What does it mean to be a competent person according to OSHA? Are your workers competent? The general idea of competency is defined as having the required ability, skill and knowledge to do something. There are countless employers who state they have competent employees or are competent themselves. Yet, the term ‘competent’ may not equate to experience or the ability to make altering decisions on the job site. The ambiguity behind the term has been misunderstood and defined at various standards.
According to OSHA, the term extends beyond acknowledging someone with the title. OSHA construction standards define this term as an employee who can perceive hazards within a given task and also has the ability to ease those issues. Phil Colleran, a safety consultant specializing in construction and a former OSHA compliance officer states “it’s a fairly misunderstood term.” Still, contrary to common belief, formal training and attending classes is not a prerequisite to being competent.
Why Is This Important?
Should you be lucky enough to have your site audited by an OSHA inspector the first question they will ask is “Who is the competent person on this site?” If you have not delegated before to this audit, a designated “competent person” that will be your first of many fines.
The Implications and Applications of Insights
A competent employee is more likely to assess and properly mitigate emerging hazards. An employee that could not do this would not be considered competent. There is also an immense difference between understanding a broad spectrum of scenarios and having a hands-on situational approach experience. The individuals use their skills and capability to identify hazards associated with clear operations. Simply put, competency is not exclusively knowledge but the application of it.
The Appropriate Person
A large worksite may ask for several competent individuals who are proficient in their own areas of expertise. However, why not have someone that is specialized in multiple areas? One having deep knowledge and experience in all fields is unlikely. Even if one has the experience encompassing all aspects of the worksite, an employee who specializes in one area is able to properly assess, diagnose and take the necessary steps to handle a diverse array of situations.
Still, utilizing employees who are competent is key to decreasing errors and recognizing hazards. Speak with one of our highly experienced and competentRisk Advisorstoday!
REMINDER ; it’s that time of year again. Certain companies by virtue of their size and or their industries are required to post a summary of their injuries at their worksite between February 1st and April 30th. No worries; that’s why we built our OSHA REPORTING GUIDE FOR 2018. The form to be used is OSHA Form 300A Summary of Injuries. Current and former employees have the right to request further injury records via the OSHA 300 Report if they request such from your company. It’s very important that you true up your OSHA 300 reports for the year then complete the OSHA 300A report and post it on site or sites. Failure to do so can trigger fines and or a deeper dive by OSHA if they swing by and ask for evidence of your compliance. Need help? Download our updated OSHA Reporting Guide for 2018and share it with HR & or Safety Compliance.
UPDATE ON THE ELECTRONIC REPORTING REQUIREMENT:
OSHA is really trying hard to get folks to begin to upload their OSHA incidents into their new system called “Injury Tracking System” of ITA. They have moved the implementation date back several times. The “new” date for compliance for some companies will be July 1st, 2018 to submit their data 300A ; March 2nd 2019 thereafter. For a complete list of exempted organizations CLICK HERE. Please note all employers, including those partially exempted by reason of company size or industry classification, must report to OSHA any workplace incident that results in a fatality, in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye (see §1904.39).
If you are located in the following states you are currently exempted from the electronic reporting requirements. Please Note that the following OSHA-approved State Plans have not yet adopted the requirement to submit injury and illness reports electronically: CA, MD, MN, SC, UT, WA and WY. Businesses in these states are not currently required to submit their summary data through the ITA. Similarly, state and local government establishments in IL, ME, NJ, and NY are not currently required to submit their data through the ITA. Contact information for each of the State Plans can be found at https://www.osha.gov/dcsp/osp/states.html.
Finding a witness to a worksite accident resulting in injury or property harm is of the utmost importance to contractors. A worksite accident witness is an integral component for the defense. They can discern the chain of events such as where the worker was and what they were doing or what they were working on the moment prior to the accident.
Work-site injury procedures and steps to finding a witness: take police, fire, and EMS statements and records AND:
Talk to the staff and acquire names and contact info of potential witnesses who could have been at the scene.
Ask for a complete list of all the workers on the project.
Observe the scene at the same time the incident happened. In addition, observe mailmen or delivery men who may be a witness to the case. Look at the scene at the same time the incident happened.
Find people who can give detailed information about the project, interaction between workers, and behavior of the general contractor to piece the clues together to present to a judge and jury.
A worksite incident form should have a section dedicated to identifying the witness and relaying their account of the accident. Next, statements from a witness should be taken as soon after the incident as possible. The sooner you can locate a worksite accident witness, the better for all parties involved. The clearer their memory, the more details they will be able to share regarding the incident.
Still want more info? If you would like to take a deeper dive into this issue or perhaps require assistance developing a worksite incident/day of loss reporting protocol including witness statements, contact a Risk Advisor today by Clicking Here.
Under the electronic reporting rule of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), certain establishments must report information electronically from their OSHA Forms 300, 300A and 301. In addition, OSHA is required to create a website that can be used to submit the required information.
