You’ve seen it in the news before: “Business shut down due to OSHA violations”. Whether it was the owner of a construction company not providing the proper safety gear, or from an employee who didn’t follow safety protocol, OSHA violations can be the downfall of any roofing business.
For the benefit of the roofing community, a list of the top 10 OSHA violations can be found below:
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- Fall Protection: Violations – 6,721 (1926.501)
“Historically, falls are the leading cause of fatalities in construction, accounting for about one-third of all fatalities in the industry.” Many of these falls occur from 6 feet or more above ground level. Roofing is still a major concern. - Hazard Communication: Violations – 5,192 (1910.1200)
Not having Safety Data Sheets (SDS), failure to train, and improper or missing container labels. Patrick Kapust (OSHA’s Deputy Director of the Directoriate of Enforcement Programs) reiterated it was important to provide training in a language employees will understand. - Scaffolding: Violations – 4,295 (1926-451)
Improper use of cross bracing and a lack of fall arrest systems. Scaffolding violations are a contributing factor to fall fatalities. - Respiratory Protection: Violations – 3,305 (1910.134)
Ensuring employees are physically able to wear respirators (respirator fit tests) and ensuring proper respirators are available. - Lockout/Tagout: Violations – 3,002 (1910.147)
“Failure to control hazardous energy accounts for nearly 10 percent of the serious accidents in many industries.” Procedures must follow written program along with employee training. - Powered Industrial Trucks: Violations – 2,760 (1910.178)
There is an increase of employees not being trained/certified to operate equipment. Retraining is also not occurring on a 3-year cycle. - Ladders: Violations – 2,489 (1926.1053)
Most violations are coming from employees using ladders with structural defects (these need to be tagged out of service). There is also an increase of the user of ladders that do not extend the proper distance above the roofline for stability. - Electrical Wiring Methods: Violations – 2,404 (1910.305)
When installing wiring, failure to ensure proper grounding or to limit exposure to dust or flammable vapors can lead to fires, shocks, injuries, and electrocutions. - Machine Guarding: Violations – 2,295 (1910.212)
Increased reports of amputations and hospitalizations with new recordkeeping requirements. - Electrical-General: Violations – 1,973 (1910.303)
Most citations were issued for not installing and using equipment according to the instructions. Proper spacing around equipment and using approved cabinets to guard live parts operating at 50 volts or more.
We care about each other’s safety in our group and strongly encourage everyone to get proper OSHA training. We also feel it’s important to openly talk about how each of us are keeping our crews safe in day to day operations.
Safety is one of the many different topics we cover at the private dinner we offer at Conklin’s MR commercial roof systems training. We also discuss the best product demonstrations and marketing strategies to land large projects consistently. To learn more, visit Conklin MR Training with Support & Knowledge from Successful Contractors.