Posted by Stephanie on March 8, 2016
Since the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employees have responsibility to provide a healthy and safe workplace for their employees. OSHA, The Occupational Health and Safety Administration enforces standards to ensure safe conditions for America’s workforce. By providing training, education and assistance, the organization minimizes the occurrences of OSHA violations, and helps make workplaces and employees safer.
Top 3 OSHA Violations in 2015
According to EHS Today, at this year’s National Safety Congress OSHA announced its most frequently cited hazardous violations for 2015. Over this past year, the 3 most frequent violations included:
Fall Protection (1926.501)
Fall protection standards are created to prevent falls from happening on the job. Falls are often the most common fatal cause at the workplace. For roofers, the amount of fatal falls is over 60 times more than all other types of occupations combined. In 2015, there were 6,721 citations related to fall protection in the workplace.
Hazard Communication (1910.1200)
Hazardous chemicals produced or present in the workplace must be properly labeled and handled to ensure employee health and safety. There were 5,192 citations for hazard communication in 2015, most of them reportedly being due to lack of training or having a hazard communications program at all.
Scaffolding (1926.451) -4,295
Scaffolding standards require proper railing, decking, and fall arrest systems on your temporary structure. This past year had 4,295 citations violating scaffolding OSHA safety standards, often due to lack of training or unsafe structures.
Other violations in the top 10 for 2015 included Industrial Trucks, Ladders, and Machine Guarding. It’s important for your company to stay up-to-date on OSHA requirements and regulations to prevent injury or death. Citations also lead to costly fines that can easily be avoided by following current OSHA standards.
Resources:
https://ehstoday.com/osha/nsc-2015-osha-s-top-10-violations-2015
Questions? Call 800-404-RACK (7225)
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