OSHA watch
Top 10 safety violations for 2024
For the 14th year in a row, Fall Protection - General Requirements topped the preliminary list of most frequently cited workplace safety standards for FY2024, which was presented during the 2024 NSC Safety Congress & Expo on September 27. Here is the list:
- Fall Protection - General Requirements (1926.501): 6,307 violations
- Hazard Communication (1910.1200): 2,888
- Ladders (1926.1053): 2,573
- Respiratory Protection (1910.134): 2,470
- Lockout/Tagout (1910.147): 2,443
- Powered Industrial Trucks (1910.178): 2,248
- Fall Protection - Training Requirements (1926.503): 2,050
- Scaffolding (1926.451): 1,873
- Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment - Eye and Face Protection (1926.102): 1,814
- Machine Guarding (1910.212): 1,541
While the order changed a bit, the top ten most frequently cited standards remained the same as FY2023. Noteworthy: Scaffolding dropped from #4 in 2023 to #8, and Respiratory Protection moved up to #4 from #7 in 2023. More details will be released at the end of the year.
Controversial severe injury report data dashboard released
Since January 2015, employers have been required to report work-related severe injuries, defined as an "in-patient hospitalization of one or more employees or an employee's amputation or an employee's loss of an eye", but the data was never public until last month. And what was publicized was almost a decade's worth of data covering January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2023.
The Severe Injury Report (SIR) Dashboard includes information on all severe injuries reported by employers covered under the federal program but does not include workers in the 22 State Plan states and does not include deaths (although deaths may have ultimately resulted from the injuries listed). The data covered is sortable and searchable by year, NAICS code, state, event or exposure, source, nature, and body part, and importantly, establishment name. In addition to showing data such as total severe injury reports, total workers hospitalized, and total workers with amputations, it provides a descriptive narrative on the SIRs.
This information will be viewed by the public, including attorneys, employees, former employees, insurers, state regulatory agencies, competitors, customers, and more. Employers will want to periodically check it to ensure information is accurate as well as carefully review the information submitted at the time of reporting to be sure it is concise and cannot be misconstrued. A brief instructional video is available to demonstrate how to use the dashboard.
Teaser regarding the proposed Emergency Response Standard
A recent statement hints at a review of the proposed Emergency Response Standard's applicability to volunteer emergency response organizations. According to the statement, many stakeholders raised serious concerns that it would not be economically feasible for volunteer emergency response organizations to comply with the proposed standard. While this is encouraging, it's important to remember it's not a final determination and that the definition of volunteer emergency response organization was based on remuneration provided to volunteer emergency responders, not the structure of the volunteer emergency response organization. A public hearing on the proposed standard will be held on November 12, 2024.
New recordkeeping fact sheets and construction suicide posters
- Recordkeeping: Recordable Injuries and Illnesses: What Workers Need to Know Fact Sheet
- Suicide Prevention in Construction: 5 Things You Should Know Poster
New staff guidance on communicating with families after death
Internal guidance on communicating with the families of workers killed on the job was updated to clarify determining "next of kin" and the number and type of communications with the family.
Safety alert from MSHA
According to a recent health alert from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), diesel exhaust can increase the risk of cardiovascular, cardiopulmonary and respiratory disease, including lung cancer.
State Plans
Cal/OSHA
Gov. Newsom vetoes heat illness and injury presumption for farmworkers
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed S.B. 1299, a bill that would have created a heat illness and injury rebuttable presumption for farmworkers, when the employer failed to comply with heat standards promulgated by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. He noted Cal/OSHA should enforce heat safety rules and that the matter should not be judicated by the workers compensation system.
Proposed amendments to regulations
A draft of proposed regulatory changes includes posting requirements, classifications of violations, and penalties. The draft amendments add a new category of "Egregious" violation to section 334, which is a willful violation where: (1) the employer has a prior egregious violation in the last five years; or one of seven conditions are met. Another change provides for a rebuttable presumption that a violation is "enterprise-wide" when either of the following is true:
- The employer has a written policy or procedure that violates certain health and safety requirements in the Health and Safety Code or stemming from the Labor Code.
- The Division has evidence of "a pattern or practice of the same violation or violations involving more than one of the employer's worksites."
Amendments to Section 336 include penalties up to $158,727 for enterprise-wide violations and separate daily penalties for failing to abate an enterprise-wide violation.The proposed amendments also address circumstances when penalties are subject to adjustments. Comments on the proposals were due October 3.
MIOSHA
Resources to promote suicide prevention
Despite a slowdown in construction activity during 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the suicide rate for construction and extraction occupation workers was 67.8 per 100,000 people in 2022, an increase from 52.6 per 100,000 workers in 2021, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Recent webinars in the Labor and Economic Opportunity Mental Health in the Workplace series included Man Therapy, Suicide Resource & Response Network, and Suicide and Mental Health Challenges in the Construction Industry.
Training Institute (MTI) expands scholarships to boot camps
Students can now apply for scholarships that cover 50 percent of the regular seminar fee for both individual seminars and boot camps. For more information.
Agency instructions issued
Aug. 7, 2024 - Abatement Assurance and Follow-up Inspection Procedures
Fatalities
As of September 21, 2024 there have been 24 workplace fatalities this year.
MNOSHA
Employers urged to learn more about dual training
Dual training is an earn-while-you-learn approach where the employer invests in their employee by providing training in competency standards to equip the employee with the specific knowledge and skills necessary for a particular occupation. Through forums, webinars, and community conversations, employers can learn more. For a schedule of events.
Recent fines and awards
Michigan
- Intertape Polymer Corp of Marysville, a tape manufacturing facility, is contesting 16 serious, 13 willful-serious, and two other-than-serious citations related to the flash fire/explosion investigation with total penalties amounting to $468,000. An explosion in 2022 hospitalized four employees, three of whom sustained serious injuries.
Virginia
- A whistleblower investigation determined that the employee of W-L Construction & Paving Inc., a subsidiary of CRH, a global provider of building materials solutions, was illegally fired after the employee raised concerns that the loads and routes their employer routinely assigned left them fatigued and ill, endangering themselves and others on the road. The company ignored the driver's concerns and, for two more months, continued to assign loads and routes the driver refused fearful of illness or fatigue behind the wheel. The driver was terminated for 10 attendance infractions, either for being absent or leaving early. The employer, its management, and CRH Americas were ordered to reinstate the driver and pay $58,318.25 in back wages and interest, $115,694 in compensatory damages, $10,000 in punitive damages plus attorney's fees.
Wisconsin
- Strauss Feeds LLC of Watertown, an animal food producer, was cited for 19 serious and five other-than-serious safety and health violations and assessed $161,332 in proposed penalties after an inspection triggered by complaints of unsafe working conditions. Inspectors found the company's poor housekeeping, its failure to evaluate spaces for dust hazards, and an absence of engineering controls to reduce dust, created serious combustible and airborne dust hazards. It also lacked a written respiratory protection program.
- GL Construction of Madison LLC, a contractor with a history of federal violations, was again cited for exposing workers to falls from elevation after inspectors observed workers 12 feet off the ground without required PPE. The Sun Prairie company received citations for one willful, two repeat, and five serious violations, and $144,505 in proposed penalties.