A visit from OSHA

[TxRedneck]

Dispite my opinion that the work place under perfect conditions is dangerous, I dont think osha is really as concerned as safety as they are revenue.
Here is another quote from this page regarding how I believe this program is not in our best interests

Abatement and Follow Through

Following the closing conference, the consultant will send you a detailed written report explaining the findings and confirming any abatement periods agreed upon. Consultants may also contact you from time to time to check your progress. You, of course, may always contact them for assistance. Ultimately, OSHA requires hazard abatement so that each consultation visit achieves its objective -- effective employee protection. If you fail to eliminate or control identified serious hazards (or an imminent danger) according to the plan and within the limits agreed upon or an agreed-upon extension, the situation must be referred from consultation to an OSHA enforcement office for appropriate action. This has rarely occurred in the past.

[TxRedneck]

And again I am back, here is an answer to earlier stated arguements of the private consulting company. OSHA doesnt guarantee their services will guarantee a pass mark either

The On-Site Consultants Will Not:

* Issue citations or propose penalties for violations of OSHA standards.
* Report possible violations to OSHA enforcement staff.
* Guarantee that your workplace will "pass" an OSHA inspection.

[spuddown]

Yesterday about 2:00 a mechanic that works in a shop down the road stopped by and said a Fed OSHA inspector with a raging...uh well anyway he was going though their shop. We shut down, locked up and went home early. This morning I went down to see how it went. here's he list.

1.He had a test meter and plugged it in every outlet in the shop. 2 outlets had reverse polarity. That's 2 separate violations.

2. 2 of their extention cords had reversed polarity on the plugs. 1 had black electrical tape on it where it had a scuff in the outside jacket only. Doesn't matter. One had the ground wire broke in the plug. 4 separate violations

3. 2 of the exit doors had something setting on the floor 23 inches from the door, the min. in 28". Not sitting in front of the door. These were sitting off to the side against the wall. 2 doors the exit signs weren't large enough. 4 separate violations.

4.The mezzanine in the shop did not have toeboards along the edge and didn't have the capacity stenciled on the outer beam. 2 seperate violations

5. Main shop air system didn't have a regulator on every port. The only way around this is if the main line is 30 psi max. 16 separate violations.

6. Halfway though he had to use the restroom, yep wrote them up for unsanitary facility. 1 separate violation.

7. He made every mechanic in the shop show him their airguns. 4 separate violations for non vented blowguns.

8.On the shop welder, the ground lead had a crack in the rubber where it bent down from the connector at the machine. Stinger lead had black tape where the rubber had gotten cut. 2 separate violations.

9. Respirator setting on one of the benches. wanted to see their respitory protection program. 2 violations, no program and if respirator is not on your face it has to be in a sealed bag.

10. Couldn't produce a MSDS for a gallon of 30# motor oil that was in the shop. 1 violation.

11. Had a mechanic working on a loader in the yard, no hard hat or safety vest. 2 violations.

12. Little warehouse forklift, no strobe light and no inspection book. 2 violations.

Thats about all I can remember, The inspector said they will receive their official citations in the mail with the fines posted on each violation. He added that they will want to negotiate the final amount of the fines.
We went though our shop and fixed all of these items. I was talking to another construction company here and he got them in Jan. I haven't gotten the list from them yet but they negociated the fines down to 10,000 dollars and paid it. Oh, I did leave an item undone in our shop for him to find, I think one way or the other they will find something. Now he won't need to look quite so hard.

[TxRedneck]

geez i hate these guys

[spuddown]

Would someone explain to me what the big deal is with reversing the polarity on extention cords. I've put plugs on cords but never worried to much about it as long as the ground was correct. It doesn't seem that long plugins have had the wider prongs. MAC702?

[wirehunt]

Osha got us one time. We just got done welding on another stik of H piling to one we already drove, it was getting toward the end of the day when an osha guy showed up and the first thing he saw was the rod was still in the stinger when it was rolled up. I didn't have a lighter with me so I used the rod to light my cigerette. That cost $600 along with a few other things.

Your kidding??????

Then I see spuddown's list No wonder you guy's are so against OHSA!

Thank god that its nothing like that here, if it was the OHS inspector's would have to have their own bouncer's because there's only one thing going to happen to them.

[TxRedneck]

they have the power of law behind them

[smithboy]

I wonder if OSHA has a black-ops team that could be sent into foreign countries to shut down their industrial complex...talk about WMD...I bet they would make Delta Force look like a bunch of amateurs.

[scsmith42]

Fifteen years ago I was the General Manager of a small steel fabricating company. Osha came in and did a surprise inspection on our fabricating shop (approximately 5 welding machines). The two worst things that we were cited for were an electrical outlet with a broken cover, and an extension cord with a missing ground plug, along with some similar minor violations as outlined by Spuddown's post above.

The fines came in at 40K. Yep, 40 grand for things that basically were not serious hazards. We negotiated down to 25K, and paid the fine. This took a serious chunk out of the profit that year, and ate into the monies that we'd set aside for raises for the team.

We were told by our attorneys that OSHA basically funded their own costs throug the fines. Not much respect on my part for them.

[gnm109]

For a period of approximately 15 years starting in the late 1970's I was a safety consultant for a very large Workers' Compensation Company. As part of my services to policy holders we would make visits and do mock OSHA inspections. I always went for what I considered important, to name a few: things such as bare electrical, open holes in the ground, improper guarding on power drives and V-belts, poor welding safety practices regarding handling of gas cylinders and eye protection, etc. I would try to find everything that I could that the OSHA folks might write up. The purpose of this was to help the policyholder avoid fines and shutdowns by tipping them off to poor conditions before the OSHA folks arrived.

