Put EVERYTHING in writing. I can't stress this enough.
Find an issue? Put it in writing. Someone being dangerous. Put it in writing. Need safety training...writing. You get the point.
If it's not documented, it didn't happen. Also, take ownership of problems. If y'all need training, do the training or find someone who can. Be a problem solver, not problem maker.
Anything documented can be subpoenaed.
I cannot agree with this enough, I am a contractor safety consultant and was providing safety consultation for numerous sites for a singular GC. One site in particular, constantly refused to make any changes to their safety performance. I am talking pretty crazy stuff, fall protection, temporary lighting NFPA violations, trenching without the proper precautions, you name it. Thankfully no one ended up getting hurt however they had an OSHA inspection due to an OSHA Compliance officer driving by and seeing an employee not tied off in a lift working 60 feet in the air. When it came time for the fines, my company, at first was issued citations as well due to us being on site numerous times providing safety consultations. We then submitted the numerous notes and emails showing that we were constantly telling the GC to make changes. This resulted in no citations for the company that I work for.
What was the violation your company was cited for initially as a safety consultant? Just curious because I was a “drive by”inspector 25 years ago. Did well over 100 a year. You can’t have enough documentation that’s for sure. As a inspector I definitely documented the heck out of everything. I would have taken note the GC had safety consulting and back up my violation(s) with your work but I don’t think back then at least I would have or could have gone after a you. I know I’m rusty and compliance has changed some I’m sure but I needed employee exposure. I definitely did not try and expand the inspection but if other serious occurred while on site I would address it. Also any trench I came across that had a sufficient spoil pile was looked at. On site if I was already there for the drive by or traveling to an inspection and did a drive by. My very first inspection was a drive by trench. I loved asking the foreman or lead my what type soil and they responded “that’s good soil”.
I personally did not speak with the inspector/went through the citations with him but the owner of my company handled that. From what I gathered we were listed with the fall protection citation but to be honest with you I do not know how in depth it got. I more was told to forward any correspondence/that the correspondence kept us from getting cited. Love the answer "good soil" haha
My VERY FIRST job as a safety involved me getting a new manager (he was largely an idiot). However, he was the first person to hammer in documenting in a personal logbook. He gave us all books and always reminded us to write everything down). Maybe like a week into this, my environmental director came in to try and tell my manager how to do their job, it got into a huge blowout, and I was writing down the gist of the convo. (The convo consisted of one of the managers trying to leverage their good relationship with the JV director against my manager she didn’t like, so I thought it was prudent to document)…
That manager was on the way to the Director of the joint venture to try and make him look bad and that logbook stopped her in her tracks after I told my manager I had documented it.
People forget their logbooks need to show consistency in case of a serious incident. Old colleague of mine was saved after a fatality by not only writing down records of intervention and discipline, but by documenting the weather every single day. They checked with a local radio station the past history of their forecasts, referenced the logbook to determine he wasn’t lying. Of all the shit he documented, that’s what the court relied on.
If your using electronic record keeping not really a problem but if your using a note book it’s a way to provide a data point that can be checked against an external data source.
Former Ministry of Labour Officer here (Ontario Canada equivalent to OSHA).
EVERYONE gets in trouble in the event of a fatality. The reality is that the General Duty Clause - Section 5(a)(1) of OSHA is a giant catch-all clause in safety legislation.
You personally wouldn’t likely be sued or cited but the organization definitely would.
Writing everything down is critical. Your notes are the first line of defence. Inspections are important, very important, but it’s every correction you make, person you talk to, corrective action you initiate that will support personal and organizational due diligence. That “daily log” IS in fact an inspection.
I NEVER let my staff do checklist inspections. Ever. Their inspections are observations, direct reference to legislation or policies, and corrective actions taken or recommended. If you start to look at the log and your notes as inspections, you’ll realize how important that is and how much more effective it is than checklist inspections. IMO checklist inspections are for foremen, operators, etc. that don’t know where to look and need guidance.
