The purpose of the guidelines enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is to keep workers in Georgia and other parts of the nation as safe as possible. During an annual National Safety Council Congress event, OSHA officials revealed their 2018 list of the most common workplace violations. The majority of issues that warranted citations involved fall hazards and failure to provide sufficient safety-related training.
While OSHA didn’t factor workers’ compensation claims into their stats, many of the common violations are ones that often lead to serious injuries and missed days of work. Failure to provide fall protection tops the list. According to OSHA’s deputy director, issues of this nature typically involve insufficient fall protection for roofers and other contractors who normally work from significant heights. No. 2 on the list was hazard communication. More than 4,500 communication citations were issued because of failure to inform employees at places like auto facilities about potential workplace hazards.
Scaffold issues landed at No. 3 on the list. The 3,000-plus scaffolding violations involved such things as lack of proper decking and fall prevention systems. At No. 4 was respiratory protection. Auto body finishers and painters are among the types of employees who were likely impacted by some of the 3,118 respiratory protection violations identified during the reporting period. Rounding out the top five was lockout/tagout violations.
The role of a workers’ compensation attorney is to help injured employees secure their full benefits. Depending on the extent of the injury, a lawyer might help someone hurt on the job obtain partial or complete disability benefits and seek fair compensation for medical expenses and vocational rehabilitation. Under certain circumstances, wage reimbursement benefits may be sought to cover missed days from work.