Where is OSHA when you need them...

[Industrial Toys]

Making sure, no one has ripped the tags off the ladders?

 

[grsthegreat]

Them OSHA Bas****s seam to think that they can go anywhere they want. they never used to pester residential contractors up here in N. Idaho until a few years ago. now they do. I got fined ...that is to say my boss got fined... on a commercial high school gym job i was working on. i was on cherry picker about 50' in air and i tied my harness off to the red iron on the framing. The gym floor was still dirt as this was winter and ground was frozen. i would descend fully before moving due to rough terrain. but when i was up working on the lights i roped off to the red iron. That rig did not seem very sturdy to me, and my pucker factor meter was on high alert. OSHA pig yelled for be to come down. i did. he read me the riot act about needing to secure to lift...not to the red iron. I basically told him to Go to He**. if that lift tipped over i want to stay up tied off to the iron ...not falling 50' to my death. the boss came over and agreed with me. OSHA pig refused to budge. so the boss said get back to work and tie off to iron, he'll pay the fine. im not sure what the result of the whole thing was, but i got the job completed.

 

[Citydude]

Why the farging bleep would OSHA be on your property?

They weren’t. They stayed on the street. It was my house in town.

 

[Citydude]

Making sure, no one has ripped the tags off the ladders?

 

[Jstpssng]

That picture could also be captioned "Why women live longer"...

 

[Industrial Toys]

/Spinal Fluid on the sidewalk.

 

[spitter]

OSHA isn't allowed to enter a job unless they are called . Then they have to announce their pressense. Then they can start their inspection . Most osha fines are setteled for 10 cents on a dollar. GC on on of our jobs got 650,000 $ in fines wound up settleing for 2,500$:confused3:

 

[Motorboatin]

Two of my guys got pinched by OSHA a few years ago. They were replacing balcony rails on a four story apartment building and gaining access to the units off an 80' boom lift. While in the lift they were tied off to the cage and when on the balcony they were tied off to an OSHA approved anchor point. The inspector fined us for them not being tied off to both points while hopping off the lift onto the balcony

I explained to the inspector the instructions I gave to the guys for transferring to the balcony and he said they followed them but my method was not OSHA approved. My instructions were to stay tied to the cage while on the lift and one guy was to go onto the balcony and install the anchor point. The guy on the lift was to disconnect the two life lines and toss them to the guy on the balcony who then tied the lines off to the anchor on the balcony and the other guy was to transfer to the balcony. This seemed to me to be the logical way of transferring to the balcony but the inspector gave me his "approved" method

According to OSHA both guys have to be tied off to the boom and the anchor before they could safely transfer to the balcony. When I pointed out the obvious flaw to his logic he ignored it and proceeded to tell me how much the fine would be. Once I received the $8,000 fine I called to appeal it and got it reduced to $100 since the person I was talking to couldn't figure out how we were supposed to tie off to an OSHA approved anchor that didn't exist until we installed it :duh:

 

[grsthegreat]

Two of my guys got pinched by OSHA a few years ago. They were replacing balcony rails on a four story apartment building and gaining access to the units off an 80' boom lift. While in the lift they were tied off to the cage and when on the balcony they were tied off to an OSHA approved anchor point. The inspector fined us for them not being tied off to both points while hopping off the lift onto the balcony

I explained to the inspector the instructions I gave to the guys for transferring to the balcony and he said they followed them but my method was not OSHA approved. My instructions were to stay tied to the cage while on the lift and one guy was to go onto the balcony and install the anchor point. The guy on the lift was to disconnect the two life lines and toss them to the guy on the balcony who then tied the lines off to the anchor on the balcony and the other guy was to transfer to the balcony. This seemed to me to be the logical way of transferring to the balcony but the inspector gave me his "approved" method

According to OSHA both guys have to be tied off to the boom and the anchor before they could safely transfer to the balcony. When I pointed out the obvious flaw to his logic he ignored it and proceeded to tell me how much the fine would be. Once I received the $8,000 fine I called to appeal it and got it reduced to $100 since the person I was talking to couldn't figure out how we were supposed to tie off to an OSHA approved anchor that didn't exist until we installed it :duh:

Yup......now that sounds like a typical government employee goofball. They typically are book trained, never having any real practical experience.

 

[Industrial Toys]

But a guy making a good living, with you paying his salary, and a nice pension to look forward to. Contrast that to the working stiff just trying to make a living!

I love our laws about tying off while using a ladder above a certain height. Again, often to what? The ladder?

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I suspect that the OSHA inspectors are like the EPA inspectors; they are box checkers and don't know how, or even want to, deal with something that doesn't quite fit into their little check list.

 

[Sigarms]

Guys, OSHA is no different than any other organization with "power". You have good guys who use common sense, and you have bad guys who let the power of their position get to them and they become pricks.

One company I worked had two work related non employee deaths inside two different business locations (long story, but both electricians couldn't get to the lights so they decided to use a forklift and a chair). I'm pretty certain the payout on insurance and premiums after the fact would of made getting the right tool for the job look like peanuts as long as the job was done safely in the first place.

This past January, a guy I knew was killed on the jobsite. A dump truck crushed him. In his 50's, left a wife and two kids. Bad luck if anything given the circumstances he was put in.

If you need to get something done, as long as it's done and no one is hurt, who cares? The issue becomes when someone is hurt and what could of been done to prevent the injury because the company was looking at costs vs the odds of loss of human life put intentially in a "stupid" position while working in the first place?

When I look at the picture I posted per this thread, I wonder why a mini split now and not when the building was built.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I remember back in the very early 70s I watched commercials regarding construction safety, intently. I remember the one about how backing a dump truck without flagman was illegal. I don't think I have seen one dump truck being backed up with a flagman in my life, since that time.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Think of it from this perspective...there was a time when there were no protections for a worker. If he got killed or injured, it was up to the employer's good will if he or his family received anything. The worker had "accepted the risk". Workman's comp laws have improved conditions for some industries, and even eliminated some others.