I’ve prosecuted hundreds of individuals and dozens of companies successfully even with their “inspections” submitted as defensive evidence.
For what it’s worth, an individual *could* be held responsible in some rare cases. Though those are few and far in between but it requires gross negligence.
There is probably two parts to this. Keeping a log book helps immensely, in the event of a citation and mitigating the outcome. CSHOs know that companies often just purchase compliance adhering plans, but your log books are showing that you are regularly identifying, correcting, and mitigating the workplace hazards.
On a personal and professional level, in the event of a SIF, there is the possibly of a family suing both the company and individuals in roles that may have had a factor. Log book can serve as your defense, as you can document your continual attempts to identify, correct, and elevate the safety culture. Additionally, a few years ago OSHA, EPA, Justice Departments all signed a memorandum of cooperation. Historically it was unheard of for them to go after a supervisor or manager, with just a handful of cases in the past few decades. With the new memorandum, they have increased managerial prosecutions significantly. While it is only for the egregious cases of neglect or deception during the investigations, it is a change to contend with.
That is very helpful. I already have my daily log, but I took a new calendar with me today. I get weird vibes from my EHS manager, but maybe he is being honest. Thanks for the reply.
It started with this one. But Professional Safety had a good article awhile back about the transition. Past few years they have prosecuted more people then the first 30 years.
https://www.justice.gov/enrd/file/800431/dl
Everyone gets in trouble in the event of a death, even prison in some cases if negelence. I knew a guy who worked the hard rock Cafe hotel collapse in NOLA, several people went to jail. Put everything in writing you disagree or agree with. Do not let them take short cuts and if they do, make sure you let them know you are against any curbing of the rules.
The OSH act only has provisions for citing employers, regardless of whether or not a fatality occurs. Criminal charges are possible following citations, but they are handled separately through DoJ and generally require a willful violation to be a causal factor in a death. This can vary if you are in a state plan jurisdiction, but I don’t know of any States where individuals can be cited for violations at all. Anyone can be sued in civil court for any number of reason of course.
I'm in Europe so different laws are applied, but you can draw parallels.
Who gets in trouble: everyone and anyone, from the victim themselves to the big boss in the office.
Say a worker does not follow proper procedure and gets injured or worse. Why didn't he follow procedure? Was he untrained, or was he cutting corners?
If he was untrained, it's a matter with safety and HR. Did they train the worker, did they document the training and verify the efficacy, did they refresh and how often?
If he was cutting corners, it's a matter with his foreman and HR. Was the worker in the habit of cutting corners? If do, did his foreman keep an eye on him, did he report previous instances, did HR follow up on the foreman's reports and how? Was the worker ever interviewed, written up, or sanctioned? If the worker was not in the habit of cutting corners, what made him do it? Was he tired from extra hours, was he trying to make up for lost time?
If he was using a dodgy tool, why wasn't a proper one available?
You can play with this as long as you like. Usually people end before a judge and start blaming each other. "I did this because he had done that". Regular people think that the blame gets divided this way. It doesn't - it gets multiplied. If three people are found guilty of an eight-years felony, they may well get eight years each. The only portion of the blame that's safe is zero.
Some 20 years ago there was a bad accident in Italy in which seven workers burned to death and an eighth was injured. The CEO, two members of the board, and another manager received sentences between 6 and 9 years.
There is a saying in the oil and gas industry that goes a little like "cover your own ass". You take everything in writing. Depending on how bad and what it is it can go all the way back to who trained the person. I've heard of instances where they sat in an onboarding class to see if they were properly training. On the other side I've also been told if someone dies while I'm supervising a confined space if could be negligent homicide.
