OSHA is under new management and they mean business when it comes to enforcement. Hilda L. Solis — who previously represented California’s 32nd Congressional District — was confirmed as Secretary of Labor on Feb. 24, 2009. Under her new administration, OSHA is taking a stronger approach to cracking down on safety and health violations.

During the annual meeting of the American Society of Safety Engineers in June, Secretary Solis applauded the efforts of the nation’s safety and health professionals and announced that the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration was launching a major construction safety initiative in Texas (the state with the highest rate of on-the-job fatalities) to prevent workplace injuries and fatalities. Her plan is to increase the number of compliance safety and health officers (CHSOs) nationwide and empower them to immediately investigate whenever they observe unsafe scaffolds, fall hazards, trenches and other serious hazards.

“As I have said since my first day on the job — the U.S. Department of Labor is back in the enforcement business,” noted Solis. She also emphasized that the purpose of increased enforcement activity is to ensure that employers will not put their workers’ lives at risk: “So long as I am Secretary of Labor, the department will go after anyone who negligently puts workers lives at risk.”

Backing up Secretary Solis is Jordan Barab, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, as well as the Acting Assistant Secretary. He has been a safety advocate for many years and has worked on workplace safety issues in a number of high-profile positions — Director of the Safety and Health Program for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, 1982-1998; Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, 1998-2001; Health and Safety Specialist for the AFL-CIO, 2001-2002; workplace safety consultant for US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, 2002-2007; and Senior Labor Policy Advisor for health and safety for the House Education and Labor Committee, 2007-2009.

Changes in the Works

In April, committees in both the House and Senate heard testimony about how OSHA provides few serious deterrents to employers who place workers in danger. In his testimony, Barab announced that the agency was preparing a program that would ensure that non-compliant employers would be targeted for additional enforcement actions. The new program is called the Severe Violators Inspection Program, and the changes under consideration include: mandatory follow-up inspections; more inspections of an identified company’s other locations; additional settlement provisions; fewer negotiated settlements; and review of an employers inspection history and violations, among others.

The House Education and Labor Committee is also considering: increased penalties for repeat or willful violations; felony charges for repeat or willful violations that result in a worker’s death or serious injury; better protection from retaliation for workers who blow the whistle on unsafe situations; and the granting of the right to challenge reduction of fines and other penalties to workers and their families.

Still Room for Improvement?

Of course many utility construction contractors will disagree that there is not enough enforcement because the industry has been closely watched and inspected for many years because of the Special Emphasis Program for Trenching and Excavation that OSHA implemented almost 25 years ago. It is still in effect, and many contractors have been inspected at one time or another because of it. Additionally, NUCA and other construction organizations believe that large penalties coupled with education have caused some previously indifferent contractors to see the light. For example, fatalities in the utility construction industry have been reduced by about two-thirds since Subpart P–Excavation Standard was rewritten and updated in 1990.

That said, there is no denying that there is still room for improvement. The good news is that you can help. Let’s call it an informal “Reach Out to Another Ditch Digger Campaign.” While there’s little we can do with employers that just don’t care if their workers get hurt and/or die as a result of their negligence, we can reach out to the contractors that don’t belong to an industry organization that keeps them informed of the excavation regulations, hazards and the means to control the hazards. We can also reach out to those that believe that safety compliance is too costly and time-consuming.

So, while OSHA and Congress try to make the changes they believe will reduce the number of construction injuries and fatalities, let’s take it upon ourselves to make it happen in the utility construction industry. The bottom line is that workers are still dying unnecessarily on jobsites across the country and OSHA is going to step up enforcement to prevent as many deaths as they can. For those of us who do care it only makes sense to support that effort the best way we can.

While OSHA carries the “big stick,” let us “speak softly” but insistently about the advantages of compliance to any contractor who’ll listen. And yes, I mean to the point of taking the time to get out of your vehicle and going right up to the job foreman. Point out the unsafe situation that’s putting someone’s life on the line and tell them how to fix it. I’ve done it and you can too.

George Kennedy is NUCA Vice President of Safety.