The original deadline for first reports was July 1st, 2017. However, on a recent update to its webpage, OSHA explained it won’t receive reports by July 1st. This is due to lack of readiness. It has also proposed an extended deadline of December 1st, 2017.
Affected establishments expectedly continue to record and report workplace injuries. Monitor these developments until you officially adopt a new reporting date. The fines for not recording or reporting workplace injuries can be substantial. Further there were recent updates to when a workplace injury is directly REPORTABLE to OSHA which means you must pick up the phone and call them to report you had a workplace injury. To understand that bit of nuance a little better we suggest you refer back to a previous article that highlights that significant change to avoid substantial fines and penalties. CLICK HERE to read the 2017 OSHA Reporting Revisions.
If you have any questions about the OSHA electronic reporting rule, give us a call at (914) 357-8444. You can also click here!
Effective January 1, 2017 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has established new injury reporting requirements that will phase-in over the next 2 years. Specific classes of employers based upon the work they perform will be required to electronically submit injury and illness data they are already recording in paper form .
Please note the final rule doesn’t create any new or additional record keeping requirements; it just requires that the reports that you used prior in paper form now be entered into OSHA’s new secure reporting system. For a complete breakdown of the new law CLICK HERE to download our free Compliance Guide which provides more detail.
New OSHA Employee Injury Reporting Guidelines for 2017
Timeline for the New Reporting Requirements
OSHA will provide a secure website that will offer 3 options for data entry. Some of the data will be posted to the OSHA website. This will take effect January 18th, 2017.
By July 1, 2017 businesses in specific industries with 250 or more employees will be required to electronically submit injury and illness data from their 2016 Form 300A. These same businesses will also be required to submit information from all 2017 forms (300A, 300, and 301) by July 1, 2018. Beginning in 2019 and every year thereafter, the information must be submitted by March 2.
Businesses with 20-249 employees in specific high-risk industries will be required to submit information from their 2016 Form 300A by July 1, 2017, and must submit data from their 2017 Form 300A by July 1, 2018. Beginning in 2019 and every year thereafter, the information must be submitted by March 2.
The final rule containing the new electronic reporting requirements updated certain other related requirements as follows:
Employees must be informed of their right to report work-related injuries and illnesses free from retaliation. This is not new by the way, just a reaffirming.
The reporting procedures instituted by the employer must be reasonable and cannot deter or discourage employees from reporting work-related injuries and illnesses. Same as above, this is not new as this has always been encapsulated in workers compensation insurance laws and Department of Labor rulings.
The final rule also amends OSHA’s existing record keeping regulation to clarify the rights of employees and their representatives to access the injury and illness records. This may be new, make sure you get the correct HIPPA sign offs. Be very careful who you release employees medical records to. We suggest a strict HR policy and to update your current employee handbook .
Implications of the New Reporting Requirements
The reason OSHA has implemented these changes is that they feel electronic reporting, public disclosure, and enhanced employee protections will provide more accurate data and improve safety. We agree as paper forms get filed and never make into a larger report where the data actual has meaning. Further the data will have more meaning and impact if it’s shared which this allows for. It will also streamline the collection and the sharing of the information which again adds utility.
If you have further question on the new rulings contact a Risk Advisor for additional information. Metropolitan Risk has over 25 years of experience in guiding companies in how they manage their employee injuries. The cost of not managing employee injuries are considerable and offer forward thinking organizations wishing to get in front of the employee injury challenge turning it into a competitive advantage as their peers continue to fail.
Remember to complete and post OSHA Form 300A, which lists a summary of the total number of job-related injuries and illnesses that occurred during 2015. The form must be posted from February 1st to April 30th, 2016. Fines for not doing so can be significant if OSHA conducts an audit. One of the first items they ask to review is your OSHA 300 log, and where the OSHA 300A is posted.
To assist in calculating incidence rates, information about the annual average number of employees and total hours worked during the calendar year is also required. If a company recorded no injuries or illnesses in 2015, the employer must enter “zero” on the total line. The form must be signed and certified by a company executive. Form 300A should be displayed in a common area where notices to employees are usually posted.
Employers with 10 or fewer employees and employers in certain industries(see below FAQs) are normally exempt from record-keeping and posting requirements.
For your convenience, you can click here for the OSHA 300, 300A & 301 fillable forms. We ask that you email a copy of your 300 & 300A to your Risk Advisor so we may have a record in our file, or simply upload them into your OODA Risk system. If you are not up to date on your OSHA log, use the system as a resource. Run your workers’ comp claims and incidents by date of loss and location for the year. This will allow you to cross-check your log.
EXCITING NEWS: Next year’s OSHA logs will be much easier. OODA Risk 2.0 which is now in beta, will allow you to keep and generate an OSHA log for every trackable location as well as run your OSHA & DART incident rates at any point throughout the year. For a preview, watch this quick video.
