“We can’t just tell employees to be safe,” there needs to be a safety game plan, cautioned Ed Foulke, former Secretary of Labor for OSHA, now an attorney with employment law firm Fisher Phillips, in a joint OSHA-NATE webinar on Thursday.
“Our job is to ensure when employees make mistakes they don’t get seriously injured or killed,” he said during the event titled “Preparing Effective Job Safety Analysis (JSAs) and Pre-Job Meetings.”
Preparation includes assessing the scope of the work, identifying specific tasks, materials and potential hazards. The value of JSAs are fewer employee injuries, more effective worker safety methods, reduced worker compensation costs and increased employee productivity. Foulke suggested companies get their workers engaged in safety.
Companies should review their accident safety history, including OSHA 300 and 301 logs, and perform a risk assessment, especially jobs new to your operation, those that have undergone a change in procedure, complex jobs or rarely performed jobs. Procedures change over time, said Foulke. Addressing towerco executives who may have come up through the climber ranks, he said there are new hazards associated with the additional gear being attached to towers these days.
Methods to control risk include engineering, administrative or personal protective equipment. He sees drones used for inspections as a way to cut risk for tower climbers.
Section 4.4 of ANSI A10.42-2016 regulations require job hazard assessments to be performed daily. On the job site, Foulke said communications need to be coordinated between the tower owner, engineers, general contractor and subcontractors. That includes everyone knowing who is responsible for what specific duties. He’s handled 400 fatality cases. Usually the accident occurred “because people didn’t know what their roles and responsibilities were. They assumed the other guy was doing it.”
Before the on-site meeting, Foulke suggests conducting a pre-job meeting so everyone involved can identify potential hazards and develop a way to eliminate or mitigate hazards; they should establish an emergency plan, develop a rigging plan, post safety warning signs and create a specific rescue plan.
December 8, 2017
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