Written by Joey Stokes, Director of Industrial Skills Training for Peak Performance, who is a certified OSHA Instructor.
Education and Training are the Key to Reducing OSHA Complaints and Citations
With the ever-changing environment of safety, the two things that remain constant are complaints and citations. Why? Why is this a constant issue? Why do employees complain? Why do employees not use the PPE properly? With the newly released guidance from OSHA concerning Covid-19 and infectious disease, it is a great time to review our policies and procedures.
Employee TOSHA complaints have doubled in the last few months and most of these are PPE or general duty clause. Most could be prevented with education and training. Some of these employee complaints are justified, but many of them are not. Most of these are complaints that the employees do not feel safe or employers are not providing adequate PPE. Employees are often told to wear PPE but are rarely educated on why to wear it. Some employees are given the correct PPE but are not properly trained on how to don and doff the PPE. Proper training, use of, and auditing are all key elements the inspector will look for when investigating complaints. Proper training is a requirement under the OSH act so employees not using the PPE correctly should never happen.
