OSHA question

I quit cleaning out gutters a few years ago, just not worth the risk of a ladder sliding sideways and all the hazards involved (bees, ants, where to put the mush etc). The only thing I might do is clean out a low downspout.

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Ladder stand-offs. Gutter cleaning is great when you get efficient at it and is a big chunk of our income.

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Yeah but you’ve gota admit it’s crap work lol. I do put it above window cleaning though.

If I ever move to Auckland I’m gonna ask to do all your gutter cleaning requests lol. I’ll give you a high five every job you refer

So generous, I don’t know how you do it

Yeah, that would make me stop too!

I’ve been told I give too freely but that hasn’t stopped me!

IBS, Federal OSHA is actually not funded by the fines that they issue. They are distributed back into the federal government cluster f%#@. At least that is what the Pennsylvania area director told me. As for states that have their own OSHA, I have no idea where their funding comes from

I work full time as an OSHA consultant (private consulting group) so I get called by other companies that get dinged on a regular basis.

As for the starting penalties I attached a photo as they recently increased this year.

These fines can usually be reduced in a formal settlement usually within 30 days of receiving a citation. Given that the company has corrected the issues that were cited and that is shown, or if they can prove that what the inspector saw was not “normal” SOP.

Hope this helpful, I’d be happy to assist anyone that ever has any questions regarding OSHA, EPA is a different story.

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Also,

If you any of you issue respirators to employees I highly recommend reading OSHA’s respiratory protection standard, there is a lot more to it than just giving someone the correct respirator to wear.

The employer must have a respiratory protection program, employee Fit testing conducted, and documented training.

There is kind of a loop hole, this would be to have them sign a voluntary-use form, but that still has some limitations/restrictions.

This is one of OSHA’s top 5 citations this year and usually among the top 10 every year.

Again, hopefully this is useful information to some of you, or else I have a bunch of useless info stuck in my head lol.

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Why do they ruin peoples lives with ridiculous fines? How does OSHA arrive at these ridiculous numbers? What gets talked about at the meetings? Have you seen envelopes get handed out that resemble bricks?

OSHA is just another federal agency policing employers & the employee… it always leads back to congress in some way…

Those are higher than mine were, but not by much. I got hit for several things, but it’s done and I’ve lost money on other things that gave me no pleasure also.

They think that they are protecting the employees from big corporations, and in some cases they are. However, most of the time that is not the case, and it is a small outfit that gets hit and very often put under because of it. As for envelopes, the inspectors are not allowed to take any of that, I always offer to buy them lunch or get them coffee or donuts and they get all squirelly and turn down the offer, I just think it’s funny to ask lol.

In order to get to a meeting you need to contest the citation, and arrange a formal sit down. You would then meet with the CSHO and usually an area director or someone else from Department of Labor. In this meeting you would go through your penalties and argue your case.

Ex. Citation: failing to distribute fall protection to workers and failure to train workers and have a fall protection program.

Your Repsonse: We purchased 15 new FP Harnesses and lifelines, Trained all of our employees on proper use and inspection on this date, and developed a written fall protection program (This would all need proper documentation)

If you’re lucky they might reduce that serious violation to other-than-serious, which is a couple grand less. And Other-than-serious violation CAN NOT be used again as a repeat violation. Only serious violation can be found as repeats, potentially saving you $140,000 in the future.

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