Temporary transfers of employees from one department to another often lead to safety violations and accidents.
“Suppose there is a labor shortage in the warehouse and there’s an urgent need to get product onto trucks quickly,” Heppner says. “A call is made to another department that sends one or two workers to help. If these new arrivals do not receive the requisite safety training before they start work, any resulting injury can result in a citation.”
An effective safety program is not a one-and-done affair. As time passes, procedures get modified and new standards are required.
“Every three to six months, it’s wise to go through your program to make sure it is still current,” Heppner says. “Any new safety issues must be addressed.”
Take special care when a new machine is added. Unfamiliar controls can lead to accidents.
“Sometimes equipment vendors will send representatives to provide on-site training,” Witte says. “If employees are not present, managers and supervisors need to be there so they can pass on knowledge about how the machinery can be operated safely.”
Dealing with OSHA
An accident happens. Will the company be fined?
The answer largely depends on how well the company has trained the involved employee and how thoroughly documentation of that training has been maintained. But the employer may also be protected if the employee did not follow mandated safe work practices.
“When a citation is withdrawn by OSHA, it’s usually because the employer was able to establish a so-called ‘employee misconduct defense,’” Foulke says.
For this defense to prevail, the employer must be able to provide a positive answer to each of these four questions:
1. Did the company establish rules that would have prevented the accident?
“The foundation for any safety program is a set of rules that employees must follow,” Principe says. “These can include the use of personal protective equipment as well as safe standard operating procedures.”
2. Were the safety rules communicated to the employee?
“Supervisors must ensure all of the rules are communicated from initial onboarding of the employee to continuing on-the-job training,” Principe says.