Is Your Company In Compliance?
When is it not a good time to find out your company is not in compliance with OSHA standards?
-
When a compliance officer arrives to conduct an unannounced compliance inspection.
-
An employee files a complaint with OSHA about unsafe working conditions.
-
A referral complaint is filed by another government agency to OSHA about their observations at your facility.
-
Your company has had a serious injury, three or more employees hospitalized for the same accident or a fatality in the workplace.
-
A third party files a complaint to OSHA about your company.
-
Your company has an unusually high workers compensation accident rate.
OSHA was signed into law in 1970 by President Nixon as a department within the U.S. Department of Labor to make sure employers are providing a safe and healthful work environment free of known hazards which may cause injury, illness or death. When an OSHA inspector shows up at your place of business, he/she is there to insure your company is in compliance with the etablished safety standards which are the minimum requirements set forth by federal law.
What are some of the advatages of having a safety program and being in compliance with OSHA standards?
- Reduced accidents.
- Reduced workers compensation premiums.
- Imporved employee morale.
- Lower employee turnover.
- Overall reduced operating cost.
- Increased profits.
- Reduced damage to equipment and property.
- Reduce the possibility of an OSHA inspection.
If during an OSHA inspection of your facility a compliance officer finds safety violations of the standards, your company will be cited and possibily fined. Even with the citation and fines, you will still be required to correct the safety violations and bring your facility into compliance with OSHA standards, and the corrections must be done within the time frame they establish in the citation.
To make a long story short, it is much easier and cost effective to be compliant with OSHA standards then to be cited and fined for not being compliant.
If your company does not have a safety program, maybe today is the time to begin implementing a comprehensive safety program.