A company with 14 affiliates spread across the country has agreed to pay a $34,750 fine to settle OSHA citations. That doesn’t sound too bad for a big, nationwide construction company. But it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
OSHA’s press release puts it best: Nations Roof and its 14 affiliated companies “have agreed to completely reinvent a uniform safety and health program.”
This is an example of OSHA’s enterprise-wide settlement agreements.
Under the agreement with OSHA, Nations Roof will:
- appoint safety/health directors for all the companies
- require the safety director and a supervisory employee at each company to complete OSHA’s 30-hour construction safety course
- require the safety directors to become certified to teach the 30-hour course
- send all other potentially exposed employees to OSHA’s 10-hour safety course plus eight additional hours dedicated to fall protection
- develop site-specific safety plans at each work site and review them daily with employees
- have a foreman inspect every active work site daily
- audit four active work sites of each affiliate per year
- institute a safety and health curriculum in its management development program
- implement performance reviews for all affiliate presidents and safety directors
- submit compliance reports to OSHA
- report jobs, injuries and illness to OSHA, and
- allow OSHA to monitor compliance with the agreement.
What do you think about this OSHA settlement? Is it preferable to OSHA levying a much larger fine but not requiring the company to reinvent its safety program? Let us know what you think in the comments.
