Companies that deliberately cut corners on safety training deserve no sympathy if they get socked with an OSHA/OHS citation. Unfortunately, it's not just the "bad guys" who get into trouble. Companies, like yours that make a conscious effort to train still end up getting cited for training violations. These companies learn a painful but important lesson: It's not enough just to train your workers; you must also be able to prove that you do. And that's not all. In many cases, you need to take steps to verify that workers understood the training you provided. This series will show you how to document your training efforts.

The Importance of Documentation

There are more than 100 OSHA standards that require a company to provide safety training to workers. Some but not all of these standards also require the employer to document that training.

But, as a practical matter, documentation is required even if the OSHA standard doesn't expressly mention it. That's because if OSHA investigators show up after an incident, one of the first questions they'll ask is whether the injured worker (and/or worker who caused the injury) received the required training. If you can't prove that training was provided, you'll almost surely be cited. And if you don't have documentation, you're unlikely to be able to prove that the worker received the necessary training.

A Tale of Two Companies

I'll bet this isn't the first time somebody has told you to document your training efforts. But here's a demonstration of why documentation is so important just in case you didn't take the message to heart. It's a tale of two companies.

Company Fined Because It Can't Document Training

During a routine inspection, an OSHA investigator smelled sewer gases in a trench and discovered that none of the workers knew they should check for poisonous gases or determine if the air in the trench had enough oxygen. The contractor in charge of the excavation was fined $2,500 for failure to train workers how to recognize and avoid unsafe conditions. The contractor appealed, claiming that he had trained the workers. But he didn't have the documents to prove it. So the Occupational Safety Health Review Commission (OSHRC) upheld the fine [Sec'y of Labor v. J. Mess Plumbing Co., Inc., OSHRC Docket No. 04-0197 (Sept. 9, 2004)].

Company Avoids Fines Because It Can Document Training

A Ministry of Labour investigator interviewed the victim of a serious workplace incident in Ontario. The victim said the company had never trained her and that she didn't know about the hazard. But the company had written records showing that training sessions were held and that the victim had attended them. When she saw her signature on the attendance sheet, the victim suddenly "remembered" that she had been trained, after all, the company's safety director relates. No citations were issued.

Conclusion

The key to documenting training? Keep a central written record called a training log. Next week, we'll explain how the training log works and how to create one yourself. We'll also publish a Model Log in the Tools section that you can access if you're a SafetyXChange member.

THE CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE

The principles in this article apply equally in Canada. Specific training requirements are contained in the OHS laws of every province and territory. And, like their U.S. counterparts, Canadian OHS inspectors expect employers to document that they furnished workers safety training and verified the effectiveness of that training. Proof of training is also essential to the due diligence defence.

U.S. QUIZ

Benjamin Franklin: American icon, but was he a President?

Although it includes members from every part of the world, SafetyXChange admittedly has a U.S.-Canadian flavor. I'm American; Catherine Jones, my co-editor is Canadian. Most members come from the U.S. and Canada. In other parts of the world, there's a tendency to lump Americans and Canadians together. And we do have quite a bit in common. But there are also some very pronounced differences in politics, history, culture and even language.

Two weeks ago, we ran a quiz testing how much people from the U.S. know about Canada. In the interest of fair play, let's now turn the tables and ask our Canadian members some questions about the U.S. Good luck, eh.

1. The state with the most people is:

1. California
2. Florida
3. New York
4. Texas

2. All of the following were Presidents of the U.S. EXCEPT:

1. George Washington
2. Benjamin Franklin
3. John Adams
4. John Quincy Adams

3. Match the following people with the paper currency they're on:

4. Which of the following states is EAST of the Mississippi River:

1. Nebraska
2. Illinois
3. Iowa
4. Kansas

5. Which of the following Presidents was NOT a general:

1. Theodore Roosevelt
2. Dwight D. Eisenhower
3. Andrew Jackson
4. George Washington

6. President Bush is a:

1. Republican
2. Democrat
3. Liberal
4. Tory

7. The name of the upper house of the U.S. Congress is the:

1. Senate
2. House of Representatives
3. Assembly
4. House of Commons

8. The name of the controversial baseball player who is about to break Hank Aaron's all-time home run record is:

1. Babe Ruth
2. Alex Rodriguez
3. Barry Bonds
4. Pete Rose

9. The number of Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court is:

1. 5
2. 7
3. 9
4. 11

10. Which of the following states was NOT one of the original 13 colonies:

1. Massachusetts
2. Georgia
3. Ohio
4. Virginia

Extra Credit: Name the two explorers dispatched by President Jefferson in 1804 to explore the Louisiana Purchase lands and search for a water passageway from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

ANSWERS
1: a; 2: b; 3: Washington - $1; Lincoln - $5; Hamilton - $10; Jackson - $20; 4: b; 5: a; 6: a; 7: a; 8: c; 9: c; 10: c. Extra redit: Lewis & Clark.

MEMBER REPLY

Can't we all just get along?

A Not So Kosher War

The Canadian quiz last week contained a small inaccuracy in the extra credit question. There were not two wars in which staunch (British) Canadians stood firm against American invasion, but three: The Revolutionary War (1776-1785), the War of 1812 (1812-1813), and the Pig War (1859-1872).

In 1859, an American farmer who had moved to the San Juan Islands in the gulf between Vancouver Island and Washington shot a pig he found rooting in his garden. The pig's owner, a British North American, demanded payment. But the farmer felt the pig had been trespassing and refused.

When British authorities made noises about arresting the farmer, he appealed to the U.S. government for protection of himself and the other American settlers on the island. As a result of the conflict, both nations established military garrisons on the island, and the Royal Marines left in 1872.

Here's hoping all future wars will be equally silly and non-destructive.

Ted Morrison
Bongarde Media
Penticton, BC

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