March 2007

Big fish get fried, little fish get eaten

It was pretty much the answer that I expected. But I asked the question anyway.

“How would your business fare if someone from OSHA showed-up unexpectedly to do a random survey?”

“We’d be (bleeped). They’d probably shut us down.”

“So you’ll be coming to our OSHA Workshop in May?” I surmised.

“I don’t know. Maybe,” came the response. “By that time, I’ll probably have talked myself out of it. I’m not a risk-taker. Really, what are the chances that OSHA even knows we exist? I figure, unless one of my guys gets seriously injured, they’ll let me alone. I’m just a small business. They’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

Did he really say, “I’m not a risk-taker?”

OSHA, as all business owners know, is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a federal agency with a mission to, “assure the safety and health of America’s workers by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, outreach and education; establishing partnerships; and encouraging continual improvement in workplace safety and health.”

By all accounts, they do have more experience frying “bigger fish.” According to the OSHA website, “OSHA targets employers who have the highest injury and illness rates and worksites where employees are more likely to be injured or killed on the job.” The key is; they target those. But in the process they run across their share of guppies as well.

In 2005, OSHA cited a total of 85,307 violations. That was a 9.5% increase over the average of the previous four years. Small businesses comprised a considerable portion of the increase. While no one at OSHA is likely to admit it, small businesses are easy pickings. Few have any idea what they are responsible for from a compliance standpoint and those who are familiar with the standards seldom keep up with them.

OSHA’s renewed interest in small business comes as the result of an increasing number of serious injuries and fatalities at businesses with few employees. And the growing realization that small businesses for the most part are neglecting employee safety because it can be expensive and time-consuming.

That’s why The Chamber’s Safety/Risk Management Committee decided that an annual hour-long OSHA update was insufficient to steer businesses – large and small – toward greater adherence to what OSHA demands.

“It’s really incredible how many small businesses in our county simply bury their heads in the sand and hope that nothing bad happens,” remarked Don Imler of Hoss’s, who chairs the committee. “This is serious stuff. It’s not just about saying that you’re in compliance, it’s about knowing that you’re doing all that you can to protect your employees. It’s a moral obligation.”

Imler is right. A random survey of small business employers, however, indicated that most believe that adequate training is more than enough to keep employees out of harm’s way and that paper compliance simply slows production and accomplishes little.

“It’s hard to make someone who’s never had a serious injury at their company understand how devastating that can be,” Imler pointed out. “It’s a hard way to learn a lesson. We’re trying to help companies avoid that.”

The workshop, entitled “Who’s Afraid of OSHA? A Full-Day Lesson in Business Survival,” will be held May 18 th at the Casino. It begins at 8:00 a.m. and concludes at 4:15 p.m. The speakers are primarily from the OSHA office in Pittsburgh who will speak on a variety of topics such as recordkeeping and the most frequently cited violations. There will be breakout sessions on things like electrical safety and blood-borne pathogens, a presentation on a program offered by IUP that will actually perform an inspection, free-of-charge, for any business willing to take the time. There will also be a number of exhibitors on hand to help attendees gain better insight on safety-related matters.

“It could be the most important day you ever spend on your business,” Imler admitted.

That’s no fish story.

(For more information on the OSHA Workshop, visit the Chamber Web Site at www.blairchamber.com/safety_risk).

Past Chamber Notes

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