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May 18, 2018 By AMK

OSHA fines contractor and temp staffing agency $152,618

A worker died because a contractor failed to protect the worker, and a temp labor agency failed to ensure worker received safety training.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited All Power Construction Corporation of Huntsville, Alabama and staffing agency Labor Finders of Tennessee Inc. after a temporary employee installing sewer lines suffered a fatal injury in a trench collapse in Huntsville. All Power Construction Corp. faces $139,684 in proposed penalties and Labor Finders of Tennessee Inc. faces the maximum allowed $12,934 in proposed penalties.

OSHA issued willful and serious citations to All Power Construction on November 7, 2017 for allowing employees to work in a trench without cave-in protection, failing to provide a safe means to enter and exit the trench, and not having a competent person inspect the trench to identify potential hazards.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.constructionequipment.com/osha-fines-contractor-and-temp-staffing-agency-152618

See OSHA’s trenching and excavation standards at: https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/trenchingexcavation/standards.html

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: compliance, construction, excavation, fine, hazard, OSHA, safety, standards, trenching

March 16, 2017 By AMK

Georgia Tech launches State’s first Professional Master’s degree in occupational safety and health

Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE), in collaboration with Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), has partnered with the Georgia Tech College of Design and its School of Building Construction to offer a Professional Master’s degree in Occupational Safety and Health (PMOSH), the first of its kind in Georgia.

The program is designed to prepare leaders in the field with the knowledge and skills to manage complex safety and health programs.

“This Professional Master’s degree in Occupational Safety and Health reflects how close we and the School of Building Construction faculty are to the building industry, and how as academics, we can address the needs of builders and building managers,” said Georgia Tech College of Design Dean and John Portman Chair, Steven P. French. “The same changes in technology that have impacted how architects and engineers design buildings are also affecting how construction safety specialists do their jobs. It’s exciting to lead the state in creating safer environments for people who work in the spaces we design.”

The professional master’s program was developed in response to a growing need in the state for a highly qualified workforce in the occupational safety and health (OS&H) field. According to the Georgia Department of Labor, employment for OS&H specialists is projected to grow 7.3 percent from 2012 to 2022, and only 18 percent of safety related professionals have a master’s degree. In 2013 alone, 2,753 positions in this field required a master’s degree, an increase of 60 percent since 2010.

“As the professional education division of Georgia Tech, we have the expertise and learning technologies to design and deliver educational programs to respond to specific workforce challenges,” said Nelson Baker, dean, Georgia Tech Professional Education. “This degree answers the need for advanced education in this field. It will contribute to improved safety and competitive advantage for state companies, and will be an asset for the state of Georgia.”

PMOSH is an academically rigorous degree featuring faculty experts from the College of Design’s School of Building Construction as well as leading industry professionals from GTRI, where the Georgia Tech OSHA Training Institute Education Center was established in 1992. “The OSHA Training Institute Education Center has made a lasting impact on practitioners of safety and health programs in the southeastern United States,” said Joe Brooks, deputy director, Georgia Tech Research Institute. “This new Professional Master’s in Occupational Safety and Health program will provide leaders in the occupational safety and health field with a deep technical background and strong applications practice, helping to drive state and national growth.”

Geared to working professionals in manufacturing, process, construction and related industries, the program aims to prepare safety specialists for positions of leadership in the OS&H field. PMOSH features a management component that addresses leadership and communication as well as business aspects of OS&H management in addition to fundamentals of OS&H and related standards, and technology and its implementation to support OS&H.

The program incorporates case studies and practical projects that require learners to solve real-world problems in this field. Delivery of PMOSH includes online instruction and one-week, on-campus sessions three times during the two-year program, which begins in the 2017 academic year. Learn more about the Professional Master’s in Occupational Safety and Health.

 

Source: https://gtri.gatech.edu/casestudy/georgia-tech-launches-state-s-first-professional-m

About Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE)

Georgia Tech Professional Education, an academic division of the Georgia Institute of Technology, offers professional development courses, certificate programs, online master’s and professional master’s degrees in a variety of formats to meet the needs of working professionals and industry partners in STEM and business fields worldwide. We educate over 22,000 individual learners representing close to 3,000 companies annually. Visit Georgia Tech Professional Education. GTPE Media Contact: Danielle Goss, danielle.goss@pe.gatech.edu, 404-385-2510.

