OSHA Cites South Florida Commercial Printer
OSHA has cited Nupress of Miami Inc. for exposing employees to amputation, electrical, and fall hazards. The Doral, Florida, commercial printer faces $71,139 in penalties.
OSHA cited the company for a lack of machine guarding on several pieces of equipment; failing to establish a lockout/tagout program when performing equipment maintenance and servicing; exposing workers to fall and electrical shock hazards; not implementing a written hazard communication program; and improper storage of flammable liquids.
“Implementing safety and health programs that identify and correct workplace hazards are required to minimize employees’ risk of serious or fatal injuries,” said OSHA Fort Lauderdale Area Office Director Condell Eastmond.
The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and proposed penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to help ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education, and assistance.
How Do I Maintain my ISNetworld Certifications?
Managing your ISNetworld® membership will require time and money. This FREE blog will allow you to prepare and budget your time to effectively help you control your ISNetworld® certification and stay in ISNetworld® compliance. In this blog, we will take you through the grand scale of things to show you what lies ahead.
By now you know that compliance requires time and meticulous attention to detail. So, whether you gained ISNetworld® compliance and accomplished your certification yourself or decided your time is best spent in busy day-to-day obligations and decided ISNetworld® compliance is quicker if you hire a safety compliance consultant. You still need to be prepared for what lies ahead.
Starting with the basics to keep your company ISNetworld® certified and in compliance include monthly and yearly updates /statistics as follows;
Monthly updates required by ISNetworld® clients.
- Site Tracker®-monthly man-hours, number of employees.
ISNetworld® compliance include yearly updates for;
- Certificate of Insurance for Each client
- Experience Modification Rate (EMR)
- OSHA 300, OSHA 300A logs
Throughout the year you will be required to upload and comply with additional ISNetworld® compliance client requirements.
- Client-specific documents – acknowledging site-specific and company-wide sub-contractor conformance.
- Additional MSQ® questions.
- Additional ISNetworld® safety programs (RAVS®)
- Additional ISNetworld® safety training T-RAVS®
- Operator Qualification (OQ)
- ISNetworld® safety training
However, if you are using your ISNetworld® certification to its full potential meaning, you diligently market your certification to potential clients then there is additional ISNetworld® compliance upon a new client connection in which you will incur as follows;
- MSQ®
- ISNetworld® safety programs (RAVS®)
- ISNetworld® safety training T-RAVS®
- Certificate of Insurance for Each client
We hope we have helped and would love to hear from you! You can chat with us online or call 866-399-4593 our friendly customer care team is ready to assist you.
1 Stop Compliance is more than just ISNetworld® compliance if you wish to expand your customer base beyond ISNetworld® we can assist you with your other pre-qualification systems Avetta, PEC Safety, Gold Shovel Standard, BROWZ, Veriforce, CQN, CCS, or Complyworks.
1 Stop Attends iiAR EXPO 2019
1 Stop Compliance attended the annual IIAR Natural Refrigeration Conference & Heavy Equipment Expo in Phoenix, AZ, which featured technical and efficiency education programs, as well as over 150 exhibitors on site.
What to Know About ISNetworld RAVS
ISNetworld® will be reviewing all of your information with a fine-tooth comb to make it easy on yourself and them by implementing these easy steps to assist in expediting the review process.
- RAVS® safety programs can easily be created for first-time approval.
Implement the following steps to first time RAVS® safety compliance.
We suggest you create the majority of the RAVS® programs that ISNetworld® requires for your Hiring Client. Although some Hiring Clients will allow a variance on some of these programs, this will need to be taken up directly with your Hiring Client. However, since these RAVS® safety programs are dictated by your Hiring Client as being streamlined for all of their sub-contractors we suggest you go ahead and create these programs. Following the steps below will enable you to easily create and gain approval.
Simplicity is key! An Ideal ISNetworld RAVS safety program is under 10 pages
- Evidence – each question asked by ISN® within your RAVS® safety program.
- Customize – address your full company name within the RAVS® safety program.
- Include the training sheet specific to each program within the RAVS® safety program.
- Insert page numbers.
- Insert your company name within the footer.
- Next is where your hard work creating the simplistic RAVS® safety program pays off. The United States Questionnaire MSQ® is user-friendly so go through the questionnaire and answer the questions about your safety program – identify the page number in which each question being asked is addressed within.
- Review– once your account documents are submitted the review process begins and depending on the documents being review it will take anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks to complete the review. Your Hiring Client has the power to authorize a speedier review so contact your hiring client to see if they would mint calling ISN® to request expediting the review.
