Supervisors’ Safety Compliance Checklist

• Make sure that you have written safety rules and that they are clearly communicated to the workers you supervise. If you have workers whose native language is not English or who have difficulty reading, ensure that these rules are effectively communicated, verbally or in another language.
• Consistently enforce these rules among your workers. Write down any actions you take against an employee who violates a safety rule – even if that action is just a verbal warning.
• Regularly inspect the areas you supervise for any hazards or potential hazards that could result in injury. Do this on a daily basis.
• Ask the workers you supervise to let you know about any safety hazards or potential hazards they are aware of. Tell them you want to know because you are concerned about their safety.
• Keep a written record of any safety hazards you find, as well as the dates they were corrected.
• Never let the employees you supervise work in an area with a known safety hazard.
• Strictly enforce such basic safety rules as no running, no horseplay, no bypassing safety devices and no un-jamming stuck machinery with a hand or foot.

Editor’s note: If you’re a supervisor on an agricultural or horticultural operation, it’s critical that you constantly emphasize safety with the workers you supervise. The No. 1 reason is, of course, so no one gets seriously injured or killed. But there are other reasons why it is important as well, Attorney Tom Rebel of Fisher & Phillips LLP in Atlanta, Ga. says. If one of your workers is seriously injured, both you and that worker will be spending time away from production – time that may cause you to fail to meet your production goals.

In addition, Rebel notes, a serious injury or death will likely result in an OSHA or other government investigation – as well as a possible lawsuit or even union organizing campaign. This means that you will be spending even more time away from your everyday duties being interviewed by government investigators, attorneys, and others. And if OSHA or a court finds the employer responsible, you could be fired from your job. This checklist should be shared with all supervisors. It was prepared with the help of Attorney Tom Rebel of Fisher & Phillips LLP in Atlanta, Ga., Ph: 404/231-1400, E-mail: trebel@laborlawyers.com

This copyrighted material was excerpted with permission from Gempler’s ALERT, the newsletter of Ag/Hort safety and employment law compliance, and from GEMPLER’S Ag/Hort Supervisors’ Compliance Checklists, web site: www.gemplersalert.com  The complete checklist appears in those publications.