Do I need to fill out an OSHA 300A log for every location?
You must keep a separate OSHA 300 Log for each establishment that is expected to be in operation for one year or longer.
Do I need to keep OSHA injury and illness records for short-term establishments (i.e., establishments that will exist for less than a year)?
Yes, however, you do not have to keep a separate OSHA 300 Log for each such establishment. You may keep one OSHA 300 Log that covers all of your short-term establishments. You may also include the short-term establishments’ recordable injuries and illnesses on an OSHA 300 Log that covers short-term establishments for individual company divisions or geographic regions.
Some of my employees work at several different locations or do not work at any of my establishments at all. How do I record cases for these employees?
You must link each of your employees with one of your establishments, for recordkeeping purposes. You must record the injury and illness on the OSHA 300 Log of the injured or ill employee’s establishment, or on an OSHA 300 Log that covers that employee’s short-term establishment.
How do I record an injury or illness when an employee of one of my establishments is injured or becomes ill while visiting or working at another of my establishments, or while working away from any of my establishments?
If the injury or illness occurs at one of your establishments, you must record the injury or illness on the OSHA 300 Log of the establishment at which the injury or illness occurred. If the employee is injured or becomes ill and is not at one of your establishments, you must record the case on the OSHA 300 Log at the establishment at which the employee normally works.
What industries are excluded? (NAICS CODE)
4412 Other Motor Vehicle Dealers
4431 Electronics and Appliance Stores
4461 Health and Personal Care Stores
4471 Gasoline Stations
4481 Clothing Stores
4482 Shoe Stores
4483 Jewelry, Luggage, and Leather Goods Stores
4511 Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores
4512 Book, Periodical, and Music Stores
4531 Florists
4532 Office Supplies, Stationery, and Gift Stores
4812 Nonscheduled Air Transportation
4861 Pipeline Transportation of Crude Oil
4862 Pipeline Transportation of Natural Gas
4869 Other Pipeline Transportation
4879 Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Other
4885 Freight Transportation Arrangement
5111 Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers
Supervisors are one of the most important components to a tight workers compensation program. If a hazard is reported in the workplace, it is the supervisor’s job to rectify it and do everything possible to protect his/her workers.
Hazards exist in every workplace in many different forms. For example, sharp edges, falling objects, flying sparks, chemicals, noise and a myriad of other potentially dangerous situations. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that employers protect their employees from workplace hazards that can cause injury.
Controlling a hazard at its source is the best way to protect employees. Depending on the hazard, supervisors should use engineering or work practice controls first to manage or eliminate hazards to the greatest extent possible. For example, building a barrier between the hazard and the employees is an engineering control; changing the way in which employees perform their work is a work practice control.
As you and your team are well aware, maintaining a safe work site pays huge dividends to the long term cost structure for your company. With the high cost of employee injuries impacting both your future workers compensation & liability insurance premiums ; we think it’s wise to keep safety top of mind each day as workers enter your worksite. Building a culture of safety & accountability takes long term vision, leadership, & commitment.
We developed this safety poster to assist in this endeavor. The purpose is to remind workers each day as they enter your site to work safe. Safety doesn’t just affect your immediate crew, there are wives, mothers, and children that eagerly anticipate the safe return home of their loved ones. Who better to drive this message home than children?
We suggest you hang these in high traffic areas. Perhaps your work site trailers, the elevators, lifts or anywhere the workers enter and exit regularly to remind them what’s at stake. A safe work site is not an accident; it’s born from good design and solid leadership at all levels. We know you agree which is why these “Profit Tools” have been made available.
Please note you will receive copies in both English and Spanish.
9/19/14 UPDATE: [OSHA has issued a final rule requiring employers to notify OSHA when an employee suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye. Under the revised severe injury rule, employers will be required to notify OSHA of work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, or losses of an eye within 24 hours. Previously, OSHA’s regulations required an employer to report only work-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations of three or more employees. Reporting single hospitalizations, amputations, or lose of an eye was not required under the previous rule. The new rule, which also updates the list of employers partially exempt from OSHA record-keeping requirements, will go into effect on January 1, 2015 for workplaces under federal OSHA jurisdiction. The new rule maintains the exemption for any employer with 10 or fewer employees, regardless of their industry classification, from the requirement to routinely keep records of worker injuries and illnesses.]
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This is a question we get all the time. So we figured it was time for a blog post.
Employers are sometimes confused by the differences in what they need to report to their workers’ compensation carrier and what they need to record on their OSHA 300 log.
At Met Risk we recommend to our clients that you submit a First Report of Injury to us even if the employee needed only minor treatment. Having this “Incident Only” report will be helpful if the employee reports symptoms or needs treatment later on. Our Claims Advocates will also let you know if you need to report it to your workers compensation carrier or not.
However that does not mean everything needs to be recorded in your OSHA 300 log.
