Florida Construction Law

Rules to protect construction workers from falls remained the most commonly violated standards on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) list of most-cited violations for fiscal year 2017, which ended Sept. 30, according to Bloomberg BNA. However, the number of safety violations demonstrated a widespread decrease after years of dropping total inspection numbers. There were about 9,000 fewer inspections in fiscal year 2016 compared with fiscal year 2011. The preliminary violation numbers for last fiscal year also were calculated during a period that was three to four weeks longer than for this year's preliminary numbers. The numbers are preliminary because OSHA inspectors have up to six months following an inspection to issue citations. Construction violations were the most commonly cited, which is not surprising considering construction site visits account for about half of OSHA's inspections. Other construction fall-related violations were lad...

After a few legal fits and starts, as well as extra time for review and input, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's new silica standard for construction is scheduled to go into effect about a month from now, on Sept. 23. What that means is contractors who engage in activities that create silica dust — that is, respirable crystalline silica — such as by cutting, grinding or blasting materials like concrete, stone and brick, must meet a stricter standard for how much of that dust workers inhale. The same goes for employers of tradespeople working around such activities. The new standard also specifies what services employers must make available to workers who are exposed to high levels of silica dust and the training required of those who are at risk. Inhaling silica dust can lead to silicosis, an curable lung disease that can be fatal if severe enough. Those with too much silica exposure can also develop lung cancer, kidney disease and chronic obstructive pulmon...

The long, hot days of summer will be here before we know it. In fact, most of the United States is expected to be hotter than normal June through August 2017, according to the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center. That means heat safety should be top priority in any industrial work environment. To keep your talent safe and productive, employers must educate employees and supervisors alike about the potential dangers of heat stress and heat stroke. Managing the Risk Heat stress occurs when the body in unable to regulate itself by sweating and the core body temperature rises to critical levels. Heat-related illnesses occur when the body is not able to lose enough heat generated by physical work and external heat sources. It is a medical emergency that can lead to cramps, exhaustion, stroke and in severe cases, death. In 2014, 2,630 workers suffered from heat illness and 18 died from heat stroke and related causes on the job, according to OSHA. The good news is...

Short of monitoring employees in the field, it can be difficult to know if they are working to the highest level of productivity. Contractors should consider employment agreements for their employees that spell out expectations and include performance metrics tied into bonuses. In the case of salespersons, it is somewhat easier to know how much of their time is productive as their compensation is directly tied into the number and dollar volume of jobs sold. The salesperson’s employment agreement should specify whether he or she earns a salary plus commission or commission only.  Developing annual sales goals for the team is the best metric to evaluate productivity and whether each person is performing optimally. With multiple members on the sales team, it will be easy to identify underperformers and address the issue. It’s much harder to monitor productivity of other employees, such as installation crews, project managers, and field supervisors. This is where performance metr...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration just delayed the compliance deadline for a rule requiring employers submit worker illness and injury data electronically to the agency. The Labor Department on Wednesday suspended an Obama-era rule requiring that companies electronically report their injury and illness records, a move that effectively keeps these records from being publicly disclosed for the immediate future. Several business groups, including the Associated Builders & Contractors, Associated General Contractors of America and the National Association of Home Builders, had challenged the 2016 Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule in court and lobbied the administration to jettison it on the grounds that it could unfairly damage the reputation of some of their members. Companies have been required to maintain worker injury and illness logs since 1971, and between 1995 and 2012, OSHA had required about 180,000 establishments in high-hazard industrie...

Navigating the OSHA inspection and citation process can be a difficult task. However, if you are prepared prior to receiving an inspection, you are less likely to receive a citation and more likely to enforce applicable safety standards on your projects. This article will focus on a few of the more significant safety tips that contractors should consider implementing on their construction projects. First and foremost, every contractor should have a written safety and health manual that adequately addresses work place safety and is updated frequently. If you have Spanish-speaking workers, your safety manual should be in Spanish as well as English. Each employee should sign and indicate that they have received a copy of the safety manual. The safety manual should be in each truck used by the contractor so that if OSHA requests a copy of the safety manual, the person in charge of the job will have access to the manual upon request. In addition to having an effective safety manual, the...

