Employers responsibilities and Penalties/Fines
A section of the regulation requires employers to develop and/or implement safe work procedures for the use of powered mobile equipment in the workplace.
A worker was attempting to free a gravel truck and trailer, which were stuck at a gravel pit. As the worker was attaching a tow chain to the front of the truck, a second worker operating an excavator began to push the trailer. The worker's jacket sleeve became entangled in the wheel of the truck, causing critical injuries.
The employer was fined $17,500..
Question
If it happened that this organisation had the safe work procedures in place, workers were trained on it, the operators have been trained on operating ther equipments. Why will be employer be fined?
Is it that a Supervisor needs to be there monitoring them all through the shift? What if it was workers violating the procedures? In general, I want to understand in which situations will an employer not be held guilty or liable for employees actions for incidents. Your thoughts and advise, Thanks.
Comments (13)
What was the citation?
In the USA, employers have the responsibility to provide a workplace free of recognized hazards. It is pretty common for injuries, even serious ones, to not result in a fine.
That said, in most cases, the employer does bear some of the blame. For example, an employer might train their employees in fall protection, the might provide harnesses and lanyards, and they might tell their employees not to work at heights without it. However, if the employer doesn't provide a safe way to anchor that fall arrest system, or does not provide enough anchors, then the employer is responsible for any injuries that occur due to improper fall protection.
The employer might say that they told the employee not to work at heights without fall protection, and they might claim its the employees fault for not listening, but clearly they did not give the employee all the tools they needed and there was no expectation that they would do it. A lot of companies give training to "check a box" without any expectation that it is followed.
In your situation, is there a procedure for freeing a stuck vehicle? Was there training on that policy? Had excavators been used to push vehicles in the past? If there is no procedure for freeing stuck vehicles, is there a process for conducting a risk assessment for non-routine work?
Those are all questions that would be asked when determining whether adequate controls are in place.
It all comes down to enforcement of these requirements. In order for an employer to claim it was "unforseeable employee misconduct" (meaning they were trained not to do it and you had a policy in place pertaining to that), the employer also has to prove that they enforce it. This can be done via periodic audits/inspections (with documented corrective actions), documented disciplinary action for similar instances in the past, etc.
#1 We talking 1910 or 1926?
In general the answer is along the lines as Drew responded. In your question you say the employer had training and procedures. First, is the training and procedures sufficient to protect the employee from the hazards on the job? Second, are you leading, managing, and enforcing the training and procedures? Along with that are you being consistent in your management practices? Is Managment making audits to make sure of compliance?
Third, do you have documentation of First and Second. Are you walking the WALK?
Let's use a Lockout example. Note, 1910.147 requires you to monitor your CHE Program (Control of Hazardous Energy Program).
A friend of mine is on the other side of WI, was the Safety Manager of a large heavy equipment manufacturer that had over 1500 employees at his location. One day an OSHA CHSO showed up at his front door to investigate a safety concern made by an employee. Before they went out to the plant the CHSO asked to see his written CHE program and his training records. Which he had some documentation. The CHS took notes and asked, "What documentation do you have that you have an effective program?
Do you have audit records and documentation that you have counseled your employees to Lockout when they failed to do so? Even disciplinary records?"
To which my friend said, "I always watch for lockout on my trips in the plant. As far as talking about Lockout to our employees on the job and discipline our employees ALWAYS Lockout!
The CHSO literally raised frowned and said, "Now I have been in OSHA for 2 years, prior to that I was a Safety Manager at a large paper plant for 25 years. Before that I was a supervisor. You are telling me in a plant this size your employees ALWAYS Lockout? I find that very hard to believe, but OK we will find out? Now I want to see your OSHA Logs for the last three years?"
The OSHA Logs showed four major amputations in three years, lockout and failing to do so as root causes. The CSHO