Each year, the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association (SMACNA) congratulates its members for their outstanding performance in occupational safety and health through SMACNA’s Safety Excellence Award Program (SSEAP). With increased participation from last year, the 2017 safety survey results show that safety and health continues to be a high priority for SMACNA contractors.
Ed Brady, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and developer from Bloomington, Illinois, issued a statement on the legal challenge filed by NAHB and several other industry groups against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Department of Labor.
Contractors can create a safety and health program using a number of simple steps that include training workers on how to identify and control hazards, inspecting the job site with workers to identify the problems with equipment and materials, and developing responses to possible emergency scenarios in advance.
OSHA's Confined Spaces in Construction final rule received negative feedback from the HVACR industry and was labeled as overreaching and burdensome to residential contractors when it was released last spring.
In an effort to make civil monetary penalties more effective, last year Congress passed the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. As part of this act, penalties under the Occupation Safety and Health Act (OSH Act), those enforced by OSHA, have been increased beginning Aug. 1, 2016.
When you hear that your facility will be the target of an OSHA inspection, step back and examine the strengths and weaknesses of your safety program, and think about how you can focus the attention on the strengths. Although OSHA will come in looking for anything you’re doing wrong, you want to make sure they’re aware of all the things you’re doing right.
The new Interim Final Rule, which was published in the Federal Register on July 1, will take effect on Aug. 1 for violations that occurred after Nov. 2, 2015.