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Compliance & Risk Management
Using the Audit Toolkit to Measure Your Compliance
Pressure to increase productivity, tighter profit margins, cuts in work forces and safety staff. It seems like a very good time to audit whether your current operations are compliant with all relevant health and safety laws. I have developed a comprehensive auditing tool that I’m willing to share with any organizations [...]
OHS Enforcement Trends in Canada
Alone at last! With Americans off for Memorial Day, we’re free to discuss Canadian issues and Canadian issues alone. And that’s just what we’ll do. This SafetyXChange Special Report on OHS enforcement across Canada is divided into 2 parts:
Part 1 looks at the legislative backdrop—specifically, maximum OHS fines across the [...]
How to Conduct and Document Energy Control Procedure Inspections
Complying with the Control of Hazardous Energy (lockout/tagout) Standard can be a thorn in the side. Year after year, the standard is among the most frequent sources of OSHA citations. Why are there so many citations under lockout/tagout (LOTO)?
In many cases, it’s because employers overlook a crucial part of the [...]
A Note on Collaborative Enforcement in Canada
Parallels to the collaborative approach to safety exist in Canada. The most notable examples are the various provincial workers’ compensation incentive programs that enable employers to get rebates and lower premiums if they meet certain safety standards. Still, Canada lags far behind the U.S. in voluntary and collaborative compliance.
It’s Time for OSHA to Rethink “Gotcha” Mentality
What’s the best way to get employers to obey OSHA/OHS laws? What works better at promoting compliance—punishing offenses or taking steps to ensure that employers don’t commit them in the first place?
OSHA Enforcement and the “Gotcha” Mentality
Historically, OSHA has taken a “gotcha” approach to safety that emphasized punishment over prevention [...]
Inspections in Canada
Nick’s moral applies equally to Canadian employers: You should have somebody at your company follow the OHS inspector and take photos, notes and measurements.
There is one aspect of the story that doesn’t perfectly fit the Canadian context. Unlike in the U.S., all Canadian employers aren’t necessarily guaranteed the right to [...]
The Case of the $25,000 Snapshot
I used to hate George Eastmann.
Who’s George Eastmann? He’s the guy who invented the camera. Thanks to his invention, Ol’ Nick almost didn’t make it as an OSHA inspector. Let me tell you what happened.
Back in the Day
Remember 1979? Jimmy Carter. Hostages in Iran. Long gas lines. “National [...]
Building a Better Safety Measurement Mousetrap
Measuring results is essential for a safety system committed to ongoing improvement. But while we all recognize the importance of measuring, the measurement method that we have historically relied upon has limited our capacity to prevent injuries and accidents. So I’d like to suggest a better mousetrap.
Safety Measurement Relies on [...]
Confessions of a Master Case Manager
One of our employees was standing at the base of a structure when a gust of wind caught a sheet of plywood 90 feet above him and caused it to land directly on his head. As I helped the paramedics load the employee into the ambulance, I caught a faint whisper. “No prescriptions, okay?” It [...]
The First Step to a Culture of Safety: Eye Protection
Over the past few years, the culture of safety has become one of the most popular and successful movements in industrial safety. It’s easy to see why: when an entire company comes to see safety not as a legal obligation or a time-consuming nuisance but as an intrinsic part of its competence and community, substantial [...]
