Lift trucks: when safety's not valued, everyone pays

Know what my dog Simba and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford have in common? They both did the wrong thing because they believed they could get away with it.

Before sitting down to write this blog in the comfort of my living room, I had to chase my yellow lab off our leather couch. My wife and I don’t want him on our leather couch, and we’ve made this clear to him many times. He stays off it when we’re around, but when he thinks the coast is clear, he’ll sneak back onto his forbidden pleasure.

Speaking of sneaks, how about that Mark Sanford? If you’ve been following the news, you know where I’m going with this—and it ain’t Argentina.

Simba and Governor Sanford exemplify how privilege, like power, can corrupt. Another example just came out of our own little world—yours and mine, where materials get handled and managed to ensure the free flow of commerce. This is a world where productivity depends on safety. But safety requires discipline, and when discipline gets in the way of getting product out the door, shortcuts often trump doing the right thing.

That’s why several years ago OSHA developed its Voluntary Protection Program. It was based on the premise that if management and workers would cooperate with OSHA on improving safety, they’d enjoy the privilege of OSHA’s trust and avoid the burden of routine inspections. All they’d have to do is demonstrate that they have an exemplary safety and health program, have no ongoing health and safety enforcement actions, and have an injury and illness rate below the average rates for the industry.

The VPP more than doubled to 2,174 worksites in the last five years and now covers more than 885,000 out of the 112 million workers covered by Occupational Safety and Health Act. The problem is, the VPP lacked a way to determine whether these sites were maintaining a safety record worthy of staying in the program. The General Accounting Office issued a report critical of the program. Among the highlights is that after reviewing files on 30 VPP sites, the GAO could find no corrective actions taken in response to fatalities or critical injuries. One site was found to have seven serious safety violations.

The GAO recommended OSHA do the following:

1. Develop a documentation policy regarding information on follow-up actions taken by OSHA regional offices in response to fatalities and serious injuries at VPP sites;

2. Establish internal controls ensuring consistent compliance by the regions with OSHA’s VPP policies for conducting on-site reviews and monitoring injury and illness rates so only qualified worksites participate in the program; and

3. Establish a system for monitoring the performance of the VPP by developing specific performance goals and measures for the program.

Since many injuries and fatalities that happen at worksites involve lift trucks, I was curious how Gary Cross, partner with Dunaway & Cross, the Industrial Truck Association’s legal counsel, thought the findings in this report might affect the VPP and even OSHA itself.

"Perhaps the message is that the VPP is still potentially a good initiative for companies to explore, but a company shouldn’t assume it’s a cakewalk, since OSHA will be tightening up," he told me. "More broadly, it appears that the Obama Administration is interested in more funding for OSHA, using some of the funds to hire 160 or so new compliance officers. There may be more emphasis on traditional inspections/citations and less on the consultative/partnership approach.”
 

See? All it took was a few delinquents on both the governing and the governed sides of OSHA to spoil what promised to provide a great example of government/industry cooperation—not to mention adults doing the right thing.

It’s easy to promise to do the right thing. What’s needed is for all of us to do it when no one else is looking. 

Tom Andel
tandel4315@aol.com