The struggle between safety and production continues: A new study finds that managers, struggling to meet earnings projections, are willing to sacrifice worker safety and health. New research conducted by Professors Judson Caskey of the UCLA Anderson School of Management and Naim Bugra Ozel from the Naveen Jindal School of Management at UT Dallas and published in the Journal of Accounting and Economics finds that managers of U.S. companies facing market pressures to meet earning expectations may risk the health and safety of workers to please investors. Ozel and Caskey found the cause of the increase in injuries to be related to efforts to increase production and profits by increasing employee workloads and spending less on training or preventative maintenance. Companies that comfortably beat or completely missed analysts' projections had lower injury and illness rates than those companies which appeared to be scrambling to meet or slight exceed analysts' projections. ...

The new rule requires employers in high-hazard industries to send OSHA injury and illness data contained on the OSHA 300 logs. In recent years, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has dramatically increased rulemaking that has impacted the roofing industry. The latest rule requires the public disclosure of workplace injuries and illnesses in an effort to improve tracking efforts and transparency in roofing and other industries. While those are worthy endeavors, this final rule regarding the digital reporting of injuries and illness is, sadly, yet another example of OSHA leadership enacting a final rule without first understanding the real-world implications that the rule will have on the construction industry — roofing in particular. The new rule, which went into effect recently requires employers in high-hazard industries such as roofing to send OSHA injury and illness data contained on the OSHA 300 logs. OSHA will then post this informati...

WASHINGTON – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has scheduled a public meeting to allow interested parties to comment on the proposed rule to improve tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses. OSHA's proposed rule amends its current record keeping regulations to add requirements for the electronic submission of injury and illness information employers are already required to keep under existing standards, Part 1904. The meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014, at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. Requests to attend or speak at the meeting may be submitted electronically at http://www.regulations.gov , the Federal eRulemaking Portal or by mail or facsimile. The deadline to request to attend the meeting as a speaker or observer is Friday, Dec. 13, 2013. See the Federal Register notice for more details. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthfu...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a proposed rule to improve workplace safety and health through improved tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses. The announcement follows the Bureau of Labor Statistics' release of its annual Occupational Injuries and Illnesses report, which estimates that 3 million workers were injured on the job in 2012.  The public will have 90 days, through Feb. 6, 2014, to submit written comments on the proposed rule. On Jan. 9, 2014, OSHA will hold a public meeting on the proposed rule in Washington, D.C.  The proposed rule was developed following a series of stakeholder meetings in 2010 to help OSHA gather information about electronic submission of establishment-specific injury and illness data. OSHA is proposing to amend its current recordkeeping regulations to add requirements for the electronic submission of injury and illness information employers already are required to keep under existing standards, Pa...

The head of the House Small Business Committee asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to delay a workplace safety rule that has been in the works for years. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said in a letter to the agency on Thursday that small companies need more time to weigh in on the draft rule setting an exposure limit for silica dust, which has been linked to fatal lung disease. The 755-page proposed regulation, which was revealed earlier this year, along with a report about how it would affect small businesses, is “a significant amount of information and analysis for small businesses to review,” he wrote. “Extending the deadlines associated with the rule making will help ensure that small businesses and their representatives are able to provide OSHA meaningful comments and data,” he added. The letter from Graves comes days after the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, which looks out for the small businesses’ interests in the ...

If the new rules stand, workers would have to be protected from respirable silica when levels measure above the 50  micro grams  per cubic meter threshold.  Opposition to the proposed requirements is growing. The American Subcontractors Association considers the OSHA proposal "confusing and burdensome." And the National Association of Home Builders has issued a statement objecting to the "one-size-fits-all measure" that suggests the new OSHA ruling could affect how roofers cut asphalt shingles. However, it is not immediately clear that cutting shingles would be included under the new rules. OSHA clearly directs the ruling at "operations involving cutting, sawing, drilling, and crushing of concrete, brick, block and other stone products and in operations using sand products, such as in glass manufacturing, foundries and sand blasting." The ASA and NAHB have joined nine other builder trade associations opposing the new rule, while labor unions are lining ...