After review- Troubleshoot your grade- once your grade has been determined after the review take a closer look at your grading components and review the gap report in ISN® This will show you exactly what areas in your safety program that are affecting your grade. There are some components in ISNetworld® you cannot control and need to be discussed and troubleshot with your Hiring Client
The ISN® grading components weigh differently on general areas of concern for your Hiring Client. Go through the gap report one by one and incorporate any areas you left void or where you marked as ‘No’ – these areas are clearly important to your ISNetworld® Client. Changing an answer may incur more RAVS® safety programs to be created.
How OSHA Fines are Calculated
There are maximum and minimum amounts, but most fall somewhere in between. Let’s look at how OSHA fines are calculated.
The Violation Categories
Serious violations are considered high, medium or low severity. Other-Than-Serious violations are minimal severity.
Willful violations are cited when employers knowingly fail to comply or when they act with indifference to employee safety.
Repeated violations occur when an employer has been previously cited for the same or substantially similar condition. For serious violations, these are ones that have been a part of OSHA’s regionwide inspection history where an OSHA Notice was issued within the past 5 years. For other-than-serious violations, it’s for those where the establishment being inspected received an OSHA Notice within the past 5 years.
The Posting Requirements violation is issued when you fail to follow through on your requirement to post your OSHA Notice at or near the place where each violation occurred for 3 working days, or until the hazard is abated (whichever is longer).
Failure to Abate violations occur when you receive a Notice of Unsafe or Unhealthful Working Conditions and a follow-up inspection finds that you did not do your required posting, did not correct the violation and/or did not adequately protect employees and make appropriate progress in correcting the hazard before the abatement date that was listed on your notice.
Calculating Violation Amounts
There are a number of factors that actually can determine how much your penalty will be. There are four major categories of factors that go into the calculation:
- Gravity of violation
- History of violations
- Good faith efforts of the employer
- Business size
Gravity Based Penalty Amounts
First, the gravity of the violation is calculated. The Gravity Based Penalty (GBP) Amount looks at the level of severity (low, medium and high) and the probability, that is likelihood an injury or illness will occur (greater or lesser).
Severity + Probability = Gravity Based Penalty Amount
History Reductions
Combined or grouped violations can be considered one citation item. Multiple violations of the same standard can also be combined into one citation item. Expect the one with the highest gravity factor (severity or probability) to be used to determine the GBP.
A 10% reduction in penalty costs can be given to companies who have been inspected by OSHA and have had no serious, willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations. If your company hasn’t been inspected within 5 years, you’re not eligible for this discount. If you’ve had a serious high gravity citation that became a final order, you could actually see a 10% increase in your costs.
Good Faith Reductions
A maximum discount of 25% can be given for good faith efforts. The maximum 25% discount requires you to have a written health and safety management system. This would include a system outlining:
- Management commitment and employee involvement
- Hazard identification worksite analyses
- Hazard prevention and control measures
- Safety and health training
- Addressing needs of workers less than 18 years old (if applicable)
- Addressing needs of workers who speak limited or no English (if applicable)
A 15% reduction may be given if the employer has a documented and effective safety and health management system with only incidental deficiencies.
Good faith discounts will NOT be given for high gravity, willful, repeated, and failure to abate violations, or if you’ve reported a fatality, inpatient hospitalization, amputation or an eye loss.
Business Size Reductions
A maximum 70% reduction can be gained based on your company size. OSHA wanted to create a scale where they could minimize the impact to small businesses. This reduction applies to businesses with 250 or less employees total nationwide. Companies with 1-10 employees can get the 70% reduction, 11-25 employees a 60% reduction, 26-100 is 30%, and 101-250 is 10%.
Quick Fix Reductions
If you’re able to make an immediate correction to an individual violation and that correction is 1) permanent or substantial (e.g., not just moving someone out of the way), 2) not blatantly obvious (e.g., wearing a hard hat or safety glasses), and 3) not a high gravity serious/willful/repeat/failure to abate violation, you can get a 15% Quick Fix reduction. This one is applied after the good faith and history adjustments are made.
Limits of Discounts
Different discounts can be rescinded or altered depending on the circumstance or type of violation.
Repeated violations will only be reduced for size. Repeated violations can actually have their penalties increased, and those increases are also based on size.
Willful violations are only eligible for a size and history discount. Willful violations have their own size chart of reduction percentages.
Serious violations classified as higher severity/greater probability are only eligible for the size and history.
