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Note: This guest post is by Kevin Dandridge, certified OSHA instructor and owner of 1 Life Safety. He has certifications in OSHA 500, Asbestos, Lead, CFM, NFPA 70 arc Flash Instruction, disaster worker instruction, MEWP, scissor lift, forklift, and First Aid/CPR/AED instruction, as well as others.

Good morning. I hope you and your workers are doing the absolute best to stay safe during the current pandemic. Also, OSHA has released another mandate for staying safe during the crisis.
Continue Reading OSHA Compliance in a Pandemic World

Merlin Law Group has agreed to host an OSHA 30 class being put on by 1 Life Safety in Houston on February 4th – 7th. This blog has repeatedly posted about how contractor costs to comply with OSHA on a job should be included in insurance estimates. This class is a great opportunity to get your certification and learn exactly what is required by law for contractor compliance.
Continue Reading Merlin Law Group to Host OSHA 30 Class in Houston

Safety is first. But that is not the course of affairs when dealing with insurance company adjusters who usually say that they will not include the costs of legally required safe construction practices because their managers will not allow those costs.
Continue Reading Insurance Companies Should Be Accountable For Not Including Legally Required Costs Of Safe Construction

California summers can get hot. To protect workers, the state requires employers to take extensive precautions. California’s regulations on heat safety are promulgated by the Department of Industrial Relations’ Division of Occupational Safety, which is often referred to as Cal/OSHA.
Continue Reading Feeling the Heat: Do California’s Health and Safety Regulations Increase the Value of Your Insurance Claim?

A contractor sent me a note from the National Roofing Contractors Association which indicates that the Trump administration is increasing the manpower of safety inspectors and whistleblower investigators regarding construction worksite safety. The note was based on an article, Labor Secretary: OSHA Jobsite inspections Likely to Increase, which stated:

• In a written statement to the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, Acosta said OSHA hired 76 new inspectors in the 2018 fiscal year and that it would be anywhere from a year to three years before they will be ready to conduct field inspections on their own. Even so, he told subcommittee members that OSHA had conducted 32,000 inspections each year in 2017 and 2018, an increase from 2016 figures.

• President Donald Trump, he said, is requesting $557 million for OSHA in his Fiscal Year 2020 budget request, an increase from last year, which would pay for additional staff, including 30 additional compliance officers and five more whistleblower investigators.
Continue Reading Safe Construction Worksite Inspections to Increase—Include OSHA Costs to Residential Insurance Estimates

Insurance company adjusters and estimators should ensure that they are including costs for a safe workplace when making construction estimates. Since failing to do so would constitute breaking federal law, it is per se bad faith if those costs are not included because all of us are expected to follow federal law.1 My recent blog post, Getting the Xactimate Construction Price Right! drew a few comments, but the most informative was from Tim Varga.
Continue Reading A Safe Workplace: What Property Insurance Adjusters Must Include In An Estimate

Fires scenes are inherently dangerous workplaces for insurance adjusters. Yet—as I stated yesterday in, OSHA Standards Apply to Insurance Adjusters, it is my experience that most insurance companies and independent adjusting firms have no safety program nor training for their adjusters who work at fire scenes adjusting losses and evaluating damages. This is illegal and in violation of federal law. It is amazing that OSHA has not fined these entities whose managers have to know about these dangers—they sell and service fire insurance.
Continue Reading Insurance Company and Independent Adjusting Firms That Do Not Provide Personal Protection Equipment to Fire Claim Adjusters Are Violating OSHA Standards