Landscape Architect Articles

Keeping Posted: OSHA06-08-15 | News

Keeping Posted:

Recent Rulings
All employers under OSHA jurisdiction must now report any amputation or eye loss, and all work-related in-patient hospitalizations, (previously it was only hospitalizations involving three or more employees). The deadline for these reports is 24 hours from being notified about an incident.

Employees now have 180 days (instead of 90) to file whistleblower retaliation complaints, which can now be oral complaints, filed in any language, and filed by anyone on the employee's behalf.

A lengthy new rule relating to confined spaces such as storm drains and pump pits includes posting danger signs, testing for and monitoring oxygen content, toxic air contaminants, flammable gasses and vapors, and providing forced air ventilation.
www.osha.gov/confinedspaces/index.html

Recent Citations*
$119,000 - Maxim Construction Group Corp., Hallandale Beach, Fla., for 17 serious safety violations involving fall hazards and silica exposure
$109,450 - K&F Construction Inc., Martinsburg, W.Va., for not providing fall protection on three occasions for a potential fall of up to 25 feet
$79,900 - SER Construction Partners Ltd., Pasadena, Texas, for failing to provide a safe way out of a trench and adequate cave-in protection, and failing to prevent water accumulation in a trench
$57,900 - DHC Contracting, Statesboro, Ga., for failing to provide cave-in protection and a safe outlet from a trench
$47,000 - Jordan Construction Co. of Hilton Head Inc., Hilton Head Island, S.C., for not providing protective helmets, safe egress from a trench, protection from excavated or other materials or equipment that could fall or roll into a trench, and protection from a cave-in
* All violations are alleged to have occurred. All citations can be appealed.

Recent Reports
The Construction Industry Safety Coalition reported that OSHA's proposed silica standards will cost the construction industry almost $4.5 billion more per year than the agency's $511 million estimate.

A report by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health found that the state's construction industry accounts for 20 percent of job fatalities in spite of representing less than four percent of the workforce. It recommended more resources for OSHA, criminal prosecution of violators, and an end to public contracts to repeat offenders.

The Landscape Business Group, a landscape business consulting agency, conveyed that companies with more than 10 full-time employees, have to keep standard OSHA Worker's Compensation claim records (forms 300, 300A, 301) for five years.
www.harvestlandscapeconsulting.com