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CIC Newsletter - 2005

• March 7, 2005:  Don’t Get Burned by OSHA’S General Duty Clause
  By Thomas H. Welby, P.E., Esq.
  Most employers are aware that the Occupational Health and Safety Administration establishes specific (and often detailed) health and safety regulations.  Employers know that they must become familiar with specific OSHA regulations that apply to conditions, operations and processes relevant to their particular workplace and trade.  (e.g. – excavation, masonry, steel erection, etc.)  Employers, no doubt, would like to think that their trouble and expense in complying scrupulously with the myriad details of these industry-specific regulations will avoid citations for OSHA violations.  Read more...
   
• April 5, 2005:  Defense to OSHA Violations Based On Lack of Status as the “Employer”
  By Thomas H. Welby, P.E., Esq.
  For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the difficulty faced by many contractors in satisfying bonding requirements for larger projects (especially in the public sector) today joint ventures and other multientity relationships are prevalent in the construction industry in New York.  Read more...
   
• May 5, 2005:  Safety Policy Contractors’ and Subcontractors’ Liability Under OSHA’s “Multi-Employer Doctrine”
  By Thomas H. Welby, P.E., Esq.
  In last month’s article, we discussed how it may be a defense to an OSHA violation that the party cited was not the employer of affected workers at the jobsite.  This month, we will look at OSHA’S “multi-employer doctrine,” and how a general contractor or a subcontractor can be cited even for conditions it did not create, and which affect only other contractors’ employees. Read more...
   
• June 8, 2005:  Safety Policy Fall Protection:  A Top Safety Priority (with “Scaffold Law” Update) (Part I)
  By Thomas H. Welby, P.E., Esq. 
  Probably no single safety issue is more critical on the New York construction jobsites than that of fall protection.  Read more...
   
• July 14, 2005:  Safety Policy Fall Protection:  A Top Safety Priority (Part II)
  By Thomas H. Welby, P.E., Esq.
  We follow up last month’s “Scaffold Law Update” with a look at some OSHA cases involving fall-protection standards, as these are the leading cause, of construction industry citations.  Read more...
   
• September 6, 2005:  Safety Policy Deceptive Dangerous:  Cave-Ins and Other hazards in Trenches and Excavations (Part 1 of 2)
  By Thomas H. Welby, P.E., Esq.
  The risks to life and safety posed by unsafe excavation and trenching work at construction sites are under-appreciated.  Foresight in this area is critical:  when cave-ins occur, even in shallow trenches, workers can be trapped in an instant, and suffocated by the tremendous force of a load of dislodged earth.  Read more...
   
• October 17, 2005:  Safety Policy Lessons From OSHA Cases Concerning Excavation Hazards (Part 2 of 2)
  By Thomas H. Welby, P.E., Esq. 
  Following up last month’s article, let’s survey some OSHA cases for lessons about particular issues relating to excavations, and some practice pointers as well.  Read more...
   
• December 14, 2005:  Safety Policy OSHA Protections in Diving Operations
  By Thomas H. Welby, P.E., Esq. 
  If divers are employed from time to time on your projects, you should become familiar with OSHA regulations concerning diving operations.  While this may be specialized work ordinarily done by subcontractors, remember that if you are the general contractor on a project, you may be liable under OSHA’S “multi-employer doctrine” (as the party with general supervisory control over the worksite) for violations exposing divers to hazards.  The general contractor’s duty, as you know, runs not only to its own employees, but “extends to protection of all worksite employees.”  Read more...