Reference no: EM133108660
Construction General Contractor Located in Austin, TX
Berg helps general contractor manage OSHA's "controlling employer" obligations. Our turn-key safety services helped the company navigate serious OSHA enforcement actions after job-site fatality. Successes included getting fines reduced and citations removed, as well as providing basis for defense against civil lawsuit.
Situation:
The client was a small general contractor located in the Austin, TX area. They managed construction of small to medium sized single and multi story residential wood frame projects throughout Texas. Multi story wood frame construction creates very serious health and safety hazards and OSHA compliance requirements including fall protection, scaffolding, PPE, ladders and silica exposures.
The company relied on a wide range of small specialty trade subcontractors to complete their projects.
Challenge:
The company was relatively new at the time, was a small business and couldn't afford a full time safety manager. They attempted to compensate by tasking staff Project Managers and Superintendents with safety compliance, but realized that this structure was not sustainable because their staff lacked the time and expertise needed to manage their extensive OSHA compliance requirements.
To make matters worse, the owner understood the difficulties and risks associated with trying to manage OSHA's "Controlling Employer Mandate" which requires general contractors to manage all project health and safety hazards, including subcontractor safety. He also understood that all of their subcontractors were small and struggled to manage their own OSHA compliance requirements, which only magnified the problem and increased the risks.
Solution:
The company signed up for our Assured Compliance service to task Berg Compliance Solutions with becoming their outsourced safety compliance department, and help manage all of these challenges. The service began with a comprehensive mock OSHA inspection where Berg consultants inspected their current projects and reviewed their safety documentation and records. The assessment identified all OSHA compliance violations and made recommended corrective actions for each. Berg Compliance Solutions presented the final audit report to the company's entire management team so that everyone understood the scope and gained a better understanding of how to manage their new safety program moving forward.
Over the next several months, with help from the company, Berg staff implemented all required corrections and helped the company achieve baseline OSHA compliance. This work included drafting their safety manual, developing and delivering customized safety training for their employees, helping manage their safety record keeping requirements, and conducting routine safety inspections at their projects throughout Texas. This included conducting monthly webinar meetings with their staff to review inspection reports and address questions, concerns and corrective actions.
Results:
After hiring Berg Compliance Solutions, the company was finally able to create their own health and safety compliance program, which included means and methods for managing OSHA's "Controlling Employer" mandate which was very critical for the company and its owner, as we soon found out....
Despite these successes, the company experienced two very serious safety compliance problems.
The first occurred when an anonymous party filed a complaint to OSHA for fall protection violations at one of the company's Texas projects. According to the complaint, one of the roofing subcontractors was working without fall protection PPE.
Berg Compliance Solutions responded by immediately dispatching a consultant to investigate the complaint, and then as part of a corrective action plan, delivered fall protection training to all of the company's framing and roofing subcontractors the same week.
Within a month of the fall protection complaint, another roofing subcontractor who was working on a holiday at the same project, unfortunately fell to his death as a result of failing to wear fall protection PPE.
The company reported the fatality to OSHA, who initiated a follow up investigation the following day. Again, Berg Compliance Solutions responded by dispatching a consultant to the project to assist with the OSHA investigation and help the company through the process.
The 2 related events resulted in the company scheduling an informal conference meeting with the local OSHA office to address the alleged fall protection violations and related fatality. Berg Compliance Solutions spent many hours working with the company to prepare a defense presentation. The defence argued that despite the company's best efforts to manage their Controlling Employer safety requirements, these 2 unfortunate events still occurred due to the subcontractors negligence, not the company's (our client) negligence.
Our efforts were very successful and resulted in the fall protection citations being dismissed entirely, and released the company, and the owner, from responsibility and liability for the fatality. Had we not succeeded, the owner could have faced potential criminal liability for the accident.
The company's owner later used our defence arguments and OSHA findings to defend against a separate civil lawsuit which was filed by the family of the deceased worker.
It's important to note that had the company failed to hire Berg Compliance Solutions to help manage their OSHA compliance requirements, the liabilities associated with these two events could have been catastrophic not only for the business, but for the owner (personally) as well.
It's also important to understand that all of the additional support provided for addressing these two issues were provided at no additional cost to the company, because our Assured Compliance service is a fixed monthly fee cost structure which includes OSHA enforcement assistance.
In summary, the OSHA compliance program that we created for the company provided the basis for a defence against these risks and liabilities. In other words, without their OSHA compliance program, the company and owner would have been in serious peril.
It's rare that one of our clients faces such potentially devastating liabilities, but very satisfying when we're able to step-in to help them manage the process to a positive outcome.
Retrieved October 28, 2021
Questions
- With reference to any occupational health and safety policy or legislation in Jamaica, identify at least SIX occupational health and safety issues from the case.
- 2.a) Using information from the case, explain how the organization dealt with the occupational health and safety issues it faced.
- b) Explain at least two (2) other strategies the organization could use to manage its employees' health and safety.
- 3. Given your knowledge of OHS, state five (5) ways in which health and safety policies or legislation can positively impact employee productivity.