Masonry Magazine August 1972 Page. 37
OSHA Info
Most farmworkers and household workers should be covered.
State laws should provide full coverage of work-related diseases.
Full medical care and physical rehabilitation services should be provided for any work-related impairment without statutory limits on dollar amounts or length or time.
Employees should be able to file claim in the state where injured, or where hired, or where employment is principally localized.
LACK OF SUPERVISION-
INCREASES PROPOSED PENALTY
A supervisor failed to remain in the work area while an employee was performing work he had been warned about performing unsafely. The result a $1,000 penalty for the violation of the general-duty clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Judge Herbert E. Bates of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission ruled that the contractor's proposed penalty should be increased from $550 to $1,000 due to the gravity of the hazardous condition. The judge stated that inadequate precautions were taken in completing an operation to undercut and remove masonry material from a masonry wall that resulted in the wall's collapse and the death of an employee. The deceased employee had been warned five times by the supervisor of the hazardous condition, but he started the work against the instructions of his supervisor.
Bates said that the contractor failed to follow either the statutory or the common-sense obligation of section 5(A) (e) when the supervisor did not fulfill his responsibilities by staying "on the scene in order to insure that the employee, who had twice contravened the instructions (not to work on the masonry wall until it had been properly braced), had properly carried out the supervisor's instructions.
OSHA AREA DIRECTORS CAN
CONDUCT INFORMAL CONFERENCES
A change in policy denoted in a June 28 OSHA program directive allows responsibility for conducting informal conferences that are requested by an employee or employer, or a representative of the employees can be delegated to the area directors of the administration.
An informal conference is provided for in 1903.19 of the inspection regulations. In essence, the amended rule states that the regional administrator can delegate responsibility to the area director, but the area director may not further delegate the authority to hold an informal conference. Several guidelines must be met:
The area director has to notify the regional administrator of all requests for informal conferences, and the regional administrator will determine if the conference should be held and at which office.
If the area director holds the conference, the results will be discussed and reviewed by the regional administrator, who then will determine disposition of any resulting report.
Decisions affecting changes in either the "Notification of Proposed Penalty" or the "Citation" will be the re-