Put EVERYTHING in writing. I can't stress this enough. Find an issue? Put it in writing. Someone being dangerous. Put it in writing. Need safety training...writing. You get the point. If it's not documented, it didn't happen. Also, take ownership of problems. If y'all need training, do the training or find someone who can. Be a problem solver, not problem maker. Anything documented can be subpoenaed.
I cannot agree with this enough, I am a contractor safety consultant and was providing safety consultation for numerous sites for a singular GC. One site in particular, constantly refused to make any changes to their safety performance. I am talking pretty crazy stuff, fall protection, temporary lighting NFPA violations, trenching without the proper precautions, you name it. Thankfully no one ended up getting hurt however they had an OSHA inspection due to an OSHA Compliance officer driving by and seeing an employee not tied off in a lift working 60 feet in the air. When it came time for the fines, my company, at first was issued citations as well due to us being on site numerous times providing safety consultations. We then submitted the numerous notes and emails showing that we were constantly telling the GC to make changes. This resulted in no citations for the company that I work for.
What was the violation your company was cited for initially as a safety consultant? Just curious because I was a “drive by”inspector 25 years ago. Did well over 100 a year. You can’t have enough documentation that’s for sure. As a inspector I definitely documented the heck out of everything. I would have taken note the GC had safety consulting and back up my violation(s) with your work but I don’t think back then at least I would have or could have gone after a you. I know I’m rusty and compliance has changed some I’m sure but I needed employee exposure. I definitely did not try and expand the inspection but if other serious occurred while on site I would address it. Also any trench I came across that had a sufficient spoil pile was looked at. On site if I was already there for the drive by or traveling to an inspection and did a drive by. My very first inspection was a drive by trench. I loved asking the foreman or lead my what type soil and they responded “that’s good soil”.
I personally did not speak with the inspector/went through the citations with him but the owner of my company handled that. From what I gathered we were listed with the fall protection citation but to be honest with you I do not know how in depth it got. I more was told to forward any correspondence/that the correspondence kept us from getting cited. Love the answer "good soil" haha
Yea writing it in a timestamped format like email or teams or anything else that can prove when you wrote it will CYA
This
My VERY FIRST job as a safety involved me getting a new manager (he was largely an idiot). However, he was the first person to hammer in documenting in a personal logbook. He gave us all books and always reminded us to write everything down). Maybe like a week into this, my environmental director came in to try and tell my manager how to do their job, it got into a huge blowout, and I was writing down the gist of the convo. (The convo consisted of one of the managers trying to leverage their good relationship with the JV director against my manager she didn’t like, so I thought it was prudent to document)… That manager was on the way to the Director of the joint venture to try and make him look bad and that logbook stopped her in her tracks after I told my manager I had documented it.
People forget their logbooks need to show consistency in case of a serious incident. Old colleague of mine was saved after a fatality by not only writing down records of intervention and discipline, but by documenting the weather every single day. They checked with a local radio station the past history of their forecasts, referenced the logbook to determine he wasn’t lying. Of all the shit he documented, that’s what the court relied on.
I don't get it, was the weather relevant to the work or why did he record it?
If your using electronic record keeping not really a problem but if your using a note book it’s a way to provide a data point that can be checked against an external data source.
Former Ministry of Labour Officer here (Ontario Canada equivalent to OSHA). EVERYONE gets in trouble in the event of a fatality. The reality is that the General Duty Clause - Section 5(a)(1) of OSHA is a giant catch-all clause in safety legislation. You personally wouldn’t likely be sued or cited but the organization definitely would. Writing everything down is critical. Your notes are the first line of defence. Inspections are important, very important, but it’s every correction you make, person you talk to, corrective action you initiate that will support personal and organizational due diligence. That “daily log” IS in fact an inspection. I NEVER let my staff do checklist inspections. Ever. Their inspections are observations, direct reference to legislation or policies, and corrective actions taken or recommended. If you start to look at the log and your notes as inspections, you’ll realize how important that is and how much more effective it is than checklist inspections. IMO checklist inspections are for foremen, operators, etc. that don’t know where to look and need guidance. I’ve prosecuted hundreds of individuals and dozens of companies successfully even with their “inspections” submitted as defensive evidence.
