Core construction at Number 2 reactor; North Anna Nuclear Power Station, Louisa County, Virginia; summer 1975 (photo by Jan Thomas)

This is a slightly edited version of a originally posted at Construction Law Musings http://constructionlawva.com/ on April 17, 2009.  It represents my first blogging experience.  Thanks to Chris Hill for giving me that opportunity.

 

 Although I’m not an attorney, I am a safety professional with almost 35 years of construction safety experience and therefore I know a lot about worksite safety and its legal aspects including OSHA/VOSH compliance and best management practices within the trades.  As a result, I often get calls from clients and others seeking my advice.  Recently, a steel erection company representative I occasionally work for called and wanted to chat about a “safety issue.”

The company had set up their crane and had started erection and decking work at a GC’s site.  This sub had worked for the GC before, using similar contract terms of work.  I was told that nothing but the price of work had changed until this week when the GC’s safety representative held a site safety meeting and informed the steel erection crew that they could no longer “engineer and site-build” their rat lines (horizontal safety lines).  Instead, they had to either buy and use manufactured horizontal anchors or provide a PE’s certification of safety.  The steel erection safety representative didn’t think the GC could or should change the rules and he wanted my opinion. (I’m skipping over some of our discussions of §1926.502(d)(15), including how to meet the definition of a “qualified person” and how to go about engineering anchorages.)

“Sorry,” I told him.  “The GC, and in fact any employer, site-controlling or otherwise, can institute safety requirements that go above those required by OSHA.”  After a little more chatting, I think he understood that there were really two parts to his dilemma.  The first, from my point of view, concerns the safety of his iron workers while they are using a field-built system that could be made up of incompatible components with different load ratings.  The second issue on which he was focused was whether or not the GC could change the old contract agreement which merely required they “meet OSHA requirements.”

I made sympathetic noises… yes, it appeared unfair that the GC was changing the rules.  But then I laid out his options:

• Delay fixing the safety system in question and get written up by the GC and risk having an OSHA willful violation paper trail, and
• Stubbornly continue to work against the GC’s safety request and risk getting kicked off the job and never being invited back for more work, or
• Call your company attorney and get the safety language in the contract more clearly negotiated for the next job (but in the meantime, I recommend following the GC’s safety request).