Improving Environmental Health Through Quality Information

REPEAT THE QUESTION PLEASE!

Can a jury use an OSHA violation as the basis for an inference to liability?

*"Colorado juries can consider a business owner's failure to follow generally accepted industry standards, as reflected in OSHA regulations, along with other evidence."

*Anne Nichting is an associate in the health and safety practice in the Denver law offices of Patton Boggs

Employees should be trained in a number of health and safety programs. These may include contingency plans, lock-out/tag-out, confined space entry, and respiratory protection programs. Company health and safety coordinators spend a significant amount of time developing safety programs to conform to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements. Development of these programs requires numerous hours of time and effort from not only the health and safety coordinator, but also management, who should review them.

Once the programs are developed, employees should receive training on these written programs. A company can develop the best procedures, policies, and programs, but unless employees are trained, the material is useless. Spending thousands of dollars to develop a respiratory program and buy the best respirators available is great, but if an employee does not know how or when to use a respirator, the dollars spent were a waste.

Two of the most significant issues that keep facilities from training their own employees are lack of qualified trainers or not enough trainers to get the project completed in an appropriate timeframe. In-house training may also present another problem. Employees may know the trainer too well. Current or past personal/work issues may interfere with an employee actually being receptive and in turn being trained appropriately. This of course could potentially lead to costly accidents.

Developing written programs is only a portion of maintaining a safe and healthy working environment for employees. Your employees must be trained so they understand the, who, what, when, and where of your health and safety program. Health and safety plans sitting on a shelf do no good unless they can be properly implemented and personally applied by employees.

THINK ABOUT IT!

DID YOU KNOW?

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