Other Penalties
OSHA has additional calculation guidelines for a number of other circumstances including:
- Unabated violations;
- Daily penalty multipliers;
- Partial abatements;
- Violation-by-violation egregious penalties;
- Multi-employer worksites;
- Federal Agency significant cases;
- Failure to post citations;
- Failure to notify authorized employees of an advance notice of inspection;
- Injury and illness reporting and recordkeeping;
- Failure to provide access to medical and exposure records;
- Failure to notify and tag; and,
- Failing to certify abatement.
You can find all of the details about these penalties and reductions in OSHA’s Field Operations Manual section on penalties.
5 Things to Look at When Hiring a Safety Compliance Consultant
You have decided to become members of a safety compliance system! No matter which safety compliance system you chose, ISNetworld® (ISN®), Avetta, PEC Safety, BROWZ, Gold Shovel Standard, or Veriforce, you chose correctly. Most likely you chose the safety compliance system for one of two reasons: first, you were required to become members and become compliant in order to keep working for your client, or two, you are being proactive and preparing your company to qualify for work for a hiring client. Regardless of your intent, you are on the right path! And by now you probably figured out this is a big task for a busy individual like yourself. So, has the thought of hiring for compliance help crossed your mind? If so, you probably asked yourself where do I start and what do I look for in a consultant? Your time is precious you have a lot to complete and people to keep safe.
Your quick guide to hiring the right consultant for your compliance assistant the first time around is within your reach.
- Financially acceptable- be don’t break the bank! Be careful! There is a wide range of pricing for exactly the same compliance service. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Get several quotes from safety service compliance companies.
- Personal Experience- Find a compliance consultant who knows ISNetworld®, Avetta, PEC, BROWZ, Gold Shovel Standard, or Complyworks.
- Quick turnaround- safety compliance services who have streamlined their processes are going to provide you with a quick turnaround. So find one who can work with your needs.
- Get a contractual agreement – just as any legitimate business your safety compliance consultant should supply you with contract/Master Service Agreement.
- Communication- many safety service companies overlook this critical element. But in relation to the sensitivity involved in the ISNetworld®, Avetta, PEC Safety, BROWZ, Gold Shovel Standard, or Complyworks accounts, it is crucial to have your safety compliance consultant communicate with you and act in your best interest. A good safety compliance consultant will troubleshoot your lower grades on a periodical basis and stay in communication with you to commit to a game plan in increasing your grades.
Ultimately seek out a Safety compliance consultant that is on top of your accounts and available to your calls. They should be capable of assisting you in growing your business through your ISNetworld®, Avetta, PEC Safety, BROWZ, Gold Shovel Standard, or Complyworks.
3 Elements of a Good Safety Program
OSHA identifies the following three main elements of an effective safety and health program.
Management Leadership
Successful programs all begin with management commitment.
There are a number of ways management can show their commitment besides financial and resource support. They can factor safety into plans and decisions of the company from construction/renovations to process changes to company policies. Management can also establish rewards and recognition programs for safety participation and achievements as well as making safety a daily part of conversations. At every company event or meeting, a moment can be made available for safety. Safety goals, expectations, achievements, and even the incidents and near misses need to be highlighted through company communication channels.
Worker Participation
Genuine worker participation efforts need to ensure workers feel comfortable about speaking up when issues are found or injuries happen.
You can encourage worker participation through involving them in program design elements, job hazard analyses, site inspections and incident investigations. Programs which allow workers to assess the safety of themselves and those around them are helpful, as are tools for reporting near misses and incidences of good safety practices.
Finding and Fixing Hazards
A strong safety program finds issues and resolves them before they become an issue.
Take a look into your incidents and determine what is the root cause of those? Are you continually having the same issues in your near misses? What are the injuries in your OSHA 300 logs? Is there a correlation? If there are similarities, then you have a place to start. Involve workers and solicit their ideas in how to make those operations safer. Is there a way to do things differently with minimal efforts and investments? Use the hierarchy of controls when determining solutions. Is there a way to remove the hazard completely? Are the controls you currently have in place working or do they need to have some reevaluation?
So How Do You Get It All Accomplished?
There are a lot of pieces that will need to be accomplished. Consider using 1 Stop Compliance as a resource for getting some of these pieces completed.
We have assisted hundreds of companies with their safety programs and have been involved in strengthening safety cultures and putting program elements in place. Not only can iSi be an extra set of hands, but sometimes in developing programs, an experienced third-party to lend ideas or even serve as a mediator can be helpful.
OSHA’s New Weighted System
Inspection weighting has been around since 2015. Prior to that, OSHA would use numbers of inspections completed to count activity. This led to some inspectors loading up on shorter inspections in order to gain quantity while not giving as much credit to those who were doing the long, complex inspections. So, in 2015, a weighting system based on time of completion was developed. However, OSHA found that this was not as ideal as needed either.
