PCCA Journal|1
st
Quarter 2013
35
SafetyWatch
Y
ou have just received
a call from one of your
foreman in the field,
who says, “There is an
inspector from OSHA on
my jobsite, what should I do”? This can
be a very hard question to answer if you
haven’t planned for this event. In this ar-
ticle I am going to highlight some things
that you should do before and during an
OSHA audit.
First you must ask yourself, “Is our
company OSHA compliant?”
One thing I commonly hear from small
contractors is, “We have less than ten
employees in our company so we do not
fall under the OSHA Act.” This could
not be further from the truth. If you
have fewer than ten employees in your
company, you are exempt from only the
annual OSHA Injury and Illness Report;
after that, all OSHA rules and regulations
are applicable to your company, and you
are subject to fines.
So what are some basic steps to be-
coming OSHA compliant? You must do
an audit of your jobsite and discover all
existing hazards, develop a safety and
health program, and train your employ-
ees on the hazards and how to protect
themselves from them. You must keep
records on the training, OSHA logs, if
applicable, and do postings. Then you
must audit your program to make sure
these steps are being maintained. This is
just a basic breakdown of the first steps;
you can get much more information
from
. You may also want
to contact a safety professional to help
guide you through these steps.
Ok, so you feel you are OSHA compli-
ant. Next you must train your foremen,
lead people, project managers, and key
managers on dealing with an OSHA in-
spector. A quick internet search will find
some good information on this topic,
but I would like to cover some ideas I
feel are very helpful. First, if a manager
is not on the jobsite, you can ask the in-
spector to wait for a manager to arrive. If
there is no immediate threat to life, they
will usually wait up to 45 minutes. If the
inspector has not shown you his or her
credentials, you should ask to see them.
They have a badge much like any other
federal investigator. There have been
cases of people posing as OSHA inspec-
tors.
The inspector will have an opening
conference before starting the audit. I
have found that in the field these tend
to be
nd less formal than
in an industrial environment. Next you
should have a checklist for the person
who is most likely to deal with the
inspector (a safety professional is a great
resource for this). Your person should
have a camera to take pictures of any-
thing that the inspector takes pictures of.
While the inspection is going on,
make sure you have your hands on your
OSHA logs for the last three years; you
more than likely will be asked to pro-
duce them.
To wrap up the inspection, the inspec-
tor will have a closing conference to
discuss the findings.
Again, this is a very short summation
of the inspection process. You can gain
much more information from a safety
professional.
I hope this article starts you thinking
about your safety program and process,
which are so valuable to your number-
one resource: your employees. On a
lesser level, maybe you are thinking that
you might be at risk for an audit. Well
you are thinking on the same path as
me and many other safety profession-
als. OSHA has dramatically increased
the number of inspectors on its staff and
increased the fines. OSHA violations are
also bad for your business. Most large
companies will investigate your OSHA
logs and check to see if you have had
any violations. These injuries and viola-
tions could stop you from bidding or
receiving a project.
If that time ever comes and someone
on the phone tells you, “There is an
inspector from OSHA on our jobsite,”
hopefully you can breathe a little easier
knowing that you, your people, and your
company are safe and compliant.
Phillip Metcalf is the director of safety
and human resources for Trawick Con-
struction, an award-winning infrastruc-
ture contractor with projects across the
United States.
OSHA Inspection: Are You and Your
Employees Ready?
By Phillip Metcalf
1...,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34 36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,...48