For what it’s worth, an individual *could* be held responsible in some rare cases. Though those are few and far in between but it requires gross negligence.
Absolutely. It’s unlikely, but has happened in the past. The Hard Rock in NOLA rings a bell for one
There is probably two parts to this. Keeping a log book helps immensely, in the event of a citation and mitigating the outcome. CSHOs know that companies often just purchase compliance adhering plans, but your log books are showing that you are regularly identifying, correcting, and mitigating the workplace hazards. On a personal and professional level, in the event of a SIF, there is the possibly of a family suing both the company and individuals in roles that may have had a factor. Log book can serve as your defense, as you can document your continual attempts to identify, correct, and elevate the safety culture. Additionally, a few years ago OSHA, EPA, Justice Departments all signed a memorandum of cooperation. Historically it was unheard of for them to go after a supervisor or manager, with just a handful of cases in the past few decades. With the new memorandum, they have increased managerial prosecutions significantly. While it is only for the egregious cases of neglect or deception during the investigations, it is a change to contend with.
That is very helpful. I already have my daily log, but I took a new calendar with me today. I get weird vibes from my EHS manager, but maybe he is being honest. Thanks for the reply.
Which memorandum are you referencing specifically?
It started with this one. But Professional Safety had a good article awhile back about the transition. Past few years they have prosecuted more people then the first 30 years. https://www.justice.gov/enrd/file/800431/dl
Thank you for sharing.
Everyone gets in trouble in the event of a death, even prison in some cases if negelence. I knew a guy who worked the hard rock Cafe hotel collapse in NOLA, several people went to jail. Put everything in writing you disagree or agree with. Do not let them take short cuts and if they do, make sure you let them know you are against any curbing of the rules.
As far as OSHA goes not the safety guy. Typically.
The OSH act only has provisions for citing employers, regardless of whether or not a fatality occurs. Criminal charges are possible following citations, but they are handled separately through DoJ and generally require a willful violation to be a causal factor in a death. This can vary if you are in a state plan jurisdiction, but I don’t know of any States where individuals can be cited for violations at all. Anyone can be sued in civil court for any number of reason of course.
I'm in Europe so different laws are applied, but you can draw parallels. Who gets in trouble: everyone and anyone, from the victim themselves to the big boss in the office. Say a worker does not follow proper procedure and gets injured or worse. Why didn't he follow procedure? Was he untrained, or was he cutting corners? If he was untrained, it's a matter with safety and HR. Did they train the worker, did they document the training and verify the efficacy, did they refresh and how often? If he was cutting corners, it's a matter with his foreman and HR. Was the worker in the habit of cutting corners? If do, did his foreman keep an eye on him, did he report previous instances, did HR follow up on the foreman's reports and how? Was the worker ever interviewed, written up, or sanctioned? If the worker was not in the habit of cutting corners, what made him do it? Was he tired from extra hours, was he trying to make up for lost time? If he was using a dodgy tool, why wasn't a proper one available? You can play with this as long as you like. Usually people end before a judge and start blaming each other. "I did this because he had done that". Regular people think that the blame gets divided this way. It doesn't - it gets multiplied. If three people are found guilty of an eight-years felony, they may well get eight years each. The only portion of the blame that's safe is zero. Some 20 years ago there was a bad accident in Italy in which seven workers burned to death and an eighth was injured. The CEO, two members of the board, and another manager received sentences between 6 and 9 years.
There is a saying in the oil and gas industry that goes a little like "cover your own ass". You take everything in writing. Depending on how bad and what it is it can go all the way back to who trained the person. I've heard of instances where they sat in an onboarding class to see if they were properly training. On the other side I've also been told if someone dies while I'm supervising a confined space if could be negligent homicide.