How to Avoid Safety-Related Lawsuits

How well insulated is your organization from safety-related lawsuits? Here are some suggestions for dealing with three common sources of potential trouble.

Any time people enter your workplace, there's a risk (however slight) that something could go wrong and give rise to a safety-related lawsuit. For example:

• An outside contractor skimps on safety training and supervision of its workers, and an accident puts you in the middle of a costly lawsuit.
• A visitor to your workplace who isn't wearing safety glasses in an eye hazard area sustains an eye injury.
• An inadequately trained employee causes an accident that injures three co-workers.

You can never be too careful when it comes to staying out of court., so here are some suggestions for doing just that.

Contractors

• Be choosy. Select your contractors carefully and use only licensed professionals. Do a little research and check out your prospective contractor's safety history and training records. Have they been frequently cited by OSHA or MSHA? If so, they might have the lowest bid because they are skimping on good safety practices and training.
• It's all in the contract. Build language into your contract that explains who is responsible for safety. Be specific, especially with regard to training and equipment.
• Train the temps too. Temp companies often provide general safety training to employees, but your company should decide up-front who will be providing job-specific safety training. Whether you provide that training to temps or not, be sure the quality is something you can stand by and stick to that policy.

visitors/Customers

• No wanderers allowed. Always know who is coming onto your worksite and what they are doing there. Never allow members of the public to wander through your worksite unattended. Also, examine your insurance policy limits for specific liabilities of nonemployees. Keep in mind that signed waivers aren't usually worth the paper they are written on, so be sure to have trained employees accompany the visitors on your worksite.
• Use proper signage. If visitors to your worksite speak languages other than English, be sure to post additional warning signs in those languages.
• They need PPE too. If your employees are required to wear PPE in certain areas, visitors in those areas should have to as well. Not only will it protect the visitor, the practice reinforces your safety message to employees.

Employees

• Keep good training records. Train your employees thoroughly and be sure to document the training. Remember that according to OSHA, the training never occurred if you don't have records of it.
• Don't skimp on training