Injuries from falls continue to be an especially high risk for workers today, with fall safety regulations remaining the top violation every single year since 2010.
Illinois’ internationally known safety advocacy organization, the National Safety Council (”NSC”), hosted the world’s largest annual safety conference at the NSC Safety Congress and Expo in Itasca, Illinois, this month.
In keeping with tradition during the event, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) once again took the opportunity to announce its annual “Top Ten List” of federal safety violations at the annual safety gathering.
OSHA’s Top 10 Most Frequently Cited Workplace Safety Standards for Fiscal Year 2021
The Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety standards for OSHA’s Fiscal Year 2021 (September 30, 2020, to October 1, 2021) are:
- Fall Protection – General Requirements (29 C.F.R. 1926.501);
- Respiratory Protection (29 C.F.R. 1910.134);
- Ladders (29 C.F.R. 1926.1053);
- Scaffolding (29 C.F.R. 1926.451);
- Hazard Communication (29 C.F.R. 1910.1200);
- Lockout/Tagout (29 C.F.R. 1910.147);
- Fall Protection – Training Requirements (29 C.F.R. 1926.503);
- Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection (29 C.F.R. 1926.102);
- Powered Industrial Trucks (29 C.F.R. 1910.178); and
- Machine Guarding (29 C.F.R. 1910.212).
Are Things Getting Any Safer for Workers on the Job? Comparing the 2020 and 2021 OSHA Top Ten Lists
For safety organizations and those who advocate for on-the-job accident victims and their loved ones, each year’s announcement brings with it the hope that things are getting less dangerous for workers in this country.
In comparing the 2020 OSHA Top Ten List with this month’s release, we learn the following:
- Shockingly, the new OSHA Top Ten List reveals that workers remain in a particularly serious danger of bodily injury from a fall while on the job.
- The federal regulation for General Requirements for Fall Protection (29 C.F.R. 1926.501) remains the most common workplace safety violation in this country. It has been first on the OSHA Top Ten List for the past eleven (11) years.
- Furthermore, there has been an increase in the number of reported violations for Training Requirements for Fall Protection (29 C.F.R. 1926.503) over the past year.
- Additionally, Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection (29 C.F.R. 1926.102) violations also increased in the past twelve months.
For more on the dangers facing workers on the job in Indiana and Illinois from a serious accident on the work site, read:
- NSC Safety Experts Warn of Dangers Facing Workers in the OSHA Top Ten List of Violations
- OSHA’s Top Ten Serious or Willful Violations of Worker Safety Laws.
The Inspection Gap: The Real Dangers Facing Workers in Indiana and Illinois of Serious Injury on the Job
For workers in our part of the country, the latest OSHA Top Ten List serves as a warning that very real dangers exist on the job site, regardless of lawmakers’ attempts to protect workers from harm.
This Top Ten List may well be only the tip of the iceberg insofar as the realities of today’s worksite hazards, with workers in Indiana and Illinois exposed to much more serious risks of severe or deadly accident injuries.
Why? One reason is that it is undisputed that the number of safety violations that are actually found and compiled by OSHA is extremely low in comparison to the number of workplaces subject to its enforcement.
It is reported that there are less than 2000 OSHA inspectors (1850) for the country’s 130,000,000 workers and its 8,000,000+ worksites. There are simply not enough OSHA inspectors to do the job.
Meanwhile, each day in this country fifteen (15) American workers die from bodily injuries sustained in an accident on the job site.
Read, “OSHA’s Top Ten Violations for FY 2021,” written by Colin Fluxman and published by Sun News on October 12, 2021.
Furthermore, a recent NBC News report relying upon information obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request has even more disturbing numbers, with only 862 OSHA inspectors in 2020 and a loss of “another 65 inspectors” during the course of 2020. NBC News quotes an OSHA official as explaining that it “… would take 160 years for OSHA to get into every workplace just once.” Read, “As Biden’s vaccinate-or-test mandate approaches, questions arise over enforcement,” written by Heidi Przybyla and Laura Strickler and published by NBC News on October 11, 2021.
Worker Accident Claims in Indiana and Illinois
Of importance to workers in our part of the country is recognition that both Illinois and Indiana operate with OSHA-approved “State Plans,” where the states operate their own workplace safety and health programs in full or in part. The federal agency monitors each State Plan, and under federal law each State Plan must be “at least as effective as OSHA in protecting workers and in preventing work-related injuries, illnesses and deaths.”
- Illinois’ State Plan covers workers in state and local government jobs here in Illinois. Workers for the federal government are not within its State Plan.
- Indiana’s State Plan covers state and local government jobs in the Hoosier State as well as its private sector workplaces (with some exceptions, such as maritime worksites).
Accordingly, workers injured on the job in Indiana or Illinois may be hurt on a jobsite that is under federal OSHA inspection oversight, or the safety oversight of the applicable State Plan.
While their accident claims must be pursued according to the appropriate regulatory structure, the warnings of danger revealed in this week’s release of the OSHA Top Ten List must be given great credence by everyone in our communities.
Workers in Indiana and Illinois go to work each day with recognized risks that are known to employers who may well put profits over people and forego needed safety protocols and procedures because of cost concerns. When this happens, state laws provide avenues for justice to these accident victims and their families through worker’s compensation, wrongful death, negligence, and product liability laws.
For more on worker accident injury risks in Indiana and Illinois, read:
- Warehouse Accidents: Workers in One of the Deadliest Jobs in Indiana and Illinois
- Deadly Construction Fall Accidents: Duty to Provide Fall Safety Equipment Protections for Construction Workers
- Construction Worker’s Risk of Dying on the Job Jumps 41% According to New Report
- Ladder Accidents: The Very Real Danger of Death from Falling off a Ladder on the Job
- Respiratory Protection: Deadly Dangers Facing Variety of Workers in Indiana and Illinois
- Industrial Machine Accidents: Deadly Dangers Facing Machinists, Mechanics, Maintenance, and Millwrights in Indiana and Illinois
- AFL-CIO 2021 Report: Shocking Risk of Dying on the Job for Workers in Indiana and Illinois.
Going to work each day should not expose the worker to the risk of serious bodily injury or death while on the job. The OSHA Top Ten List is a red flag that too many workers remain at risk of harm today. Please be careful out there!
