A. S. General Construction, penalized $188,000 by OSHA, can be viewed as what may become the first of many difficult years for Single Family Homebuilders.
Although there are some homebuilders that are doing everything possible to make their operations as safe as possible, the Home Construction industry has historically had a reputation for having a relaxed view of safety when it comes to OSHA compliance. An OSHA Compliance Officer in Texas said last year, “Home Construction compliance is the last Wild West of safety, and that will change.”
Public Shaming Campaign
Various OSHA Area Directors have already been actively engaging in a public shaming campaign on the Home Building industry over the years with little-to-no effect in compliance improvements.
“A repeat citation for fall protection, especially from a building manufacturer of modular home structures like Cavco, shows a complete lack of responsibility for the safety of its workers,” said Casey Perkins, OSHA’s area director in Austin. “The employer failed to find and fix serious hazards that put worker safety in jeopardy. OSHA will not tolerate such negligence.”
“Subfloor Systems put its workers in harm’s way and exposed them to preventable fall injuries. Employers are responsible for providing training and fall protection,” said Josh Bernstein, OSHA’s acting area director in Fort Worth, Texas. “Subfloor Systems did neither. The company must take corrective action immediately before another worker needlessly suffers injury or worse because of its neglect.”
“The danger to these employees was real and present and known to this employer. Not only did A S General Construction not provide required fall protection, it did not train the employees to work safely on scaffolds and had the workers climbing damaged and improperly set up ladders. The result was that these workers were steps or seconds away from deadly or disabling falls,” said Anthony Covello, OSHA’s area director for Essex and Middlesex counties.
OSHA’s Accumulating Weaponry
Homebuilders who once considered the risk of OSHA fines “Another cost of doing business” are in for a rough ride in 2016. Recent and expected changes to OSHA standards and rules are hitting the construction industry include the new Hazard Communication Standard, Confined Spaces in Construction, the impending new Silica Standard, OSHA’s penalties increasing by 80% and a rising rate of OSHA violations resulting in criminal case referrals. These changes are going to require a substantial amount of work for builders to implement, let alone all of the other standards they are supposed to be following already.
OSHA Could Become A Regular Visitor
Simply ignoring safety hazards exposed to workers and perhaps ignoring hazard abatement directives from OSHA aren’t a viable option for homebuilders either. Besides increased chances for employers to be the subject of criminal charges and possibly a prison sentence, OSHA could slap a company with inclusion in the dreaded SVEP (Severe Violators Enforcement Program). The program focuses on recalcitrant employers that endanger workers by committing willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations. Under the program, OSHA may inspect any of the employer’s facilities if it has reasonable grounds to believe there are similar violations.
SVEP is a particularly invasive and unpleasant program in which to be a member, but no company has yet figured out how to exit the program successfully. In fact, so far, the best way to exit the program is to avoid being placed in the program in the first place.
Is Exiting SVEP Possible?
It is nearly impossible to successfully exit the SVEP program. The criteria for employers whose SVEP-qualifying citations become a Final Order require waiting three years after successfully being implemented into SVEP, and during that period, the employer must: