Whether you're a general contractor, plumber, electrician, HVAC technician, or otherwise involved in the construction industry, it's essential to remain OSHA compliant. This is especially true as 2023 is coming to a close, and OSHA is rolling out its new rules and regulations for next year.
Remaining OSHA compliant is a tall task that's often harder than most people expect it to be, especially if you have employees under your supervision. After all, just because you can follow the rules yourself doesn't mean you'll be able to convince them to do the same.
Therefore, this article will give you some important tips, tricks, and best practices to ensure compliance with OSHA regulations in the coming year. We'll also look at some of the most common problem areas for employers and the top OSHA violations thus far for 2023.
The Most Common OSHA Violations
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, has hundreds of rules in place to ensure the occupational safety and health of you and your employees. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that some rules and safety standards are violated more often than others. Here are the most common workplace safety violations, according to Fix Fast USA.
- Over 9,000 violations having to do with Fall Protection and Fall Protection Training Requirements
- 3,212 violations having to do with Hazard Communication
- 2,798 Ladder violations
- 2,859 Scaffolding violations
- 2,561 Powered Industrial Truck violations
In all, there have been more than 30,000 reported incidences of workers and employers violating OSHA regulations. These violations have contributed to the more than 4 million workplace injuries and illnesses that happened in 2023. If you want to keep your workers healthy and productive, ensuring OSHA compliance is a necessity.
8 Ways To Ensure OSHA Compliance in 2024
Understand OSHA Standards For Yourself
Before you can expect your managers and employees to follow OSHA protocols, you have to follow and understand them yourself. Therefore, it's worth investing in videos, guidebooks, and additional resources to teach you everything you need to know about OSHA regulations.
Remember, there may be updates for 2024, so make sure you're up to date on the latest safety procedures and safety initiatives that OSHA has in store. By understanding the rules and regulations yourself, you can avoid unwanted work-related injuries and fines.
For instance, here are two record-keeping and submission requirement updates coming in 2024 directly from OSHA's website!
- Establishments with 100 or more employees in certain high-hazard industries must electronically submit information from their Form 300-Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses and Form 301-Injury and Illness Incident Report to OSHA once a year. These submissions are in addition to the submission of Form 300A-Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses.
- To improve data quality, establishments are required to include their legal company name when making electronic submissions to OSHA from their injury and illness records.
Don't Ignore Known Hazards
Depending on your industry and what you have stored in your warehouse, there may be known hazards. This could include hazardous chemicals, fall risks, and much more. There may also be inherent on-the-job hazards that your workers need to deal with every day.
If you have these known hazards, it's important to address them head-on, talk about them specifically, and teach your workers how to avoid them. You should also keep any hazardous materials in your warehouse in OSHA-approved containers and dispose of them accordingly.
Post OSHA Information in Plain Sight
While some OSHA violations happen out of sheer ignorance of known safety policies, many of them happen because your workers simply don't know any better. This could be because you didn't provide training for them or because they don't have access to the materials necessary to know the rules.
OSHA requires you to display their safety programs, rules, and regulations in plain sight for all to see. Whether that's an OSHA poster showing how to perform hazard identification or the type of personal protective equipment (PPE) you should have on hand, it's important to display the information for all to see.
Train the People Below You
In order to maintain compliance with OSHA standards, you will likely need assistance. Therefore, it's wise to implement training requirements for your managers so that they can teach the employees underneath them. That way, it doesn't all fall on you, and you and your managers can develop a sense of teamwork and camaraderie to keep a workplace free of injuries and illnesses.
Hire Independent Inspectors
To ensure you comply with OSHA, they will periodically send inspectors to your workplace. If you want to stay ahead of the curve and avoid costly fees due to violations, you should hire independent inspectors. The independent inspector can perform a walk-through of your workplace and point out problem areas and potential hazards so you can attend to them before the actual inspection.
Hold Regular Meetings With Your Employees
Another way to communicate the importance of OSHA safety standards is to hold regular meetings with your employees. For instance, you can call all your workers into the office for a Friday afternoon meeting and hold a brief seminar or watch videos about maintaining OSHA compliance.
Have pizza and snacks ready for your employees, and treat it as a party rather than as an OSHA compliance meeting. If you reward your workers for safety training, they'll reward you with fewer infractions.
Start a Workplace Health Program
In addition to your workers being at risk when they violate OSHA protocol, they're also at risk if they have poor physical health. Therefore, it may be worth your while to start a workplace health program.
These health and safety programs reward your employees for being physically fit and taking care of their health, thus enticing them to make wise choices. In addition to keeping your workers safe, health programs also make them more productive. As a result, health programs often pay for themselves in increased productivity and fewer sick days.
Keep Documentation of Violations
While it might be tempting to try to sweep OSHA violations under the rug, you are required to maintain detailed records of all violations and workplace injuries. Therefore, don't try to save face by failing to report violations, as this will only result in more fines than you would otherwise have.