OHSA Launches Impromptu Inspections When Needed
If you’ve ever worked on a job site where there were obvious safety violations, you may have secretly wished for OSHA to show up. While you could have reported the violations yourself and been protected by whistleblower laws, there’s always the slight chance an OSHA inspector will just happen upon the site.
According to the OSHA website, this happens more than we might realize, and OSHA employees will stop and investigate if they see blatant violations while passing by. Case in point, reported on the OSHA website:
On April 20, 2011, OSHA Compliance Officer Eliseo Hernandez and Assistant Area Director Joseph Roesler were on their way to an inspection near Auburn, Ala., on Wednesday. Along the way they noticed an open excavation where employees were not protected from cave-ins. Immediately, they stopped and opened an inspection. The excavation was approximately 5 and 1/2 feet deep where two employees were working under an excavator bucket connecting a water line. Just after Hernandez removed the employees from the hazard, the wall of the excavation fissured and collapsed. No one was hurt, and the emphasis program on excavation and trenching demonstrated its value.
While the likelihood of an OSHA inspector’s passing by and noticing violations worthy of an impromptu inspection are rare, it does occur. It’s OSHA’s job to keep construction sites safe, though they may seem to be a thorn in the side of many supervisors and even construction workers.
Rather than waiting for an inspector to happen upon the violations, workers can report them to OSHA and request an investigation. Too often, workers wait until a construction accident happens and then say they wish they had done something sooner. But, when safety problems are rampant, workers often feel intimidated by the culture of the job site.
The New Jersey and New York construction accident lawyers of Ginarte understand what it’s like to suffer a NY / NJ workplace accident on a construction site. We know because we’ve represented countless injured construction workers. We know what you’re going through. Contact our construction injury attorneys today to discuss your legal options and how we may be able to help.
