Contract safety records

The standard makes it clear that a contract company s safety record is to be reviewed before they are hired and that safety record should be evaluated as part of the overall contractor selection process. Generally, the contractor s OSHA 300 logs will be used for this evaluation. 

Regulations generally require that employers periodically evaluate and audit contract companies and workers. If any problems or violations of company standards are observed, or if the contractor s safety record is deteriorating, the operating company must bring them to the attention of the... 

The essence of workplace safety and health should not rest upon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations, as they should not be the driving forces behind workplace safety and health. OSHA has limited resources for inspection and a limited number of inspectors. Enforcement is usually based on serious complaints, catastrophic events, and workplace deaths. Employers with a good safety and health program and a good safety record have a better opportunity of procuring contracts and orders because of their workplace safety and health record, and reap the benefits of low insurance premiums for workers compensation and liability. Usually, safety and health are linked to the bottom line, which is seldom perceived as humanitarian. 

Most tolls involve the transfer of proprietary information from one party to the other, typically from the client company to the toller. Each party should have maintained a log of transferred documents or software code to make the return of proprietary documents a simple matter. An initial list of the documents should have been referenced in the contract or as part of the technology package. Keeping records of additional documents transferred during the course of the toll will help eliminate confusion at the end of the project. The toller may need to retain documents appropriate for their process safety system needs. 

Quality Management system priorities to consider are management responsibility, quality system principles, auditing, contract review, design control, corrective action, document control, quality records, training, product safety and liability, and statistical techniques, because these are critical aspects of the Quality Management system where Xmple Inc. already has some systems in place. 

Tadalafil has also been extensively evaluated in patients with cardiovascular disease and has a similar safety and efficacy profile to sildenafil (45). Studies have shown no adverse effects on cardiac contraction, ventricular repolarization, or ischemic threshold. A similar hypotensive effect has been recorded with a dose of doxazosin 8 mg so caution is needed. As hypotension does not occur in the supine position and as tadalafil has a long half-life it is suggested that tadalafil is taken in the morning and doxazosin in the evening. There is no interaction of tadalafil with the selective a-adrenoceptor antagonist tamsulosin, which can, therefore, be prescribed as an alternative to doxazosin for symptomatic benign prostate hypertrophy (46). 

However, there have been cases where companies have hired unpredictable workers without a criminal record. In early 2004, in Texas, for example, a contract security guard at a BASF ammonia facility apparently shot himself, then blamed it on a foreign intruder, only to be arrested on other unrelated charges two weeks later. His story had been covered widely by the media, raising public concerns about plant safety. 

Estimates of the number of people injured by pesticides vary widely but may be 100-times the accidental death rate on a worldwide basis (j5, 6). In 1985, 2500 occupationally-related accidental pesticide poisonings were officially reported in California and the real number of injuries may be considerably higher. Neither is the record of safety in pesticide manufacturing in the USA unblemished. Serious injuries to workers involved in manufacturing the insecticide chlordecone, the nematicide dibromochloropropane (DBCP), and, possibly, the insecticide leptophos have been reported in the last 15 years (4, ). There is preliminary but disquieting epidemiological evidence that frequent users of some herbicides may have an elevated risk of contracting cancer, particularly if standard safety precautions are not observed (e.g. 7.,8). 

The OSHA PSM contractor element requires that employers obtain and evaluate information regarding the contract employer s safety performance and programs. Many employers use this as an opportunity to screen contractors and only hire and use contractors with safety performance records that meet their minimum criteria. 

Pavement inventory may also contain additional data such as bridge or underpass locations, road marking, streetlights, safety barriers, street furniture in general, accident records, construction, maintenance, rehabilitation cost, contracting companies data, noise and air pollution measurements and anything else related to the road. 

In some businesses, safety performance data and records help gain a competitive advantage. Investors and business collaborators may consider safety performance as one factor in reaching business decisions with a potential supplier. Some government contracting procedures require bidders to include safety performance data as part of a bid package. A bidding company may not qualify at all if safety performance falls below some standard. Final selection and contract... 

Six months into the two-year project, one of the major subcontractors responsible for multistory steel-beam erection had employees working over 30 feet in the air without fall protection. After the second observation of this violation, the plant safety manager ordered the workers down, informed the contractor of the repeat violation, and initiated the process to terminate the contract. The contractor was removed from the project and replaced by a firm that accomplished all the goals initially established by the textile manufacturer. The plant manager in this scenario did not compromise. As a result, the project was completed on time with only one OSHA-recordable injury. 

An important step in ensuring health and safety in contract situations hes at the tender stage. The principal needs to ensure that there is evidertce that the corrtractor has an adequate OHS system, and a good accident record. (The latter can be difficult for contractors just starting out.) Principals using a preqrralificatiorts system which screens contractors out before they can even submit a bid, rrtake it even more difficrrlt for a new comparty. 

Companies want to ensure that they engage safe contractors. This involves a close attention to detail from the pre-contract stage to the end of the project. Large firms often have their own approved list of contractors and suppliers. To get on this list will usually involve a demonstration that the supplier has all the necessary policies and procedures in place and has a good health and safety track record. Failure to meet the client s requirements because of accidents or enforcement action may mean a loss of business and even exclusion from the approved list. Some clients or principal contractors may want to audit a supplier to check compliance. 

The health and safety file is a record of information for the client or end user. The planning supervisor ensures that the file is produced at the end of the contract and handed to the client. It should include ... 

Neither passive nor active fire protection measures can be installed and then forgotten they require regular inspection and maintenance. Service contracts should be established with accredited contractors for installed equipment but the fire safety manager should also ensure that regular inspections are made of escape routes, fire doors and housekeeping standards and that suitable records of such inspections are kept. 

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