On March 29, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced its Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process final rule, which allows employees to choose a third-party representative, such as an outside union representative or community organizer, to accompany an OSHA safety inspector into nonunion workplaces during site inspections. This final rule is effective on May 31, 2024. ABC will offer a webinar on Tuesday, April 9 at 2 p.m. ET about the final rule. Register now!

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is hosting a webinar on electronically submitting workplace injury and illness data using the Injury Tracking Application on Feb. 7 from 1-2 p.m. ET. Registration is free.

The Construction Specifications Institute is looking for new members on its MasterFormat Task Team—a group of eight specification, architecture, engineering, construction and owner professionals selected to serve the industry by investing time, expertise and effort in the updating and maintenance of the MasterFormat classification standard. The deadline to apply is Jan. 30.

In December 2023, ABC submitted comments as a steering committee member of the Construction Industry Safety Coalition and the Coalition for Workplace Safety in response to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s potential standard for Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings following its review of the Small Business Advocacy Review Panel materials and the SBAR Panel’s final report.

The Biden administration recently released its Fall 2023 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The agenda lists upcoming rulemakings and other regulatory actions from each agency that the administration expects to publish in 2023 and 2024. ABC has prepared a summary of the actions of interest to ABC members by agency.

The key components of the STEP Safety Management System work synergistically to build an effective safety culture. Explore how responsibilities, resources and rules can help you build better relationships and open lines of communication to improve employee safety and company profitability.

Identifying ways to support your workforce is one of the first, simplest steps to improve safety across your company. The industry is rapidly changing, and there are new technology and tools to make everyone safer. Top-performing contractors now utilize software and apps to review safety performance at the touch of a button.

On Oct. 16, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued an extension of the comment period for its Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process proposed rule, which would allow an employee to choose a third-party representative, such as an outside union representative, to accompany an OSHA inspector into nonunion facilities. OSHA extended the comment period from Oct. 30 to Nov. 13. On Sept. 21, ABC, as a steering committee member of the Coalition for Workplace Safety, wrote to OSHA requesting a 60-day extension. ABC will submit comments in opposition to the rule and ABC members are also encouraged to submit comments on regulations.gov.

On Sept. 26, ABC, as a steering committee member of the Coalition for Workplace Safety, and 40 other employer organizations sent a letter to the U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections calling out the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for its Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process proposed rulemaking and the politicization of the agency that the rulemaking exemplifies. The proposed rule would allow an employee to choose a third-party representative, such as an outside union representative, to accompany an OSHA inspector into nonunion facilities.

Modern day top leadership engagement is continuing to trend away from the traditional command-and-control approach. Far from the “I think it, you do it” model, the total human health approach to top management is all about leadership—curious, engaged and relational. Safety isn’t left to chance or considered the responsibility of just the safety director; safety is managed and led just like every other operation in the company, from accounts receivable to customer experience.