Excavation Safety. Five hot buttons.

A "lively" roundtable with Excavation Contractors early today. I was asked to cover the "hot" OSHA topics. I definitely pushed some hot buttons. 

1. Partnership. Many in the group are unhappy that OSHA Partnerships are not happening much anymore. They feel that they learned from the interchange with OSHA. I would like to see it increase after the sequestration and shutdown are over. But the partnership must produce a tangible result not make everyone warm and fuzzy. One suggested that if OSHA can't travel to do speeches, that they should have the excavator safety meeting in an OSHA conference room. 

2. Confined Space Rescue. Many never practice rescue. 911 is the plan which is not acceptable. It doesn't work in many cases and needless people have died. Some felt they shouldn't have to have tripods, respirators and rescue equipment. I pointed out the 1910.146 and the ANSI Confined Space Standard require rescue training. Some contractors bring in the local emergency response to look at the manholes for rescue. Others put the employees through annual rescue training. Another hires contractor services for rescue. Perhaps an NEP on confined space is needed?

3. Employee interviews. Many disagree that the foreman couldn't be the employee's representative. They said that is what the employee wants. That runs counter to my 30 years. Not once did I see an employee ask for a manager to be the rep unless it was their dad. I said employees have a right to a private interview with OSHA. If they want a rep, that is their right, but it should be a labor rep not the company manager or company attorney. There is an ethic issue if an attorney reps the company and the employee under attorney-client privilege. The attorneys that were present were polite and disagreed. 

4. Nothing Positive. Some of the negative comments was that nothing positive is coming from OSHA and that is some felt it is a police state. I reminded them that 30 years ago there were hundreds of trenching deaths. Now in the Midwest, it is in the single digit. The trenching rules were put in place because it took hundreds of workers to die before it became a law. I mentioned that 3 IL trenching contractors were cited several thousand dollars for REPEATED violations. We are not talking esoteric nitpicking items. this is basic cave-in protection. I think OSHA does need to put up best practices on the webpage for any NEP or LEP sector like trenching. 

5. Swing radius on Excavators. Another salty issue that was a surprise to many. I have investigated death and accidents by the excavators and OSHA cites it. Most cone off the area or have devices put on the excavator prevent entry or serve as warning. 

There was much venting also because the shutdown means that no one is answering the general phone lines at OSHA. One of the things they miss is getting an answer fairly quickly to a question that they have. My session went over an hour longer than budgeted, but they were engaged and it showed that are passionate about the issues.