ECN Forum Forums Safety Discussion and News Occupational Safety Discussion How do you ensure safety of staff?

yes Websparky,
the employer/employee relationship as OSHA sees it is spelled out.

I've played with enough live wires to know that as an employee given the right PPE, i cannot refuse the job

Thus i take it...
to pertain to cooperation bettween the fortune 500's and OSHA?


NOT to insinuate that the employee could actually have a working relationship with any safety related issue.

Lord knows we have enough goverment agencies handing down what they think is good for us right?

Methinks it should ammend to;
WE'LL KICK YOUR CAN IF YOUR DIFFERENT !

kabeesh?

To be quite 'point blank' (as it appears i simply need to be so) say you have been given your PPE, training, arc blast specs etc...... you've been told to essentially stand on your head due to the close proximity of the buss you must tap 1/4-20.....the PPE produces a notable loss of tactility, peripheral vision, hearing......

What a great discussion! I've been watching for a while now and let me add a couple of lines with respect to attitudes, behavior and enforcement. Every individual on the face of this planet is different. As a construction safety manager, I was fortunate enough to learn this early on. Some will simply not take constructive criticism, some must be beaten over the head with a 4X4, some must be told, shown and demonstrated, some just told. the list goes on and on. The point being we are all different and learn in different ways. The hard part is getting to know what makes each of our employees click and drives the safety geek (and supervisors/foremen)nuts. It doesn't happen in a day, week, month or sometimes (depending on the size of the company) a year. We have over 300 field employees and it has taken over 3 years to get to the point that (as a company) we are seeing changes in safety attitudes and behavior. But it has to be done with honest and sincere regard for each individual employee. One thing we all have in common as people is the need to have someone that cares. May sound dumb and mushy but we all need a friend now and then. My personal experience has been that if you beat safety over the heads of your employees, sooner or later they will begin to resent it. I'm not a huge fan of the behavioral safety movement, but parts of it work very well. I think every company needs to evaluate what parts work with their organization structure.
With regard to regulatory enforcement....the same holds true. Yes I have often run across the tin god syndrom from enforecement inspectors but have also found many of them fair and balanced. Here in the States OSHA has a mountain of paper that is written in Greek to many and requires formal interpretations on many different subjects. Much of the regulatory text is burdensom and serves littel if any effect on actual safe work practices. Govt is a beurocratic mess and the ones that write the laws often times do not calculate the true costs of thier actions. A well meaning law often times becomes impossible to enforce. However not all regulator action is bad. OSHA provides a benchmark for us to meet. There will always be the bad actors out there that are out for the almighty dollar and give no regard to completing the job safely. Those are the ones who need the heavy hand of enforcement. Not the ones who forgot to post thier injury log on February 1st. Regulators need to spend thier time and resources on the employers that give no regard to safey, not those who are putting forth a good effort. Get to know your enforcement inspectors and what makes them click. Chances are, the last 10 sites they inspected were met with opposition, criticism, and disgust from those they came in contact with. I'm not saying you don't have to watch every step to defend your self, but hey, inspectors are people too (most of the time). Our local construction association holds regular informal luncheons that the local OSHA inspectors are invited to and are asked to speak at. This gives everyone a chance to get to know what makes them "click"

Just one safety geeks opinion

Thanks for the forum!

Lance,

Thanks for your comments.
I hope that all sides of the Safety "Issue" can find some common ground here.

(couldn't resist the pun)

Bill

Did you see the TV report about Tyler Pipe/McWane Corp last week? Safety is some places seems to predate the stone age. The pictures of dead, mangled workers were sobering.