September News
During October of each year we encourage our friends and clients to schedule their annual fire drill or fire evacuation practice to help ensure your employees know what action to take in case of a fire on the work site or premises. It is important that you document this action with a log of the date, time, number of employees involved and time used to complete the evacuation. Training on the use of portable fire extinguishers would also be appropriate.
According to OSHA’s interpretation of the law, employees must be certified every three years as competent to operate each type of industrial lift truck with certification shown on the record of each attachment used on the truck. This also includes barrel handling devices, and buckets.
You can save your company substantial money by doing an audit of your DOT records. If one of your employees gets a ticket in one of your vehicles, just figure you will receive a DOT audit within the next 90 days. The average cost of your DOT records audit runs about $500. This even includes the required training for drivers and supervision. If your company uses a pickup to pull a trailer or crosses a state line, you need this service. Please invest a little and save a lot.
OSHA’s Kansas City Area Office has lost three experienced compliance officers the past couple months. Ms. Ann Fox has left the office along with two construction compliance officers we referred to as “the twins”. One retired and one sought employment elsewhere. They have been replaced by bright young experienced compliance officers who are now in the field.
Because of the loss of experienced construction inspectors, OSHA seems to be concentrating their efforts on industrial sites. The last few weeks we have seen nothing but plant inspections and few construction job site inspections. Let me suggest to our industrial clients that you review your most recent inspection conducted by your Brittney consultant to insure that corrections have been made to items noted.
We have been noticing that a lot of Safety Program Books have training records, inspection records and various records kept in them. The SPB’s should only have programs in them. Training records, machine inspections such as punch press, crane, forklift, etc should be kept in separate binders. Two reasons: (1) don’t give OSHA inspectors more to pursue than they ask for, and (2) the books often get over-loaded and things come up missing.
The new crane standard is expected to prevent 22 fatalities and 175 non-fatal injuries each year. Several provisions have been modified from the proposed rule. For example: employers must comply with local and state operator licensing requirements which meet the minimum criteria specified in § 1926.1427. Employers must pay for certification or qualification of their currently uncertified or unqualified operators. Written certification tests may be administered in any language understood by the operator candidate. When employers with employees qualified for power transmission and distribution are working in accordance with the power transmission and distribution standard (§ 1910.269), that employer will be considered in compliance with this final rule's requirements for working around power lines. Employers must use a qualified rigger for rigging operations during assembly/disassembly. Employers must perform a pre-erection inspection of tower cranes. This final rule clarifies that employers must pay for all training required by the final rule and for certification of equipment operators employed as of the effective date of the rule. State Plans must issue job safety and health standards that are “at least as effective as” comparable federal standards within 6 months of federal issuance. State Plans also have the option to promulgate more stringent standards or standards covering hazards not addressed by federal standards. OSHA will have additional compliance assistance material available within the next month.
First Aid Training will be offered here in our Springfield classroom on Monday September 20, 2010 from 7:00 to 11:00 a.m. Total cost for this training is $67.00 per person. Call for reservations please. First Aid Training will be offered in the Tri-State Contractors classroom at 7:00 a.m., September 20, 2010. Call Christy for reservations. All construction sites must have a trained first aider on site. Industrial plants more than 4 minutes from a medical facility, or has welding also must have trained first aiders on site. This class is approximately 4 hours in duration.
New Employee Safety Training for our Industrial Clients is scheduled for the 1st Monday of the month; due to holiday, training will be September 13, 2010 at 7:00 a.m. New employee Safety Training for our Construction Clients is scheduled for the 1st Friday of the Month (September 3) at 7:00 a.m. This is a mandatory training according to OSHA for all new employees.
We do provide Newcomers Training for employees of companies not represented by Brittney. The cost is $100 per hour per employee and reservations with our office is suggested. You might want to take a look at your subs since you are 100% responsible for their training.
OSHA MAKES 10 HOUR CONSTRUCTION COURSE RULE CHANGE!
OSHA has made a requirement change in the 10 Hour Construction training course. It is now mandatory for the training to be held over 2 days. Due to the recent change, this month’s class is now scheduled for September 16th and 17th, 2010 and again on the 23rd and 24th here in the Brittney class room starting at 0700. Cost is $150.00 per person. Call Brittney for reservations in this class. A similar course will be held at Tri-State Contractors classroom on September 20th and 21st, 2010. Call Christy for reservations in the Joplin classroom at 41-627-9392. Please call us for clarification on the requirement or with any questions you may have.