsites in 10 states. We have good relationships with all of the state OSHAs and have them at each site multiple times a year. Also if they find violations you do have a reasonable amount of time to fix them. If you have an incident and you've worked with the state OSHAs that will help you in reducing or appealing your fines and penalties. The important thing is the state OSHA is not the Fed OSHA. In my experience the staties are good reasonable people.

 

[bonker81]

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.

That's the industry I'm in. TreeCo is right. They must not have corrected the problems.