About Georgia Tech College of Design

Georgia Tech’s College of Design takes a research-driven approach to what is clearly an art at traditional design schools. We think it’s important to understand how technology enables better design, and how to fuse that technology into buildings, products, lifestyles, cities, regions, and even healthcare. Our design is a particularly creative approach to solving real-world problems. Visit Georgia Tech College of Design 

About Georgia Tech Research Institute

The Georgia Tech Research Institute solves complex problems through innovative and customer-focused research and education. Established in 1934, GTRI is Georgia Tech’s non-profit, applied research arm with more than 2,000 staff, 15 locations, eight laboratories and annual contract awards exceeding $350 million. Learn more at Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Filed Under: Georgia Tech News Tagged With: Georgia Tech, GTPE, GTRI, health, OSHA, PMOSH, safety

March 18, 2013 By AMK

Georgia Tech’s OSHA program awards certificates to 18 Robins AFB employees

Georgia Tech Professional Education has awarded occupational safety and health certificates to 18 employees at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Ga., extending Georgia Tech’s relationship with the U.S. Air Force.

The Robins employees completed a series of courses to earn the professional certificates, which were awarded in late February 2013.

Georgia Tech Professional Education partnered with Georgia Tech Research Institute, the university’s applied research arm, to offer the training at Robins. For more than 30 years, Georgia Tech’s occupational safety and health program has helped keep workers safe, growing to offer 43 short courses, eight professional certificates and customized training.

“We are proud to offer our depth of experience and knowledge of OSHA regulations in this partnership with Robins Air Force Base. By learning onsite, the employees have received certificates from a major engineering school recognized nationally and internationally,” said Daniel J. Ortiz, M.P.H., C.S.P., manager of GTRI’s Occupational Safety and Health Program Office.

The training program saved the base $237,000 in travel and other costs and resulted in new safety programs implemented across the facility, according to David Decker with the 78th Air Base Wing Safety Office at Robins. The 78th Air Base Wing, OSHA and the American Federation of Government Employees Local 987 were essential to Georgia Tech Professional Education’s ability to provide the training.

“This is a critical partnership,” said Brig. Gen. Cedric George, commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex. “I know it wasn’t easy. Georgia Tech doesn’t do easy.”

In 2011, Robins reached out to GTRI professionals, who are Georgia Tech Professional Education instructors, for assistance with occupational safety and health. Safety is a priority at the installation, which has more than 20,000 civilian and military personnel in a variety of careers.

Georgia Tech Professional Education instructors worked with senior leadership from the 78th Air Base wing and from the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex (WR-ALC), which provides depot level maintenance for USAF aircraft and systems.

Beginning with two courses in occupational safety and health, Georgia Tech Professional Education and GTRI formed a relationship with Robins around the need to develop and implement a safety management system. An additional nine courses, including the OSHA Guide to Industrial Hygiene and Machinery and Machine Guarding Standards, were taught on base, helping employees earn the certificates.

The courses included classroom lectures and hands-on training. The instructors incorporated challenges Robins employees faced into the class material.

“We were able to use examples based on our experience at Robins,” said James B. Howry, senior research associate at GTRI’s Electronic Systems Laboratory. “We integrated our subject matter expertise as we understood their challenges.”

The savings to the taxpayer was “tremendous,” said Roger Hayes, chief of WR-ALC Safety, who leads a team of 30 safety professionals overseeing over 16,000 workers. He estimates he was able to spend about $4,000 on one course for 20 employees, instead of paying $1,500 per employee to attend a course away from the base.

“The relationship with Robins Air Force Base is a great example of how Georgia Tech Professional Education can meet an organization’s specific needs and provide affordable training by bringing courses to worksites,” said Myrtle I. Turner, Ph.D., M.P.H., C.E.T., director of Georgia Tech’s OSHA Training Institute Education Center, which is one of four original centers across the U.S.

