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Arizona OSHA to Begin Targeting Employers for Inspections with Higher than Average Experience Modifiers

The Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health (ADOSH) is given the responsibility to enforce the requirements of the Arizona Occupational Safety and Health Act. This includes enforcement of the requirements that employers comply with OSHA standards and regulations and provide a safe and healthful workplace for employees in Arizona. ADOSH performs this obligation, in part, by conducting unannounced compliance inspections.

Inspections are selected using a variety of methods, which may vary by industry. In the construction industry, ADOSH may select a general scheduled inspection based on either a randomly generated list of construction projects (compiled using Dodge data) or an observation of a hazard that falls within either a local or national emphasis program, such as trenching hazards or fall hazards.

In general industry (non-construction), ADOSH may select a general scheduled inspection using either a list of employers within industries that have higher-than-average injury rates, such as wood product and architectural metal product manufacturers, or a list of employers with higher numbers of Arizona workers’ compensation claims.

To improve its efforts to target inspections of Arizona workplaces, ADOSH will soon add to the methods described the selection of a general scheduled inspection using workers’ compensation experience ratings of Arizona employers. In both the general and construction industries, employers with higher than average experience ratings may be targeted for inspection. This information may also be used to identify non-rated employers within industries that are identified through experience ratings. Through this targeting effort, ADOSH anticipates that it will increase its inspection of those workplaces with more serious hazards and/or higher injury and illness frequency rates. ADOSH also expects that this effort will ensure that ADOSH’s limited resources are used in a more effective and efficient manner.

Employers Resource Associates Nevada

Employers Resource Associates is pleased to announce its presence in Nevada.

Providing Risk Management, Safety and Workers' Compensation Services to Nevada Employers.

Nevada Mandates OSHA-10 and OSHA-30 Training for All Construction Workers and Site Supervisors

One year after the construction worker walkout at City Center, Nevada’s Governor has signed Assembly Bill 148, making OSHA-10 and OSHA-30 training for all construction workers and site supervisors mandatory in the state of Nevada. The bill, a collaboration between Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, Perini Building Company, and the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council, sets Nevada on a course to become a leader in construction worker safety.

AB 148 was the by-product of a program established on the City Center job-site in an agreement between Perini Building Company and Building Trades, where all workers on the job-site were mandated to obtain OSHA-10 completion cards. After a string of worker deaths early on in City Center’s construction, there have been zero additional fatalities since the institution of the OSHA-10 program at City Center.
The Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council, and its 22,000 members, made passing a worker training bill its cornerstone legislative priority at the 2009 Nevada Legislature. The bill passed both houses of the legislature with broad bipartisan majorities, and was signed by the Governor on Wednesday, June 3, 2009.

What does this mean for Employers in construction trades?

According to Nevada's Assembly Bill 148, starting January 1, 2010 the new law will require:

All construction workers in Nevada to sucsessfully complete a 10-hour safety training course (OSHA-10) approved by OSHA at least once every five years;

All Supervisors on a construction site to sucsessfully complete a 30-hour safety training course (OSHA-30) approved by OSHA at least once every five years.

The Division of Industrial Relations (DIR) will adopt regulations establishing courses which may be used to satisfy the training requirements. Courses will only be permitted to be provided by OSHA-approved "trainers" who have completed the OSHA 500 course.

In addition, until January 1, 2011, employers may provide their own alternative course to the OSHA-10 or OSHA -30. The alternative courses must be approved by the safety committee of the employer (established pursuant to NRS 681.383) and meet or exceed the OSHA guidelines including, without limitation, the federal safety and health regulatory requirements specific to the employer's industry. An employer that provides the "alternative" courses must maintain a record of all employees that completed the course and make the records available to DIR at all times.

Effective January 1, 2011, employees will no longer have the option to complete employer-provided alternative courses instead of the OSHA courses, and must present with documentation of an approved OSHA 10 or 30 hour course completion.

Both employees and supervisors will be required, within 15 days of hire, to present employers with proof that they completed the required coursework by showing valid "completion cards" for the appropriate course (10-hour or 30-hour). The required completion cards will be issued by Nevada OSHA. Once issued, the completion cards will expire after five years. Employees may renew their completion cards within five years by showing proof of at least 5 hours (construction workers) or 15 hours (supervisors) of job-specific safety training that meets the guidelines to be established by the DIR.

The bill also requires the employer to suspend or terminate any employee who fails to provide valid proof of completion of the required training within 15 days of hire.

If an employer fails to suspend or terminate an employee that has not provided proof of training completion, the employer:

will be cited and penalized up to $500 for the first violation.
will be cited and penalized up to $1,000 for the second violation.
upon a third violation, the violation will be considered as if the employer had committed a willful violation under NRS 618.635 and may be assessed an administrative penalty of not less than $5,000, and not more than $70,000 for each willful violation.

Any number of violations discovered in a single day will be considered a single violation.

How can Employers Resource Associates Help?

Employers Resource Associates can provide the mandated OSHA 10 hour or 30 hour courses for your workers. As authorized Outreach Program instructors, we meet the criteria by the state as "OSHA-approved trainers for the Nevada mandated course.

or Contact Jerry McCortney at (702) 321-1448