Ihab Saad – MultiEmployer worksites
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the four types of employers and how they can avoid violations of safety guidelines. They explain that the controlling, creating, and the correcting employers may have different responsibilities, and that the violations can be addressed by the claims claims department. The speaker also provides guidance on how to ensure proper protection and prevent further violations.
AI: Summary ©
Music. Welcome to another safety class, and today we're going to
talk about multi employer work sites. In many cases, actually, in
most of the cases, you're going to have several contractors working
on the same site, contractors, subcontractors, maybe prime
contractors, multi prime contractors, and they're going to
have different operations taking place at the same time. So what if
there's a safety violation? Which one should be cited for that
safety violation?
If more than one are involved in the same operation, the same
location, again, how are things going to be sorted out? So this is
primarily the subject of our lecture today.
According to OSHA, there are four different types of employers, and
these are the controlling employer who is responsible for and has the
authority to control conditions on the website. So if, for example,
we have one general contractor or one prime contractor, then in this
case, that would be a controlling employer. The second one is a
creating employer, who's an employer whose employees created
the hazards. Let's say, for example, there was a an electrical
cable that was left exposed not properly is related or not
properly protected, and that was due to the work of the electrical
subcontractor. So in this case, the electrical subcontractor would
become the creating employer.
The third one is the exposing employer, an employer whose
employees are exposed to the hazards. Let's say we have another
mechanical contractor working in the same area where that
electrical cable exists. So in this case, the employees of that
mechanical contractor are going to be exposed to the hazard of
electrocution, and the mechanical contractor would would, in this
case, become the exposing employer.
The fourth and last one is the correcting employer, which is the
employer who has the responsibility for actually
correcting the hazard. In this case, one of the top two is going
to be the correcting employer. It might be either the controlling
employer, because he's the one in charge he or she's the one in
charge of the whole site, or it could be the creating employer,
the One who created that hazard in the first place.
So normally, citations are issued to the exposing employer, the one
that caused the hazard, those whose employees are exposed to
hazards. Additionally, the creating, the controlling and the
correcting employers may also be cited if they did not do anything
about correcting that hazard, whether or not their own employees
are also exposed. So the the first one to be cited is going to be the
exposing employer. In this case, is going to be the mechanical
contractor, because they saw the cable they expose their employees
to that electrocution hazard, and
they did not do anything about it. Someone might say, what can they
do about it? They're not the electrical contractor, the
creating contractor. They're not the controlling contractor, which
is the general contractor. At least they could have notified the
general contractor, who's the controlling and the controlling
contractor could have contacted the creating
contractor or employer to correct that issue, but since they did not
act, that is their share of the blame.
The exposing employers normally cited, but that employer may have
a legitimate defense to the citation. If the exposing employer
can meet all five of the following conditions or defenses, then that
exposing employer shall not be cited. And in this case, it might
be the creating and the controlling contractors or
employers who are going to be cited. What are these five
defenses? Well, the conditions for an exposing employer's defense
against citation. First, he did not create, he or she did not
create the hazard, so the employer did not create the hazard. Second,
did they correct the hazard? The employer did not have the
responsibility or the authority to have the hazard corrected. Third
is ability. The employer did not have the ability to correct or
remove the hazard.
Fourth,
notified others. Did he notify others? The employer notified
others the creating and the controlling and or the correcting
employers about the hazard to which his or her employees are
exposed. And the fifth and final defense is going to be recognition
of the hazard itself. The employer has instructed or trained his
employees or her employees to recognize the hazard and were
feasible. The exposing employer has taken appropriate alternative
means of protecting employees from the hazard, and when extreme
circumstances just.
Fiat, the exposing employer should have removed his or her employees
from the job to avoid citation. Now, if these five conditions are
satisfied in the exposing employer, then they're not going
to be cited. They did their best. They recognized the hazard, they
protected their employees by removing them from the area. They
tried to change it, they notified someone about changing it, at
least.
If the employer whose employees were exposed to a hazard meets the
above five conditions, then the citation shall be issued someone
is going to be blamed definitely, but who's going to be blamed? In
this case, the citation shall be issued to the creating employer
and or the correcting employer, because someone the correcting
employer might be the same as the creating employer, it might be the
same as the controlling employer, or might be someone different. The
controlling employer shall also be cited, even though no employees of
that employer may have been exposed to the violating condition
because they are in control of the whole site, therefore the title
controlling employee.
So basically, this is a brief summary about what are the
different responsibility on the site. Make sure to know your
responsibilities, whether you are the controlling, whether you are
the creating, whether you are the exposing or whether you are the
correcting employer, and make sure that, just in case you are the
exposing employer, you have all five defenses ready, and you
implement them to protect yourself against citation from OSHA. I'll
see you in the next lecture.