During the February ceremony at Robins, 17 employees were awarded an Industrial Safety and Health Certificate, and one individual received a Construction Safety and Health Certificate.

“Robins Air Force Base respected and identified with the professional credentials that come with a certificate from Georgia Tech,” Howry added.

The program also offered the opportunity to further strengthen safety education, while continuing to improve work processes and assist employees.

“It’s been awesome,” said Lt. Col. Nate Tart, of the 78th Air Base Wing. “With such a diverse group of people in the course, it helped make it a better experience. Some of us have a flight safety background, and it was good to hear the industrial safety perspective.”

Having the opportunity to earn a professional certificate from a prestigious university shows an employer’s dedication and commitment to safety and the workforce, said Robert Tidwell, 402nd Commodities Maintenance Group aircraft sheet metal mechanic and an American Federation of Government Employees Local 987 safety representative.

“When I’m out in the workforce, I can offer insight and help resolve safety concerns or put out safety issues that will potentially keep people from getting hurt,” he said. “Our ultimate goal is safety for our workforce.”

Filed Under: Georgia Tech News Tagged With: Air Force, cost reduction, cost savings, education, Georgia Tech, GTRI, OSHA, safety, training

June 2, 2011 By AMK

Obama’s regulatory chief announces reforms at 30 agencies

Fleshing out agency responses to President Obama’s push to rethink regulations, Office of Information and Regulatory Administrator Cass Sunstein on Thursday announced alterations to long-standing rules under way at 30 federal agencies that together, he said, could save billions in dollars and millions of staff hours.

In his summary of agency progress 120 days after Obama’s Jan. 18 executive order, Sunstein said current paperwork reduction efforts at the Transportation and Labor departments and the Environmental Protection Agency alone could save $1 billion and tens of millions of work hours for state and local governments. He spoke at a talk titled “A Regulatory Look-Back: A First Look” at the American Enterprise Institute, his former employer, and he published a related op-ed on “21st-Century Regulation” in the May 26 Wall Street Journal.

The Obama initiative, Sunstein said, is “a corrective to national debate on regulation that has become polarized and stylized in a way not helpful. One side,” he said, “defends reductions in deaths on the highway, fighting fraud and abuse, keeping air and water clean and our food safe. But more recently, the other side says such regulations impair competitiveness, undermine innovation and ultimately cost jobs.

“They are legitimate arguments, but we can’t be solving serious problems in the abstract. The polarized debate is stuck in the past.”

A modern regulatory approach, he said, cannot rely on “anecdotes or intuition,” but instead must move toward “real-world random testing” of the benefits and harms of regulations. This requires “a change in culture in Washington to focus constantly on what is and what is not working,” he said. In the future, “agencies must hard-wire such scrutiny into agency processes.”

Today’s professional regulators “know much more than they knew during the New Deal and the Great Society,” or even during the 1980s and 1990s, he added. “Now we have state-of-the-art technology for cataloging the impact, risks and costs of regulations. Sometimes in reducing one risk, you increase another and there are ancillary harms,” he said. “But there are also ancillary benefits, and lives are saved.” What is desirable, he said, is “free choice, which both provides liberty and costs less.” Simpler regulations and public disclosure “help produce informed choices and creative approaches,” Sunstein said.

Sunstein made a bid to bridge the partisan divide. “It’s true that people’s values differ, but when the evidence is clear, it will lead in a direction even if there is an intensive difference in values. If a regulation brings big costs and little benefit, then citizens are unlikely to like it regardless of whether they are elephants or donkeys,” he said.

Examples of agencies’ current work include 70 initiatives at Transportation, 50 reforms at the Health and Human Resources Department, and 12 short-term high-priority projects at EPA. The Treasury Department has a five-year paperless initiative that will save 12 million pounds of paper and $400 million, Sunstein said.

EPA recently decided that that classifying milk as an oil — and thus requiring precautions to prevent oil spills — was an unjustifiable burden on dairy farmers, and so the resulting easing of rules will save industry $1 billion in the next decade. Similarly, EPA determined that gas stations no longer need air pollution recovery systems because modern vehicles do the job, saving upwards of $60 million annually, he said. And the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, he said, will save millions of dollars by eliminating 1.9 million annual hours of redundant employer reporting.

