Workplace Safety: 5 Common OSHA Violations and How to Prevent Them
You want the best for your workers. You strive to maintain the highest safety standards and avoid risk as much as possible. Still, you worry about OSHA violations. Good intentions aren’t always enough. You need to know the most common OSHA violations and how to prevent them.
The prospect of OSHA fines can be scary. These interventions cost time and money. At the same time, they can disrupt your business and lead to expensive upgrades. Your best strategy is to identify potential issues ahead of time and maintain compliance.
With the correct foresight, you can avoid fines and other inconveniences.
Here are five common OSHA violations and how to prevent them:
Fall Protection
Slips, trips, and falls account for more than a quarter of all workplace accidents. They also make up a large proportion of OSHA violations, with a number of related categories causing confusion for employers. From construction fall production to scaffolding to ladder safety, this genre of safety violations keeps government regulators busy.
How to Prevent: The precise steps you take will depend on the situation, but there are basic rules to keep in mind. Follow the proper procedures related to scaffolds and ladders. Keep work areas clean to avoid tripping hazards. At the same time, require your employees wear the proper footwear.
Hazard Communication Standard
Keeping your workers safe requires adequate communication. Signs and other posts let your workers know the dangers in a particular situation, especially when it comes to dangerous chemicals and other hazardous substances. Unfortunately, keeping up this communication can be difficult on an ongoing basis.
How to Prevent: Education is key here. Employees should know what each label means and what to do about them. Similarly, they should know what to do in an emergency. Let workers know how to identify hazardous materials and what the proper procedures are in the case of a spill.
Machinery and Machine Guarding
People and machines can do great things together. Unfortunately, bad things can happen as well. Without adequate precautions, heavy machinery can easily become a threat to life or limb.
How to Prevent: Make sure safety guards are operational on all machinery. At the same time, provide a comprehensive training process that includes regular reminders. Also, watch the machines themselves. Aging or broken equipment can lead to elevated safety risks.
Powered Industrial Trucks
Almost 100,000 people get hurt every year as a result of forklift accidents. This includes 20,000 serious injuries and about 100 deaths. As a result, it’s important to maintain strict safety protocols around these dangerous devices. However, that can prove difficult in a busy warehouse environment. Still, avoid accidents, as well as OSHA interventions, by putting the right procedures in place.
How to Prevent: Set clear guidelines about the use of forklifts and other equipment. All drivers should receive proper training and certifications. Forklifts should only operate in designated areas.
Eye and Face Protection
In the age of COVID, few things have garnered more attention than face covering. That only emphasizes an issue that has long been a focus of OSHA regulators. Creating the right protocols around eye and face protection can prevent a lot of more serious problems down the road.
How to Prevent: Again, training and consistency are crucial here. Put procedures in place, communicate them effectively with your staff, and remain vigilant about enforcing the rules. At the same time, make sure you have the right equipment available. This includes things like eyewash stations and first-aid supplies.
Keeping up OSHA compliance requires everyone to participate. Having the right employees makes it easier. By using a top recruiter, like SmartTalent, you create the safety-conscious team you need.
Contact SmartTalent today to learn more.
