The criteria for the first ISO standard on occupational health and safety (OH&S) management systems has just been released. While it's not likely that the majority of US companies will jump at the opportunity to become certified soon, the standard provides a uniform model that we can utilize as appropriate for the needs at our companies. Check out this article that provides an overview of the management system. Copies of the ISO 45001 standard can be purchased from ANSI.
In case you are struggling with submitting your company OSHA 300A data by the December 1 deadline....
OSHA has delayed the compliance date for employers to electronically submit injury and illness data, yet again. The new deadline is December 15, 2017. See this link for details: Click here...
Alert: Do it Now! The deadline for initial submission is December 1, 2017
Manufacturers, printing companies, and other high risk industries that had 20 or more employees (plus temps reporting to the company) on any one day during 2016 are required to submit their 2016 OSHA 300A data summary to the new OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA) by December 1, 2017. The OSHA 300A summary data for 2017 must be submitted by July 1, 2018. Sites that are not in high risk industries only need to submit data for any site with 250 or more employees. There are a few exceptions: Some state run OSHA programs, such as California, have not adopted using the ITA for data submission. If you have some sites in a state with a state-run OSHA program, you likely will not have to submit the OSHA 300A data for that site yet.
If you have a one site company, this process should only take around 30 minutes. If your company forgot to make and post the 300A form in January of this year, you have some catch-up work to do. Note that the executive who signs the OSHA 300A annually, is responsible (and accountable to OSHA) to ensure the data submitted is correct. If a corporate entity decides to submit data for multiple plants through a single account, it will involve creating a batch cvs file (and significantly more time).
This list will get you going… (more…)
Yes - OSHA has turned this requirement back on. The good news is that we have 5 months to learn how to use the new system and upload our data. This first year all manufacturing & construction sites and other high risk sites with 20 or more employees at the site will upload only OSHA 300A data. In future years sites with 250 or more employees will also begin uploading additional data (including OSHA 300 log and 301 incident form data).
OSHA's On-line Injury Tracking Application (ITA) offers three options for data submission. (more…)
In May, 2017, the Labor Department indefinitely delayed enforcement of at least the first phase-in deadline of its electronic reporting requirements for injury and illness logs. Specifically, OSHA’s Injury and Illness Record-keeping and Reporting Requirements.
Congratulations to Joel Morrison, who was recognized as Environmental, Health & Safety Professional of the Year for the print industry by the Printing & Imaging Association of MidAmerica. Joel works for Cartamundi USA, a client of Impact Safety. Joel has built a safety program and a safety culture at Cartamundi that is second to none.
Customers of the Dallas plant include the largest providers of card games, collector sports cards, cell phones, software and other products.
Just a reminder. The OSHA 300A summary form for recordable workplace injuries and illnesses must be completed each January and posted in the workplace for all of February, March and April. You will need the following items to complete the form: The OSHA 300 log of injuries/illnesses for last year, the total manhours worked last year, and the number of employees at the company last year.
This year companies will be required to upload the OSHA 300A summary information to OSHA (during March - June). You should expect your company injury & illness data for 2016 to be posted on-line (with company name) in late 2017. As always, companies should take care to include all cases considered as "recordable" by OSHA. However, it's now important to not over-report by (more…)
If you work at an industrial facility in Texas, make sure the person in charge of environmental compliance at your facility has made a new storm water filing with the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) recently. Manufacturing plants must renew this filing every five years. While the due date is November 14, 2016; there will be a 90 day grace period for filing (before your past filing expires).
Your facility can make a storm water filing on-line with credit card (for $100) or with paper and mail (for $200). Many of our clients are able to file the Storm Water "No Exposure Certification" (abbreviated NEC). The paper NEC application is (more…)
Lately, the typical first-time OSHA citations at companies I've worked with have ranged from $1775 to $4900 per issue, averaging around $3000 each. The maximum OSHA can charge for citations will increase by 78 percent on August 1, 2016. OSHA has not yet released guidance to their field staff on how to implement this change. At this point we can only wonder whether typical penalties will remain similar or will increase. "If average citation amounts are raised by 78 percent, we should expect to see typical citations increase from $3000 each to around $5300 each".
Bottom Line: Let's be diligent in moving our safety programs forward. It's not (more…)