I would often get reports from my clients after a real OSHA inspection showing what the OSHA inspectors went for. It was evident from reading their write-ups that they tended to stay within their area of expertise. For example, a certain OSHA inspector might have an extensive background in electrical issues or perhaps another would be well-versed in mechanical issues. This would almost invariably be reflected in the kinds of violations that they would catch. The electrical guy would write up the electrical stuff and the mechanically-inclined person would go after guards and power drives.

While a violation is a violation, I always thought that OSHA was supposed to find it all. Often, I would write things up that the OSHA folks ignored simply due to their focus. So, they are certainly not perfect.

That said, there's a lot to be said for safe practices in a workshop. As someone once said, "it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye". In fact, we gave out safety signs that said "If you think safety glasses are uncomfortable, try working with a glass eye!".

[TxRedneck]

That said, there's a lot to be said for safe practices in a workshop. As someone once said, "it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye". In fact, we gave out safety signs that said "If you think safety glasses are uncomfortable, try working with a glass eye!".

I do agree with this quote. That someone is my friend BBchevy396 and its soo true. I guess my personal side on this is the theory of osha is great. I support full heartedly. The bureacracy of it is where I fail to gain respect, or any support. I would agree with the above statements that they are localized. Never thought of it before, however, what the gentleman states is true in every limited case Ive heard of. I guess bashing osha is not necessarily what we should be doing. I am sure I am guilty as are others. Yet there are injustices, and there are realities. I believe in all fairness its suffice to say we need to all be aware of what realities are out there so we can better prepare for them. I believe there are safety infractions that are real safety issues that wont be pursued and others that are hardly that will lead us to crucifiction. But perhaps most important is that business leads to a tendency to forget the health and well being of the workers. I admit its expensive to keep up safety measures, replace damaged or broken tools and devices. Cords burn and prongs break. Accidents occur and safety glasses are a nuisance or a cost at best. Despite this, it is in the business owners best interests to maintain the safety of the shop. When there is one or two maybe three guys, a lot can be taken for granted and is ok. But once you get a handful, or 50 or more, you begin to see a situation that needs safe practices, and proper equipment. Its hard to distinguish fairly without putting blanket regs on things. Problem again gets to folks having specialty areas, and being extra critical of those and not others, and well we know how it goes. Ive blathered long enough. Just something to think about.

[bearracecars]

i was working at a small shop (3 people total) when osha showed up my boss which was a real hard *ss to people coming into the shop (why i don't know maybe they were inconviencing him or something) the inspector came in boss greated him told him he was from osha and was in town to do a random inspection (i think the boss p****d off a part time guy that was there for about a week) his office was 3.5 hours from our town just stopped in to our little hole in the shop for a random inspection yeah right? so my boss told him that he works by appointment only and that he would have to make an appointment and then return for the apointment then the osha guy guy told him that that is not the way that it works and if he had to return it would be with the sheriff and that he would shut him down so then my boss was ever so happy to acomadate him. he wrote him up for the stupidest things something about the flourescent lights stomp shear didn't have proper finger guards which all the original guards were intacted and in place we had to make secondary guards over the first guards had to replace all of the airlines to copper instead of pvc but hte real kicker was the osha guy must have had no exp. in fab/metal work or machinery cause i was running the mill machining something and he came over and asked me what the name of the machine that i was working on. didn't even know what a mill was? then he called us all individaully into the office and interogated us about safty practices and really grilled me on if my boss had given me proper instruction on how to use a can of spray paint i wanted nothing more to be very sarcastic to the guy but i was as nice as i could be
they did the same negotiated the fines down but don't know what the final outcome was


bear
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as one old timer once told me
"if you can't hold the tolerances at least make it shiny"

[WTFnOOb]

I am on jobs that are visited by OSHA regularly. If you are looking for OSHA compliance, you can call your local OSHA office and ask for a 'courtesy visit'. This is a service to help general contractors and company management improve safety. They usually do not issue fines on these visits. Also, there are OSHA classes you can take for safety awareness. There are 10 hour (basic safety requirements) and a 40 hour (more advanced) classes available. Check with your local union or community college for info.

[Kim at WDF]

I heard another OSHA story last night over dinner -- another contractor, a drywaller, asked OSHA for one of those free consultations I mentioned earlier in this thread. The contractor invited the inspectors to evaluate his crews in an effort to reduce his insurance rates. That sounds like a good business practice. However, the other contractors keep their crews away for a day or two. Now the project is behind schedule and may not come in on time. I can hear the project owner now

[imagineer]

Yep, we recently got visited by OSHA too. One of our floor employees, a liberal, democrat, pro-union muck-raker, called them and suggested they come on out for an inspection. Two days later, we were fined nearly $30k, more than half our work centers were shut down until we could fabricated pretty yellow fences around them and now every employee has to walk around with little foam plugs in our ears. The foam ear plugs were always available, but because we were not forcing the workers to wear them, we got slapped. We also got our collective wrists slapped for not having MSDS sheets available on the plant floor.

The same “person” (I use the term loosely) also called the Wage and Hour people, the E.E.O.C. She felt we were making our supervisors (who WERE salaried, but still eligible for O.T.) work too many hours. All totaled, this “person” cost the company $42,150.00 in fines and also caused our plant wide labor costs to go up 4.5%. Also, not only did none of our supervisors get a pay increase, they all lost any future opportunities for overtime.

[spuddown]

They settled the fines for the violations on post #78 for $8,900.00, I'm not sure what the original amount was.