Yesterday, we featured answers to questions about OSHA regulatory requirements for employee training. Today, we conclude with more questions and answers and highlight a training tool designed to help ensure compliance.
Q. We currently have a cleaning contractor who has not been trained by their employer to clean up blood. Is it up to us to perform the training for them on BBP or should their employer conduct the training?
A. It is the contractor’s responsibility to train its employees. You should have a written agreement with the contractor that their employees have been trained.
There are four primary functions of an employer concerning how hazards are handled and how OSHA will issue citations:
- Creating—the employer that caused a hazardous condition
- Exposing—the employer whose own employees are exposed to a hazard
- Correcting—the employer that is engaged in a common undertaking, on the same worksite, as the exposing employer and is responsible for correcting a hazard (for example, given the responsibility of installing and/or maintaining particular safety/health equipment or devices).
- Controlling—the employer that has general supervisory authority over the worksite and the power to correct safety and health violations itself or require others to correct them
One employer can be responsible for more than one of these functions. For example, exposing, creating, and controlling employers can also be correcting employers if they are authorized to correct the hazard.
Whatever safety meeting you need, chances are you’ll find it prewritten and ready to use in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library on CD. Try it at no cost or risk. Here’s how.
Is retraining required for PPE?
Yes, when necessary. For example if there are:
- Changes in the workplace
- New hazards requiring additional PPE are introduced
- Changes in the type of PPE used
Employees must also be retrained in the use of PPE whenever they demonstrate that they have not retained the requisite understanding or skill in the use of required protective equipment—for example, if an employee is not using assigned PPE or is using the wrong PPE for the hazard.
Must hazard communication training be conducted annually?
No, although, it’s certainly a good idea. However, according to the Hazard Communication Standard (29 CFR 1910.1200), retraining is required whenever a new chemical hazard is introduced into the work area.
How often does OSHA require training for fire brigade members? Is classroom training sufficient, or is hands-on training also required.
Quarterly training is required for interior structural firefighters. Annual training is required for all other brigade members. Both hands-on training and classroom instruction on emergency action procedures, prefire planning, review of special hazards in the workplace (e.g., flammable liquids and gases, toxic chemicals, radioactive sources, water-reactive substances), and use of self-contained breathing apparatuses are required.
We challenge you to NOT find a safety meeting you need, already prewritten, in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library. Take up our challenge at no cost or risk. Get the details.
Train for OSHA Compliance
BLR’s Safety Meetings Library provides the perfect materials for conducting frequent and engaging training on a wide range of essential safety and health topics. This is just the kind of training you need to help ensure compliance with OSHA regulations.
All told, the CD provides you with more than 400 ready-to-train meetings on more than 100 key safety topics—a shrewd investment in this time of tight safety budgets. In addition to the meetings’ supplemental quizzes and handouts, you also get relevant regulations (OSHA’s CFR 29), a listing of the most common safety violations cited by OSHA, and case studies of actual OSHA cases and their outcomes.
Safety Meetings Library lets you choose from a variety of training approaches, including:
- Mandatory—Sessions that are OSHA-required
- Comprehensive—Sessions with broadest coverage of a topic
- 7-Minute—Short, simple, targeted sessions to fit tight schedules
- Initial—A session used as introductory training on a topic
- Refresher—Sessions that follow up on or reinforce previous training
- Tool Box Talk—More informal reinforcement of a topic
- PowerPoint®—Graphic presentations for comprehensive initial or refresher training
- Hands-on—A session in which there are training activities
- Spanish—Including Spanish language handouts and quizzes coordinated with English sessions
You can get a preview of the program by using the links below. But for the best look, we suggest a no-cost, no-obligation trial. Just let us know and we’ll arrange it for you.