“Many of the [reforms] focus on the small businesses that create jobs,” Sunstein said. “And some are a fundamental rethinking of how things have been done.”

He is also determined to rid the Code of Federal Regulations of references to countries that “no longer exist.”

Laying out four principles, Sunstein said modern regulations should encourage public participation through ready access to scientific and technical information; should be harmonized and simplified to boost innovation; should use quantification to catalog costs and benefits; and emphasize freedom of choice, which “promotes compliance.”

In response to a questioner, Sunstein acknowledged that some of the recent changes were expansions of regulations rather than eliminations.

The National Association of Manufacturers, which has long been critical of Obama’s approach to regulation, reacted to Sunstein’s announcement with a statement: “Manufacturers are encouraged by the Obama administration’s efforts to streamline or remove several outdated and unnecessary regulations to allow manufacturers to focus on what matters most — creating jobs and economic growth. However, manufacturing workers will not fully benefit until the crushing burden of proposed new regulations is brought under control.

“The administration has taken several positive steps recently,” the group said. mentioning EPA’s effort on industrial boilers and OSHA’s work on noise standards as indicators that the administration has heard the concerns of manufacturers. “But new burdensome regulations such as those proposed by EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and change ozone standards are a real threat to job creators and the economy. While today’s announcement is a great step, more must be done to limit the cumulative burden of regulations on businesses.”

Matt Madia, regulatory policy analyst for OMB Watch, a monitoring nonprofit, had a wait-and-see response. “There’s nothing wrong with doing a review,” he said, “but we should not lose sight of the fact that these regulations were written for a reason — to protect the environment, human health and the economy.”

Sunstein said there currently are 120 rules under review at the Office of Management and Budget and that the look back has not caused any noticeable slowdown.

The agency actions released today are for public comment, and should be finalized in “roughly 80 days,” he said.

Sunstein called his initiative “a defining moment” that will have impact decades in the future. He quoted Alexander Hamilton’s first Federalist paper, in which the Founding Father asked whether the country would be guided by “reflection and choice or be forever destined to depend on accident and force.”

– by Charles S. Clark – Government Executive – May 26, 2011 at http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=47880&dcn=e_gvet

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: DOT, economic recovery, EPA, federal regulations, HHS, manufacturing, OMB, OSHA, regulatory reform, small business, Treasury Dept.

October 4, 2010 By AMK

Contractors behaving badly: Report exposes labor law violations by IT vendors

The government awarded billions of dollars in contracts in fiscal 2009 to companies that violated wage, labor, and safety regulations, according to a new report.

Government Accountability Office auditors found that one-half of the 50 largest assessments handed out by the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division between fiscal 2005 and 2009 were charged to 20 federal contractors. WHD, which enforces federal minimum wage, overtime pay and child labor requirements, assessed these contractors for more than $80 million in back wages, according to GAO.

And in fiscal 2009, the government awarded those 20 companies more than $9 billion in contracts. None were suspended or debarred as a result of their actions.

GAO also investigated 15 federal contractors cited for violating federal labor laws enforced by WHD, as well as regulations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Labor Relations Board. The federal government awarded these 15 federal contractors more than $6 billion in contract obligations during fiscal 2009, the report states.

There are more instances of contractors that have violated wage, labor and safety regulations receiving federal contracts, although GAO could not get a full picture.

Because OSHA and WHD databases do not contain Data Universal Numbering System figures that identify contractors, GAO’s analysis was limited to the 50 largest WHD assessments and OSHA penalties.

The Federal Acquisition Regulation requires contracting officers to choose responsible companies for federal work. But GAO auditors said they did know the extent to which contracting officers considered OSHA fines in awarding federal contracts.

GAO also added that most private-sector firms abide by these regulations.

Some members of Congress have expressed concerns that government contractors are not adhering to federal labor and wage regulations, which are meant to ensure that employees receive proper pay and notice of work-site hazards and also the right to bargain collectively. That concern prompted GAO’s investigation.

— by Matthew Weigelt – Oct. 4, 2010 – Federal Computer Week

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: GAO, Labor Dept., OSHA, wage and hour

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