In your dreams

By Steve Schultz

Imagine a construction site where planned OSHA inspections are a thing of the past. Fines for safety violations are quickly fixed or reduced. And workers' comp figures are so good that they have a big impact on the bottom line.

Fiction? Think again.

Under agreements with OSHA's four Wisconsin offices, not only will the federal safety agency's initials no longer be a four-letter word among some builders, but safety may quickly improve, according to proponents. And while the benefits may be months or years in the future, it is a direction in which OSHA is heading, officials say.

"The agency has developed the approach that we should increase enforcement, but also significantly expand our outreach and education program," said H. Berrien Zettler, the deputy director in OSHA's Directorate of Construction. "There were many concerns, not the least of which is that OSHA has never had a relationship with its stakeholders beyond an adversarial relationship. So we took the approach that Benjamin Franklin did, that we can catch more flies by using a spoonful of honey than a barrel full of vinegar."

Earlier this year, the Associated Builders & Contractors of Wisconsin became the first construction organization in the state to have a written partnership with OSHA. The Associated General Contractors of America has an agreement at the national level, but in Wisconsin, the AGCs are still talking with OSHA.

Under the agreement, after being inspected by OSHA, a contractor at ABC's highest level of safety achievement will not receive any inspections for a year. Only imminent danger, accidents, formal complaints and serious hazards observed by OSHA personnel in passing will qualify a contractor for a job-site inspection.

Further, citations that aren't serious will not be assigned a fine, as long as the problems are corrected immediately. And if fines are levied, contractors will be able to have them substantially reduced.

If contractors make a good-faith attempt to fix a problem and have steered clear of trouble, they will be treated with kid gloves, said Michael Fluharty, an OSHA spokesman in Washington.

Road builders rejoice

And contractors who put up houses, office buildings and manufacturing plants aren't alone. The Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association has been following efforts by the Illinois Road Builders Association to work out a similar plan for its members.

"They are doing things differently," said Craig Carder, the safety director for Waupun-based Westra Construction Inc. Westra is a member of the Associated Builders & Contractors of Wisconsin and he chairs the group's safety committee.

"They are supposed to be the good guys and they haven't always been the good guys," Carder said. "I've had my share of complaints, but with the partnership, we hope that we'll be able to work more closely to make construction better, safer," he said.

For years, antagonism - or at best, grudging acceptance - has been the standard between the industry and OSHA. But even though OSHA is promoting constructive partnerships so that its personnel and resources can be used to target the unsafe workplaces, not everyone is convinced that the partnerships announced so far are as worthwhile as some claim.

"The old guard of OSHA and both chapters of AGC have moved out," said Dan Burazin, the safety director for the Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee. "Now you have new people and you've got some of these new ideas that are coming in. But I need more than just PR. If they want to have an agreement, we need more than they are giving us now."

Burazin and Jeff Hanthorn, safety director for the Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin, said that the ABC partnership is something that AGC contractors have had in place with state OSHA officials unofficially for years. "They tend to look at us in a different way because we've looked at safety," Burazin said.

But both AGCs hope to have their own partnerships in place, possibly by July.

Zettler admits the approaches are different, since the AGC agreement is more of a template that state chapters must use to form their own agreements. But at least they are talking to OSHA about a stamp of approval. "OSHA is not interested in entering into partnerships that don't further safety and health programs for workplaces," Zettler said. "Our partnership arrangements are all ready to identify organizations that can and can't do that. The partnerships will be with the best of the best."

Earning it

Whether ABC or AGC, contractors will have to work to get OSHA's blessing. For ABC members, that will mean a site-specific, written safety and health program, employee training for specific hazards, supervisor training based on OSHA's 10-hour safety course and safety personnel who receive training similar to the 30-hour course.

In addition, the businesses must have an injury and illness rate under 8.0 and not have received a "willful" or "repeat" citation in the last three years, or a fatality or accident that resulted in a "serious" citation in the same period.

Forcing contractors to go through the process is beneficial itself, said Debra Redell, a safety compliance consultant at Construction & Industrial Safety Consulting Services Inc. in Racine. "If you have to comply in order to join, they will be forced into compliance," Redell said. "That's making a commitment. That's something that I think will be good for the industry."

But many contractors are still cautious about the "new OSHA." "We're tiptoeing through it now," said Safety Director Chuck Voigt of Appleton-based Oscar J. Boldt Construction Co. "They will still do audits. If they drive by and they see something for special enforcement, they will start inspecting."

Still, the idea is appealing, Voigt said. "I'm just trying to find out what benefits there are," he said. For its part, OSHA points to 18 years of its Voluntary Partnership Program to allay contractors' fears. In 1982, the agency started the VPP, under which management agrees to lead a safety program that is reviewed by OSHA. Unlike the association agreements, VPP is for individual work places, such as factories.

No more anonymity

In 1996, OSHA decided to extend the concept to associations in five industries, Zettler said. OSHA hopes to decrease the number of both injuries and fatalities in the construction by 15 percent, he said, but that might take time.

"When you have a long-standing adversarial relationship, it's entirely understandable that there's an absence of trust," Zettler said. "There's an absence of trust among the compliance officers as well. There's a fear that the partnership contractors will use it as a cover to take advantage of OSHA. The only way to really overcome that is for people to take risks. If we work out the working relationship, the proof will be in the pudding."

At a refinery operated by Mobil Exxon Corp. in Joliet, Ill., officials point to a 90 percent drop in injuries in the nine years a VPP has been in place, said Robert W. Bahr, safety, health and environment manger for the facility.

"I remember 20 years ago, we would make an anonymous phone call to OSHA to check if something was in compliance," Bahr said. Bahr is a member of the VPP Association, which represents employers in the program, and is the vice chair of the group's Midwest area. "Now we talk to the regional director and the area directors and the compliance officers, just to compare notes. It's a question of trust. We're saying that we will manage our own safety, and you can trust us."

That positive experience should sell contractors, Zettler said, including Westra's Carder. "It seems that with this they really are becoming a kinder, gentler OSHA," he said. .

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