With the exception of “imminent danger” to life or property and other emergency situations, OSHA’s investigation and enforcement activities will cease during the shutdown.

ABC and members of the newly formed Construction Industry Safety Coalition, a group of national construction industry trade associations, expressed concern over a proposal from OSHA addressing crystalline silica exposure in the construction industry. On Aug. 23, OSHA proposed drastically lowering the existing permissible exposure limit (PEL) for silica, prescribed control methods that contradict existing safety practice, and mandated new recordkeeping and training requirements. Independent studies have estimated compliance with similar provisions to cost $1 billion to $2 billion per year. “OSHA still has not explained how a lowered PEL will be effective at reducing the number of silica-related illnesses, particularly when the agency has admitted its failure to properly enforce the existing standard,” said ABC Vice President of Government Affairs Geoff Burr. “The agency clearly missed an opportunity to take a cost-effective approach while still improving compliance and worker safet...

NRCA University will offer NRCA University Webinar: New OSHA HazComm Rules: What You Must Do Sept. 19 at noon CST .  As of Dec. 1, revisions to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) Hazard Communication standard will take effect. Full compliance will not be required until 2016, but OSHA is requiring employees to be trained to understand the new labeling elements (such as pictograms, hazard statements, precautionary statements and signal words) and safety data sheet format by the Dec. 1 effective date.  During the one-hour webinar, NRCA Director of Risk Management Harry Dietz will explain the changes to the regulations and outline exactly what steps you must take by certain dates to ensure you are in compliance with the new OSHA rules.  The webinar is free for members and $55 for nonmembers. For more information or to register,  click here .  (From NRCA) Trenton H. Cotney Florida Bar Certified Construction Lawyer ...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a final rule that will require all federal agencies to submit their OSHA-required injury and illness data to the Bureau of Labor Statistics every year. This data will allow OSHA to analyze the injuries and illnesses that occur among the more than 2 million federal agency workers, as well as develop training and inspection programs to respond to the hazards identified.  Other changes to the recordkeeping rule include amending the date when agencies must submit their annual reports to the secretary of labor and the date when the secretary must submit a report to the president. The rule will also restate that volunteers are considered employees of federal agencies and explain how volunteers' injuries should be recorded in agency injury and illness logs. The rule will clarify the definition of federal establishment and explain when contract employees should be included in an agency's log.  Collection of esta...

According to OSHA’s latest semiannual regulatory agenda, released July 3, the agency plans to issue two new proposals related to recordkeeping and cranes and derricks in construction. The regulatory agenda lists the priorities of the administration and the rulemakings they expect to release this year; however, OSHA is not required to adhere to the timeline. Recordkeeping New to OSHA’s agenda is a proposed rule with a target release date of November, which would amend its recordkeeping regulations. The proposal would, “clarify that the duty to make and maintain accurate records of work-related injuries and illnesses is an ongoing obligation.”  According to the agency, if the employer fails to create a record when first required to do so, the duty does not expire. OSHA’s timing of the new rulemaking is notable in light of a recent recordkeeping case involving an ABC member, in which the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that a company’s fa...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced a new national emphasis program (NEP) to protect workers from serious health effects caused by occupational exposure to isocyanates.  OSHA develops NEPs to focus outreach efforts and inspections on specific hazards in an industry for a three-year period. Through this NEP, OSHA will make efforts to reduce occupational illnesses and deaths by focusing on workplaces in general, construction and maritime industries that use isocyanate compounds.  Isocyanates are chemicals used in materials such as paints, varnishes, auto body repair and building insulation and can cause occupational asthma; irritation of the skin, eyes, nose and throat; and cancer. Deaths have occurred because of asthma and hypersensitivity pneumonitis from isocyanate exposure. Respiratory illnesses also can be caused by isocyanate exposure to the skin. Jobs that involve exposure to isocyanates include spray-on polyurethane manufacturing...