Barry Carroll takes safety seriously. Carroll, owner of Carroll Marine LTD in Bristol, said his company has a safety committee. He alters jobs for employees who have been hurt so they do not have to miss work. And he said he reports injuries to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration faithfully.
Therefore, he was surprised last month when OSHA sent him a letter telling him that his workplace injury rate was unacceptably high, and that his firm was one of 137 in Rhode Island being warned to correct safety hazards – or face stiff penalties if the OSHA inspectors knock on the door.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
The list has companies that consider themselves to be safety-conscious feeling frustrated.
“We’re very meticulous about reporting every single incident, and we do it religiously,” Carroll said, noting that his company has had only one major accident in the past three years. “We don’t think we (have) anything near a safety problem.”
Whether or not these listed companies have safety problems is something OSHA officials will determine in the coming months. The administration surveyed 80,000 work sites in 1998. It has since compiled a list of companies that had an injury rate of eight or more injuries or illnesses that resulted in lost workdays for every 100 full-time workers. The national average for 1998 was 3.1 injuries or illnesses resulting in lost workdays per 100 workers.
The term “lost work day” refers to days in which an employee is either unable to come to work or unable to do his or her normal job – even if he or she can still work on a restricted basis – because of an injury.
Nationwide, 13,000 companies fit that description. New England had 1,700 of them. Of those, 137 were in Rhode Island. The injury rates are based on data that the companies reported to OSHA in 1998.
OSHA officials say inspectors will visit businesses that have the highest injury rates – those with 14 or more injuries per 100 workers. The inspections will take place over the next 10 months. Inspectors can hit companies with penalties of up to $7,000 for each serious violation.
In the letter that OSHA sent to Carroll and business owners around the country in mid March, Administrator Charles N. Jeffress said that workplace injuries are costly. But he also noted that a company’s high injury rate does not necessarily “indicate a lack of interest in safety and health.”
Therefore, companies that have good explanations for their injury rates will have nothing to fear if they are selected for an inspection, OSHA officials say.
Indeed, listed employers contacted by Providence Business News said they view safety as a priority. OSHA’s list includes some of Rhode Island’s best known companies, such as Arnold Lumber Co., Eric Goetz Custom Sailboats, American Shipyard Co., and Providence Steel Inc.
Officials at some companies, such as John Holmander, Quonset Point site manager for Electric Boat Corp., pointed out that OSHA’s data compare high-injury industries, like manufacturing, to all businesses in general. A manufacturer whose injury rate is high compared to general industry may actually have a low rate when it’s compared to its own industry.
This is the case with Electric Boat, which manufacturers hull components for submarines, he said.
”Safety is the No. 1 goal at the facility,” Holmander said. “We critique every single injury, once a week, and work toward preventive action to prevent a recurrence.”
OSHA would not disclose the individual injury rates of the companies that made the list. But Holmander volunteered his company’s information. The 1998 data Electric Boat reported should result in an OSHA-calculated injury rate of 8.7 – high enough to get on the list, but still lower than the industry average for ship builders and repairers, which, according to OSHA data, was 11.5 for 1998.
”If you can drive your cost associated with injuries below that of your competitors, it makes you more competitive,” he said. “It’s the moral and ethical thing to do to provide a safe workplace, and from a business standpoint, it’s the smart thing to do.”
It’s also the required thing to do and OSHA inspectors between now and January 2001 will inspect 4,200 companies nationwide to ensure that they do. This year, however, OSHA is changing the way it does that. In the past, the administration simply targeted all companies in high-injury industries, said Richard Fairfax, OSHA’s director of compliance services. This was inefficient, he said, because it meant that companies were being inspected regardless of their safety record.
Now, inspectors are going after those with high-injury rates only, he said.
”We wasted our time, and we wasted their time,” Fairfax said. But now, “We’re going places that need our presence.”
When OSHA inspectors do go to those places, they cite violations and establish deadlines for correcting them. Employers who disagree with the inspector’s findings may appeal to an independent agency, the Occupational Safety and Health review commission.
But employers can take preventive steps as well. Through OSHA’s free consultation program, employers can invite an inspector in to check for safety hazards.
The inspector will help the employer find a way to correct problems. What the inspector will not do is issue citations. Essentially, the program gives companies a chance to fix problems before they are fined for them. (See Sidebar.)
Several listed companies reported taking many steps on their own. For example, Arnold Lumber Co.’s Joe Parent said his company has a safety committee made up of middle and senior management that meets monthly. It also continually trains workers on the best way to avoid injuries, such as the proper way to lift heavy objects.
Still, working in a lumberyard, it doesn’t take much to strain your back or your neck, he said.
”We feel like we’re very, very proactive,” said Parent, the company’s chief financial officer, “but unfortunately it does not guarantee that you’re going to completely eliminate workplace injuries.”
Some of the listed companies note that their injuries have been minor. Beth Bailey, communications manager for Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corp. in Johnston, noted that her company had an injury rate of 10 in 1998. But, many of those injuries were not preventable, she said.
We had someone who thought he was having a heart attack, and it turned out he had the flu,” Bailey said. “And he was out for three days.”
Another listed company, Pawtucket rug maker Colonial Mills Inc., noted that it had just three minor injuries last year.
And Human Resources Manager Karen Lewis said the company has a $60,000 credit on its $100,000 workers’ compensation insurance policy. Given these facts, “We must be doing something right,” she said.
