A few years before Desert Crucible began operations, Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Act. This law obligates employers to identify and rectify safety and health problems that might exist in their workspaces.
In the early years of this act the foundry industry was specifically under scrutiny. Although we found the requirements of OSHA to be somewhat onerous for a small business, particularly the record keeping, we supported its overall objective of safety in the workplace, and made every effort to keep current on, and to comply with, the regulations.
As a part of the regulations, OSHA inspectors were allowed to visit a work site, without prior notice, to examine, at a minimum, the required record keeping of the business. Failure to allow this examination could result in OSHA inspectors returning, with legal authorization, for a full-blown inspection of the business operations.
Needless to say, we kept up with the records requirements, and allowed inspection whenever they showed up — usually about once a year. We were always complemented for our cooperation and good record keeping.
You can only imagine our surprise the day they showed up, unannounced, with a full-blown inspection team, and the legal authorization for them to conduct an unencumbered inspection, to look specifically into fourteen alleged safety violations filed against us by an anonymous (by statute) person, and for whatever other violations they might find.
Not a banner day.
Before we allowed the inspectors into the shop we assembled our employees, and I instructed them something like this: “Today OSHA employees are here to inspect our operations. We remind you that they are here only to look for anything that might violate a safety regulation and present a threat to your health or safety, which we will then be required to correct. We ask you to cooperate fully with the inspectors and to honestly answer any questions they may pose to you. We also request that you not volunteer any information that is not requested. If you have something you want to bring up, please do so at our next staff meeting. Go about your work today as assigned, stop when requested to answer any questions, and resume working once you have answered. Be respectful at all times. Neither Tom, nor Theora, nor I will be permitted to accompany the inspectors.”
At the end of the day the inspectors thanked us for our cooperation, advised us that their report would be completed in about a week, and that we would receive a copy of the report along with instructions on what we were to do next.
The following week the report arrived in the mail, absolving us of each and every one of the fourteen complaints leveled against us by the anonymous complainer. The complaints were bogus!
However, during the inspection two minor violations were found. One was a damaged ground plug on an electric forklift, and the other dealt with inadequate railing in an overhead storage area.
At a subsequent hearing we were assessed a fine for the two violations.
My respect for OSHA was diminished by this experience. I argued at the hearing in which the fine was assessed:
- It would have been fairer and more efficient for us to have been advised of the fourteen alleged violations ahead of time, and then been given time to either fix them or dispute them.
- Keeping the complainee’s name anonymous opens the door for untrue and unfair crank complaints to be made, as we just experienced.
- We would not have been subjected to the fine had the bogus anonymous complaint not been filed. We should have been allowed to fix the problems without fine.
Complaint denied.
I haven’t kept up since we closed the foundry, but I have heard the regulations have been changed to address these issues. I guess we weren’t the only ones to complain.
Illigitimi non carborundum.
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