# I am meeting with OSHA. It is a free service. What questions should I ask?



## esarratt (Sep 6, 2020)

I am meeting with OSHA to help me develop the safety plan for my company. It is a free service.

I am a septic installer and a utility contractor. I also plan is to add in timber framing in the future.

What questions should I ask OSHA? The OSHA official has already provided me with sample policy and procedures to use.

I figure this is a really good professional relationship to develop.

Background:
Employees like a safe environment in which to work and I don't want anybody who works for me to get hurt. I don't mind spending the time and money to make that happen.

My insurance company likes written, formal health and safety plans. There are some insurance reductions for having this.

Legally, when my business moves grows, I have to have a written health and safety plan anyway.

Thank you for your input!


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## Fishindude (Aug 15, 2017)

Good for you !
I would recommend getting involved in a local builders association of some type that has routine meetings where you can make relationships and visit periodically with other, non competitor, friendly contractors and share ideas. Regarding the written safety plan, don't reinvent the wheel. You can probably copy someone else's plan for the most part, then customize it to fit your particular business. 

Find a contractor that you think is the best in the business, then do the things they do, with your own particular twist.


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## Pounder (Nov 28, 2020)

There are very few questions that will need to be asked, as they have policies and rules in place for everything. I would expect the entire meeting to be about how you manage proving your compliance.


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## esarratt (Sep 6, 2020)

Thank you both. I always do find out about something here which I did not know.


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## Ohio painter (Dec 4, 2011)

Good for you for being proactive.
I too want to be proactive about safety and have a safety minded culture. I have no problem work taking longer if it is safer. 

A couple of years ago my full time employee and myself completed the competent person / fall protection class. Lots of good info but I came away with so many questions applying the OSHA rules to our work environment. We thought we were doing many things as safe as possible but the instructors would tell us our methods are not meeting a certain requirement, but then not suggest how we are to meet the requirement for our situation. 

A good friend of mine is a safety consultant and works with OSHA, when I present a certain situation, usually regarding fall protection, he will say yea that’s tricky, you will have to get creative. That’s not much help.

I think as you go through this you will have questions arise applying a requirement to your work environment, if not then hopefully it is all straight forward.


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## Pounder (Nov 28, 2020)

My one dealing with CalOSHA was a site inspection. Found a cord with tape on it, and an upper deck that didn't have a temporary rail (no one was working on it at the time). They murdered me on the paperwork end.
Pay attention to their requirements, get a list. If you don't want to actually write a safety plan per their guidelines, there are a number of places on the web that will do it for a couple hundred bucks and email it to you in an hour. It's all boiler plate put together based on which check boxes you click on.
The first aid kit turned out to be the biggest hurdle. They were requiring that it contain a letter from a doctor stating that the kit had everything required for the type of work I was doing. No doctor will write that letter. It's taking on almost unlimited liability for chump change. They ended up accepting an industry standard first aid kit without question.


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## Ohio painter (Dec 4, 2011)

Pounder said:


> The first aid kit turned out to be the biggest hurdle. They were requiring that it contain a letter from a doctor stating that the kit had everything required for the type of work I was doing. No doctor will write that letter. It's taking on almost unlimited liability for chump change. They ended up accepting an industry standard first aid kit without question.


I have no problem carrying first aid kits in my vehicles but letters from a doctor is the kind of [email protected] that drives you nuts.


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

OSHA compliance us noted for having some areas which it's impossible to do the work and comply with all the regs, and they can't say how to comply.

Overall, the safety framework is valuable.


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