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Attendees at this year’s Green Industry Expo (GIE) had a number of safety resources available to them, including a representative from the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) on hand in the Professional Landcare Network’s (PLANET) Resource Room and an announcement of PLANET’s newest STARS Safe Company program members. Safety topics were even present during PLANET’s Green Industry Conference, held in conjunction with GIE, including one titled “Utilizing the OSHA Consultation Service to Reduce Workplace Hazards.” During this session, at which Lawn & Landscape was in attendance, three green industry contractors shared their experiences in using OSHA’s free 21d Safety & Health Consultation Program to help get their operations up to the organization’s standards of compliance.
“21d is one of the best kept secrets in business operations,” noted Keith Brown, a compliance officer with OSHA’s consultation service through Florida State University, SafetyFlorida. “When most business owners think of OSHA, they think of it in a negative light with citations and pentalties beating you up about rules you didn’t even know existed. But with this program, when someone comes to your door and says ‘I’m with the government and I’m hear to help,’ we mean it.”
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Brown explains that OSHA’s 21d consultation program is funded 90 percent by the federal government and 10 percent by the states. In addition to being available to small companies (500 or fewer employees) at no cost to the employer, another bright spot is that the consultations are 100-percent confidential, so when violations are found – and they will be – the employer has an opportunity to correct them without being reported to the government. “Our office acts as a shield between a business’s case file and the enforcement office,” Brown says. “All of our consultants are well trained and we all hear the same presentations and learn the same rules and regulations as the compliance officers. As a result, we’re able to provide you with accurate information about how to bring your company into compliance without the threat of fines and other penalties.”
By contacting their state’s compliance program office (contact information is available on the OSHA Web site by clicking here), a business owner can set up a meeting at their own facility with a compliance specialist who will do everything from walk through the offices, shop, yard, and other areas, to read over policy, procedure and safety manuals provided by the company. After visiting, the compliance officer will compile a report that outlines the details of the visit, including any areas that may be in violation of OSHA standards, as well as the recommended solutions to those problems and a timeframe in which to complete them.
| OSHA COMPLIANCE PROGRAMS |
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“We’ll evaluate everything to look at the company’s level of compliance with minimum standards that OSHA has established and offer ideas on how to improve policies and procedures,” Brown says. “The only obligation to the employer is that he or she must agree to correct any and all serious hazards we may identify. That may be a challenging time-consuming process, and it might mean that the company has to change how they’ve been doing business, but it’s much better than being contacted by the enforcement office right off the bat.”
Three landscape contractor panelists joined Brown during the OSHA compliance consultation session, all of whom have taken advantage of the program. Elias Godinez of Pacific Landscape Management, Hillsboro Ore.; Lou Kobus, president of Village Turf, Mount Vernon, Va.; and Kurt Kluznik, president of Yardmaster, Painesville, Ohio, all said the consultations – regardless of how many violations they exposed – were worthwhile for their businesses.
“One of my personal goals at the end of last year was to take an OSHA seminar and find out what to expect from an OSHA inspection,” Godinez said. “In a session I attended, the instructor asked how many people had used consultation and about 5 out of 15 people said they had used it and they all had good things to say about it. After that, I talked to the managers at our company and we decided to take advantage of it.”
Godinez points out an important aspect of the consultation program: Requests for a compliance officer visit must come from a company’s management and not from lower-level employees. However, if crew members or office staff members believe their companies would benefit from such a visit, Brown encourages them to bring the idea up to management for follow-through.
Among the necessary improvements that the OSHA compliance officer found at Pacific Landscape Management were electrical problems, fire extinguisher inspections, equipment cage and rack structures, labeling of guards and switches on equipment, and homemade modifications made to certain pieces of equipment. “There were a lot of violations that the inspector found during our facility tour and going through some of our company policies, which was a little nerve-wracking,” Godinez admitted, “but anything that he found that we weren’t doing or that we weren’t doing correctly, he always had a handout available to tell us what the right procedure was and help us correct it.”
Kluznik said he was impressed with the specialist who visited Yardmaster’s facility. “I asked myself, ‘Why didn’t we use this service before?’” he told attendees. Violations at Yardmaster included items related to the use of personal protective equipment, a fire prevention plan, confined space requirements, lockout/tagout issues, employee sign-off sheets for hazardous items, door signage, extension cord use, and labeling of tanks and other equipment.
“Overall, we were looking at $6,000 to $10,000 in fines if this had been an enforcement visit,” Kluznik says. “We had put some work and thought into our safety program, so this was disappointing, needless to say. But that’s really the whole point of the inspection – to avoid having to pay those fines and to bring your company into compliance. We had some of our employees involved in the inspection, which was helpful and a great educational tool.”
In terms of timeline, Kluznik says the entire consultation process took about four months. Yardmaster’s initial call to the compliance office was made in July, with their first meeting with the consultant specialist occurring on Aug. 18. About a week later, Kluznik says he received a 35-page report from the inspector on what he had found, and a second visit was scheduled for Oct. 20. A 37-page report showed up at Kluznik’s office a few days later, and the company’s final meeting was scheduled for Nov. 22. Note: Lawn & Landscape has contacted Yardmaster to find out how their final meeting went and will provide updates as they become available.
Speaking of his compliance consultation experience, Kobus, a member of the PLANET Safety/Insurance Committee, agreed with the positive impressions Godinez and Kluznik had. “The compliance specialist really came off as more of a mentor to me than an inspector,” Kobus said. “The whole experience was a great eye-opener and I personally recommend this to all small business owners. It will cause a little work and take some time, but it’s a great program and was great for me in a management sense. It really got our employees thinking about safety and their equipment.”
Kobus says that while he thought his paperwork and business records were in great shape, the inspector found that some items weren’t in the right order or didn’t have the necessary signatures. Other changes that needed to be made included having fire extinguishers in the company’s trucks and includes personal protective equipment reuqirements in employees’ job descriptions
Brown says that the number of violations a company may have upon a preliminary inspection is difficult to gauge; however, most company will have to make some changes. “It all depends on how proactive the companies are in safety management,” he says. “I’ve been to a lot of companies where we found a couple of minor things and solving the problems isn’t a big deal – those are the company’s where safety is a high priority. But even if you do consider safety a priority in your company, your compliance is only as good as the education. If you’re not educated on what the OSHA standards are, you won’t be able to meet them as effectively.”
Brown says the top three compliance issues in the green industry fall into three categories:
- Use of personal protective equipment
- Machine guarding
Chemical exposures
A single OSHA compliance consultation can reveal problems in these and other areas, and Brown says regular inspections or input from safety specialists are encouraged. “Any time you introduce a new procedure or piece of equipment or system in your business, you have to adjust your safety program,” he says. “Don’t rely on just your senses. For instance, if you have a piece of equipment that produces noise but you can’t find noise exposure data, don’t assume that it falls within the necessary standards. You need to get a quantitative analysis of that noise level and that’s just one benefit of consultation – we can help you gauge that and offer you solutions for any other compliance questions you have.”