The new system factors in agency priorities, inspection impact, and the most hazardous workplaces and operations. Each category of inspection is assigned a numerical value. The most time intensive, complex and high priority inspections gain the most points.
The following is the new points system, from highest value inspection to least value inspection. The points are listed in terms of Enforcement Units, or EUs.
1. Group A: High-Priority, Time-Intense, Complex Cases [7 EUs]
- Criminal Cases
- Significant Cases
2. Group B: High-Priority Hazards, More Complex Than Average [5 EUs]
- Fatalities and Catastrophes
- Chemical Plant National Emphasis Program Inspections
- Process Safety Management Inspections
3. Group C: Focus Four Emphasis Program [3 EUs]
- Caught-In Hazards (trenching, equipment operations, oil & gas)
- Electrical Hazards (overhead power lines, electrical wiring methods)
- Fall Hazards (scaffolds, elevated walking and working surfaces)
- Struck-By Hazards (highway work zones, material handling, landscaping)
4. Group D: Programmed and National Emphasis Program Inspections [2 EUs]
- Amputation Hazards
- Combustible Dust
- Ergonomics
- Federal Agency Inspections
- Heat Hazards
- Non-PEL Overexposures
- Workplace Violence
- Permit Required Confined Space Hazards
- Personal Occupational Exposure Sampling
- Site-Specific Targeting
5. Other Regional/Local Emphasis Programs Not Already Covered (2-3 EUs)
6. Group E: All Other Inspections Not Listed (1 EU)
Phone/fax/email investigations (e.g., complaints) and rapid response investigations earn “activity points.” Each one of these earn 1 activity unit for every 9 completed, so the equivalent of 1/9 EU. Additional enforcement support activities such as responses to Freedom of Information Act requests, electronic correspondence responses, state plan monitoring and interventions have not gotten units assigned yet.
OSHA has weighted their compliance assistance activities as well. This is the hierarchy from most important to least: 1. Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) evaluations, 2. OSHA Strategic Partnerships activities, 3. OSHA Alliances activities, and 4. Compliance Assistance activities such as making presentations and staffing informational booths.
Please note, that OSHA can and will still add on any program area to an inspection if they are already at your facility for another issue.
Why Get a Third-Party Safety Plan Review?
After you complete your safety plan, you will have the option for a third-party review. What is a third-party safety plan review and why would you need one?
Last year, OSHA citations given numbered over 3,600 related to programs. Safety plans are an important part of a company’s overall safety program and provide a handbook for how the company handles a particular safety issue. It’s one of the very first things that a compliance officer will ask to see when he/she arrives onsite, so they are a very visible part of your compliance efforts. Not only are they important to have, but how thorough and correct they are is just as important. This is where third-party reviews come in.
As a Third-party review 1 Stop Compliance can:
- Give You Another Set of Eyes, With Experienced Eyes
- Make Sure All Elements Are Covered
- Help Give You Ideas To Strengthen Your Plan (or Determine Where You May Be Over Committing)
- Provide an Extra Level of Credibility
Having an unbiased, experienced third-party review may provide additional level of credibility to help show regulators that your company wants to make the extra effort to be complete. From our experience, success with OSHA inspections and visits can be boosted by attitude towards compliance. Any time your company can show a sincere effort to do all you can to be compliant, it will appear very favorably for your company to the regulator.
OSHA Enforcement and Compliance Increases in 2019
OSHA’s fiscal year (FY) 2019 final statistics show a significant increase in the number of inspections and a record amount of compliance assistance to further the mission of ensuring that employers provide workplaces free of hazards.
OSHA’s enforcement activities reflect the Department’s continued focus on worker safety. Federal OSHA conducted 33,401 inspections—more inspections than the previous three years –addressing violations related to trenching, falls, chemical exposure, silica and other hazards.
In FY19, OSHA provided a record 1,392,611 workers with training on safety and health requirements through the Agency’s various education programs, including the OSHA Training Institute Education Centers, Outreach Training Program and Susan Harwood Training Grant Program. OSHA’s compliance assistance programs have helped small businesses address safety and health hazards in their workplaces. In FY19, OSHA’s no-cost On-Site Consultation Program identified 137,885 workplace hazards, and protected 3.2 million workers from potential harm.
“OSHA’s efforts – rulemaking, enforcement, compliance assistance and training – are tools to accomplish our mission of safety and health for every worker,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Loren Sweatt. “I am proud of the diligent, hard work of all OSHA personnel who contributed to a memorable year of protecting our nation’s workers.”