subject: Osha Compliance Means Training Employees [print this page] My son visited recently, and told me some of what was required by his latest job. He is an industrial electrician, and has worked in some very interesting places; refineries, oil fields, mines, building new warehouses for national companies, hospitals, and even building an ice cream plant. One thing he is unmovable on is safety training. He has been fired from jobs where conditions were unsafe for him or his crew when he refused to let them work until it was fixed.
These were companies who ended up losing contracts, or their businesses because of ignorance or refusal to comply with OSHA standards. When working in any construction field, safety is a primary concern in this day and age. Non-compliance cannot be swept aside in the push for greater speed or more profit. In this new job, my son had been made supervisor for safety training. He takes this responsibility very seriously, and I was interested in the lengths companies need to go to in order to comply.
One thing he does with his crews is the daily safety meeting. He asks for reports on equipment, and who is or is not certified in safe handling of that equipment. Knowing what is coming up on the job allows him to get personnel trained in plenty of time to work with all the necessary tools before the actual installation occurs. He checks safety equipment, like hard hats in good repair, steel-toed boots, safety lines and buddies on high scaffolding work. My workplace did not put this much effort into safety, but we had more accidents in my day, sometimes fatal ones.
Some experiences can be gained on the job by working with journeymen and masters of the trade, but one effective way to train is to watch safety videos or DVD's in a group setting. Everyone gets the same information, so there is little room for saying, "My supervisor didn't tell me that." OSHA regulations provide for essential information to be passed by employers to employees with certain standards to be maintained.
This gives consistency that is not to be feared so much as respected. All training schools are not equal, although more effort is being made to bring standardization into recognition for licensing. Who wants to work for a company that doesn't have enough respect for their employees to send them home safely to their families at the end of every work day?
