Who's "Competent" and why it matters

 

If you walk up to a work site and ask who's the competent person, you might get a few laughs. Everyone wants to be thought of as competent, but in the safety and compliance world, the term "competent person" is an actual legal term that has real ramifications.

First, what does it mean?

From https://www.osha.gov/competent-person: An OSHA "competent person" is defined as "one who is capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards in the surroundings or working conditions which are unsanitary, hazardous, or dangerous to employees, and who has authorization to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate them" [29 CFR 1926.32(f)].

 This talks about two important components:

 - A competent person is capable of identifying hazards, so they have the background, education, and / or experience that allows them to know what the hazards are; and

- They have authorization (from their employer) to correct the hazards.

With these two elements together, this means they have a pretty big role on a work site. Here are a few more points about a "competent person" that you may not know.

1. Employers confer this status.

There are training programs that may be called Fall Protection Competent Person, or Confined Space Competent Person. They may even give you a fancy certificate at the end, certifying that the attendee is a bona fide competent person. However, the only entity that can confer the status of a competent person is the employer of said competent person. That's because part of the definition of a competent person is having the authority to correct a hazard -- an authority that can only come from the employer.

It's up to the employer to consider the experience, background, and characteristics of a person before granting them this title. It's never a bad idea to send an employee to more outside training, just know that a training can never give them "competent person level" status.

2. Sites need to have a competent person assigned, and everyone in the vicinity should know who they are. 

The following work activities require a competent person on site and may have further specific requirements regarding competent persons:

- Excavation (trenching / shoring)

- Fall protection

- Confined space

- Rigging

- Cranes

- All aspects of construction activity

One of the first things an OSHA inspector would ask once on one of these sites would be, you guessed it: "Who's the competent person?" Hopefully the answer will be something more than a deer in headlights stare in return.

3. Competent persons could have some personal liability.

As with any role tasked with ensuring employee safety, there is a chance that should safety be completely ignored, the competent person could be personally fined and even imprisoned. The same goes for company management and supervisors. A few conditions would need to be met, including the violation being willful (on purpose), and the violation resulting in a fatality. Check out this blog post for more detailed information, as well as the other two situations that could warrant fines or even jail time.

This just drives home the point that this stuff is serious, and we need to consider safety as priority number one during these high hazard activities. Make sure your competent person has the adequate experience and training to do the job right, and make sure they're supported to make the right decisions to keep employees safe.

 

National Work Zone Awareness Week: April 15 - 19th

According to the National Safety Council, there were 891 fatalities and 37,701 injuries in work zones in 2022.

Remember to slow down and respect work zones. Here's a shout out to the many in our industry who wear the green vests every day. People in work zones are your coworkers, family members, and friends. Slow down and respect the green and orange!

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month

Driving involves a lot of terrifying physics, if you think about it.

Every day you get behind a wheel, even if you never go above 40 mph, you're still hurtling along at a literally breakneck speed. The forces involved if you were to slam into something -- a telephone pole, another car, a building -- are nauseating to think about. Our bodies are fragile in comparison.

Driving is almost guaranteed to be the most hazardous thing you do today. So remember to #justdrive. The life you save may be your own. Or your kid's. Or maybe the grandma in the car across from you.

 #JustDrive.

 

Is your vest up to snuff: High Visibility Clothing Requirements

The MUTCD (Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways) was updated in late 2023, so it's a good time to review the parts that affect the broadband industry the most directly. One of those is what high visibility apparel is appropriate to wear. 

Make sure employees are wearing a vest that meets Performance Class 2 or 3 of ANSI/ISEA 107-2015. The easiest way to tell is to check the tag on the vest. Check out this example of an ANSI compliant tag (this is the source, great for more background reading on the subject).

 

If the tag says ANSI-ISEA 107-2015, you're good to go. If it says 107-2020, that's OK too. However, if it says 107-2010, that means the vest has done its time and now needs to be updated.  The vest must be worn whenever a worker is within a "temporary traffic control" (TTC) zone, which includes time when a vehicle is parked along the side of a road or within a construction zone.

The changes to the high vis apparel might seem subtle, but the research that goes into development is substantial and backed by science. And you just might save an employee's life by making the switch.

Why we do what we do: Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Sometimes it feels like safety is a fussy business.  

Who cares if there's storage in front of the electrical panel? 

What does if matter if there's a box in front of the exit door?

Why do we have to check these exit lights every month?

When we have a dozen other priorities throughout the day and someone piles on a couple more things like this onto your to-do list, it can make you feel pretty resistant.

But there's a quote that gets thrown around every once in a while that really grabs your attention, no matter how you might feel about safety inspections or OSHA:

OSHA rules are written in blood.

With the Baltimore bridge collapse in the news, it's a good time to reflect on why we have these rules in place.

We've also just passed the anniversary of an infamous disaster, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which took place in New York City on March 25th, 1911. Because the exits were locked to prevent workers from taking too many breaks, 146 employees lost their lives to a fire that started in the factory.

Sometimes it takes loss like this to lead to change in regulations that save lives down the line.

Many of these rules that seem cumbersome or frustrating are in place because someone lost their life or were seriously injured before the rule was put in place.

If you want to learn more, here's an almost four minute video about how the NFPA's Life Safety Code can be directly traced back to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

Just remember... rules that might seem annoying now can save lives later.