A stricter OSHA seen after Sun series

Agency holds firm on findings following investigation of Strip construction site deaths

Tue, Apr 22, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Influenced, OSHA bends (4-18-2008)
A Cautious Push (4-13-2008)

Construction Deaths

Contractors and union officials say the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration appears to be getting tougher on construction companies in the wake of a Sun examination of how the agency has investigated construction deaths on the Strip.

Most recently, the agency did not back down from its recommended citations against a subcontractor in connection with the death at the Cosmopolitan of a safety engineer. A subcontractor, Reliable Steel, had protested the findings, but OSHA officials refused to budge during an informal conference with the employer.

These informal settlement conferences allow OSHA officials to amend the citations that follow an investigation. If OSHA and the company don’t reach an agreement, the case goes before a review board.

Following the nine fatal accidents investigated by Nevada OSHA over a 16-month period, contractors and their subs persuaded the state to remove or water down citations for safety violations, the Sun found.

Federal OSHA representatives who monitor Nevada OSHA have told the Sun that citations following a fatality should be withdrawn only rarely.

In the two informal conferences conducted by the agency after the Sun began inquiring, it did not soften its findings in either.

“We suspect they are getting tougher,” a safety engineer at a large Las Vegas general contractor said. “They’re trying to save face, of course.”

State OSHA administrators declined to comment.

The most recent settlement conference report was released to the Sun on Monday. An OSHA investigator had found several safety violations in the wake of the Jan. 14 death of Michael Taylor, a safety engineer at the Cosmopolitan. Reliable Steel had argued it was not at fault, but following the informal conference an OSHA administrator said the company did not provide enough additional evidence to justify changing the agency’s conclusions. The company is appealing the case to the review board before which OSHA will have to defend its findings.

“OSHA is making an example of us,” Reliable Steel President Timothy Puetz said. “They’re not going to make decisions (during the informal conference) so that they’re not criticized.”

In the first case after the Sun’s inquiries, Nevada OSHA met Feb. 27 with subcontractor Schuff Steel regarding the case of David Rabun, an ironworker who fell down an elevator shaft at the Cosmopolitan in November. The agency refused to change its findings in that case, which will also likely go to a review board.

The seemingly weakening position of contractors during OSHA investigations has not gone without notice.

At a safety orientation training conducted Monday at Boyd Gaming Corp.’s Echelon by Tishman Construction, the site’s construction manager, a trainer reportedly told workers OSHA would probably be more stringent, given the attention now being paid to construction deaths. The trainer said there would be zero tolerance for any worker deviation from safety guidelines, according to a person who attended the training.

Events surrounding Taylor’s death have stood out as particularly haunting among the rash of recent Strip fatalities. Taylor was employed by general contractor Perini to find and correct safety violations at the Cosmopolitan. No one saw what happened, but investigators believe the 58-year-old fell five floors when a corner iron post that helped hold up a guardrail system collapsed. The corner posts are usually held in place by support pieces called kickers, welded to the bottom, but Reliable Steel had removed the kickers to install a beam and had not replaced them, according to the OSHA investigation.

OSHA fined Reliable Steel $2,850 for two “serious” and two “regulatory” violations.

The company appealed and met April 3 for an informal conference with OSHA Administrator Jimmie Garrett and inspector Corey Church. Also attending was Chuck Lenhart, the Las Vegas business agent for Ironworkers Local 433, who became the first union leader to attend an informal conference during investigations following the recent construction deaths.

Taylor was not in a union, but Lenhart said he wanted to attend the conference nonetheless to find out more about efforts to develop an industrywide standard for guardrail systems, which was at issue in the case.

Like other local labor leaders, Lenhart learned from the Sun that union representatives are allowed to attend informal conferences.

At the conference, Reliable Steel’s Puetz presented the findings of an engineering report that he said proved subcontractor Schuff Steel was responsible for not welding the iron posts to support enough weight. But Garrett deemed the engineering report insufficient.

“No documentation or evidence could be produced to justify such a request (to remove citations),” Garrett wrote.

In the past, Garrett has dismissed citations against contractors even without additional documented evidence, and without offering additional explanation.

Puetz said his company will continue to defend its safety record.

To contest the citations, he’s spending well more than the $2,850 OSHA has ordered the company to pay in fines.

“We’re trying to make the point that the industry has to be changed,” Puetz said. “We have to have a standardized (guardrail) system so this doesn’t happen again.”

