Mowing OSHA is watching

[Baby Grand]

Tuttle, the renegade HVAC repairman!
Did they ever catch him?

 

[Short Game]

Tuttle, the renegade HVAC repairman!
Did they ever catch him?

The paperwork got him in the end. RIP

 

[Kernopelli]

I wanted to add to this thread with a recent OHSHA tale involving a friend who is a roofing contractor. Earlier this year he had an agent show up on a residential job for a spot inspection and left him with a cumulative $10,000+ in fines for 3 separate violations. He was at first told that he could make a formal appeal but it would likely not result in a reduction in fines. He told the agent through phone communications that he did not want to file a formal appeal but would like to try to negotiate. The agent said he would have to discuss it with his supervisor and a month or so passed between each communication but each time they offered him reductions to the fines. Last week he was contacted by the agent and was told his supervisor had given him approval to settle for $3,200. My buddy flatly refused him :shocked: and told him he couldn't afford it and said he could give them $1000...period.:thumbsup: He then said if forced into collection, court procedures or whatever it is they do at this juncture he was just going to have to file a formal appeal and they could try to get any fines levied.....he had a $1000 bucks. Good luck.

The agent hem hawed for a second and without even putting him on hold said "OK, I'm certain my supervisor will approve $1000 with the stipulation that you report all future jobs for the next 6 months before starting them". My buddy wrote them a check and filled out some paper work they had already given him and sent it off. Yesterday he received his official notification that his ordeal was settled. The kicker is, the agent had seen his operation, knew he had been in business 20+ years, how many employees he had, seen a list of past and present jobs, etc and had to be able to surmise that my friend wasn't a fly by night operation, that he very likely had a reasonable cash flow and certainly had assets. Yet he settled for a greatly reduced amount because my buddy simply stood his ground and acted poor.........Cool,whatever works.

$10,000+ reduced to $1000 without an appeal or any real threats of being hauled to court or jail. The whole thing really flies in the face of everything I've heard or thought I knew about how they operate. My advice to anyone facing a similar situation is sit back for a while and be cool. Let them make the follow up contacts etc. and if they pressure you to settle quickly tell them the trouble with being poor is it takes up all your time....you'll do what you can when you can. This strategy worked well for my buddy.

 

[JB4310]

I wanted to add to this thread with a recent OHSHA tale involving a friend who is a roofing contractor. Earlier this year he had an agent show up on a residential job for a spot inspection and left him with a cumulative $10,000+ in fines for 3 separate violations.

$10,000+ reduced to $1000 without an appeal or any real threats of being hauled to court or jail. The whole thing really flies in the face of everything I've heard or thought I knew about how they operate. My advice to anyone facing a similar situation is sit back for a while and be cool. Let them make the follow up contacts etc. and if they pressure you to settle quickly tell them the trouble with being poor is it takes up all your time....you'll do what you can when you can. This strategy worked well for my buddy.

Mine was $25,000. reduced to $2,500. because I was a small business with less than x number of employees.
This was federal guidelines though not a human decision.

I'm assuming this (your friend's situation) was with a state agency, not federal OSHA.
Feds usually have no process to make decisions like that, that would be way to efficient for them, unfortunately

Also feds would not normally just show up on a residential job, unless someone got killed on the job.

I had my run in with the fed OSHA because I was working on a church in our capitol city, to close to the federal office building. Even though this was a quiet one way side street. They spotted a large scaffold set up and stated to me that they were forced to act because they basically stumbled upon the site. Apparently they enjoyed the free parking that street offered, or they were just cutting through.

JB

 

[Mark Page]

OSHA damned near put my father out his 25 year old printing business with BS fines of $50,000. The one thing I remember was not having and illuminated exit sign over the one door to the shop. The old man said "you got in here and you've forgotten how to get out".
He was so angry he called the lawyer who made it all go away for a $1,500 fee.
The oldest lie in the world:
I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.

 

[Dead Horse]

Government is a disease.......... this is the proof.

Liars, cheats and thieves, every one of them.

 

[jpm1]

I guess if you look at it OSHA is a value to the Working class but. . . The Gov. as far as im concerned over steps their authority and places unreasonable fines on the back bone of the country without giving us a chance to fix the problem on the spot! Their a bunch of Money Hungry Thives!. . .This is only my opinion remember, John

 

[jake98]

How do they come up with their numbers?? Almost seems like they pick a price that they know would put someone out of business.. :confused2:

 

[speedy2]

In 1980 I was pushing a crew of carpenters on a power house construction job and we were told two weeks ahead of time when OSHA would be there so we could clean up the jobsite and put plastic knobs on the ends of rebar that stuck out of the concrete. And put up hand rails where there were none. After they were gone everything went back to normal. It sounded pretty d**m dumb to me, don't you think? But that's the Government for you!

 

[hizoot]

Doesnt this put you in mind of the gustapo? I am all for safety,but come on.....fines for having paint in a coffee can? hardhat in a classroom installing blank off plates? geezus....whens the revolution?