Working With Contractors
Construction contractors are responsible for ensuring that all work under contract meets or exceeds the OSHA standards in addition to complying with the company's safety and health standards. The contractor is responsible for ensuring safe work performance of employees and subcontractors.
To illustrate how important contractor safety responsibilities are to the safety and health of their employees, and the success of the construction project, let's take a look at one situation that resulted in the employer being cited about $90,000 in 2017:
A contractor on a construction site was cited for two repeat violations:
- failing to conduct daily inspections by a competent person prior to the start of the shift, and
- failing to provide an adequate cave-in protection system while employee were in the excavation.
If the general contractor had been communicating and insisting that the subcontractor meet all OSHA requirements, these repeat violations would not have occurred. This and many other instances of OSHA violations on construction sites, emphasize the importance of establishing regular communications and a culture of accountability on the worksite.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
2-1. What is a major cause for OSHA violations on construction sites?
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