Discussion: 10 comments so far…

By Ruralsrule

4/22/08 at 6:10 a.m.

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January, 1998: Sierra Chemical plant east of Reno explodes, killing 4 workers injuring a dozen. Root causes: lack of OSHA inspections, lax safety procedures, greedy owner and management. OSHA issues record fine, vows to get tough. Similar situation at Pepcon ten years earlier. Ten years later, the Cemetery Center tragedy. If there's anything lacking in this otherwise Pulitzer-deserving series, it's the historic perspective that our state has been complicit in killing workers for a long time and has never kept its promise to do better in the future.
By Felicity

4/22/08 at 7:12 a.m.

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Now that OSHA has decided to "Save Face" what about the prior deaths, where is their Justice. OSHA needs to re-evaluate their findings on those deaths, open up those cases again and give all of us and our loved ones the JUSTICE we deserve!!!!!!!
By LV

4/22/08 at 7:27 a.m.

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Unfortunately, the media is sometimes the only thing that keeps companies/organizations honest.
By zerstuckelung

4/22/08 at 8:34 a.m.

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Just give us our public service Pulitzer already! Our coverage effected a policy change! Gimme!
By envresource08

4/22/08 at 10:33 a.m.

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$2,850 for "serious" and "regulatory" violations is laughable. It's cheaper to pay the citations than to comply with the OSHA regulations. The cost/value of a human life is pretty cheap in Nevada.
By letjusticeprevail

4/22/08 at 5:22 p.m.

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Felicity,
I agree with you 100% and I am taking on the fight to see some changes happen at NV OSHA. I encourage everyone involved to file a CASPA with Region 9 Federal OSHA. I know some don't think that will help but its a place to start and might wake them up. If you're interested in becoming involved write to prevail4justice.com. United we stand......
By watcher

4/22/08 at 8:02 p.m.

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Nevada OSHA gets exposed and what do they do? Instead of a little introspection and analysis of what created their current predicament, they go with a knee-jerk reaction, totally oblivious (as usual) to the long term or even short term ramifications. In this rush to ignore any facts presented to them and show how tough they are, they’ve set themselves up for failure at the review board. Since Nevada OSHA does more than twice the inspections that other states do (mostly fluff), many cases don’t get the time they deserve. This has previously been acceptable, since they never send their inspectors to the review board. In turn, inspectors have not been in the habit of building legal quality cases. If they suddenly send a bunch of cases which were built before the media light was so harshly shone on OSHA, the results will be laughable. Bet on these hard-line stances to soften. Or, maybe they’ll actually stand up to little Reliable Steel. After all, it’s not like they are Perini or Boyd where citations are deleted or penalties are cut in half. No, Reliable Steel, with little history of non-compliance, won’t get one dollar of wiggle room. OSHA – don’t listen to contractors, casinos, governors or the media - just do what’s right and document it. It really is that simple.
By letjusticeprevail

4/22/08 at 8:08 p.m.

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please correct my email to prevail4justice@gmail.com
By IamSAFETY

4/23/08 at 9:21 a.m.

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Being in the position that I am in, I deal with several regulatory agencies on a daily basis. The Sun did a great article on the death(s) of the workers in Vegas- my condolences to the families, but a few might want to fully understand what really goes on in building a building or other construction project. I don't see OSHA saving face- blame the government for creating a rule that is very easy to beat. If a violation of the Standard was the result of an injury or death of a worker then the blame really needs to go to the one who created the violation, sometimes it is not the Big Company that did the bad deed, but that of the worker who was taking a short cut- he was in a hurry to get a boring task done, and did not consider the future outcome. In some instances we call this an independent employee act, and yet we will find at fault the employer for this wrong doing. Personally, the safety of any person begins right there with the employee, if they are not capable of doing the task the right way, then maybe we as a society need to retrain the worker the right way without 'shortcuts'. Not one person has the right to decide the life or fate of another and in our world of construction we place a lot of trust in the ability of the worker, especially one who comes claiming to have the knowledge and experience, make them prove it.

OSHA, whether they be state or Fed can only do so much. The penalty phase in my opinion is too light- the dollar factor needs to be redefined, in a situation as such the fines should begin at $100,000.00 and work up IF the negligence is found to be the result of the contractors lack of several items that created the fatality. We work the system that WE put in place- thank US for how we can beat that system.

Sadly, we can only attempt to resolve the issue by common knowledge- fix it after it happens has been the American way for a 'few' decades. If we could only see into the future- it would never happen in the first place.