Ihab Saad – MultiEmployer worksites

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.