Source: http://www.clarklawnj.com/safety-begins-top-general-contractors-must-enforce-osha-safety-rules/
Timestamp: 2019-05-22 17:19:47
Document Index: 629175474

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 651', '§ 678', '§ 651', '§ 655', '§ 657', '§ 654', '§ 666', '§ 1926', '§ 1926', '§1926']

Safety Begins at the Top: General Contractors Must Enforce OSHA Safety Rules | Clark Law Firm
OSHA is Critical to Prevent Needless Injury to Anyone That Comes Near Construction Projects
Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act (the OSH Act), 29 U.S.C.A. § 651 to § 678, to “assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources.” 29 U.S.C.A. § 651(b); see Gonzalez v. Ideal Tile Importing Co., Inc., 371 N.J. Super. 349, 359 (App. Div. 2004). In pursuing those goals, Congress authorized the Secretary of Labor to promulgate health and safety standards for workplaces, 29 U.S.C.A. § 655, and established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to enforce those standards through inspections and investigations, 29 U.S.C.A. § 657; Gonzalez, supra. The OSHA Act requires employers to comply with specific standards and also imposes a general duty on employers to provide a workplace “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” 29 U.S.C.A. § 654(a); Gonzalez at 359-60. Violators of specific OSHA standards or OSHA’s general duty to provide a safe workplace face civil monetary penalties, as well as criminal sanctions, 29 U.S.C.A. § 666. Gonzalez, supra.
Specifically, the OSHA regulations provide that:
29 C.F.R. § 1926.20. While it is recognized that the subcontractors have a responsibility to the OSHA Regulations, it is ultimately the general contractor that must enforce these Regulations and determine whether or not they are being followed by the subcontractors. 29 C.F.R. § 1926.16. As such, a general contractor cannot delegate its duty to maintain a safe workplace under the federal OSHA regulations to another; but rather, the general contractor must maintain overall responsibility for the project.
29 C.F.R. §1926.16 (emphasis added); see Alloway v. Bradlees, 157 N.J. 221, 237-38 (1999). (a general contractor on a work site has a non-delegable duty to maintain a safe workplace).
Under well-settled construction law in New Jersey, general contractors like Compass Building have a non-delegable duty to maintain a safe workplace that includes “ensur[ing] ‘prospective and continuing compliance’ with the legislatively imposed non-delegable obligation to all employees on the job site, without regard to contractual or employer obligations.” Alloway v. Bradlees Inc., 157 N.J. at 237-38 (1999), citing, Kane v. Hartz Mountain, 278 N.J.Super. 129, 142-43 (App. Div. 1994) State public policy and OSHA impose a duty on the general contractor to ensure the protection of all of the workers on a construction project, irrespective of the identity and status of their various and several employers, by requiring, either by agreement or by operation of law, the designation of a single repository of the responsibility for the safety of them all. Alloway, 157 N.J. at 238, citing Bortz v. Rammel, 151 N.J.Super. 312, 321 (App. Div. 1977), cert. den. 75 N.J. 539. As a matter of public policy and federal law, the general contractor is the single repository of responsibility for the safety of all employees on the job. As such, the general contractor bears responsibility for all OSHA violations on a project. Meder v. Resorts International, 240 N.J.Super. 470, 473-77 (App. Div. 1989), cert. den. 121 N.J. 608; Kane, 278 N.J.Super. at 142-43; Dawson v. Bunker Hill Plaza Assocs., 289 N.J.Super. 309, 320-21 (App.Div.1996).
Indeed, the law recognizes the realities of construction sites, that it is the general contractor that has the power and position to enforce workplace safety rules and to generally foster an environment where workplace safety and the well being of the workers on the job are given high priority. While certainly everyone on a construction site should adhere to the OSHA safety regulations, the law recognizes that the workers at the bottom of the hierarchy are powerless to take any real enforcement role and will in fact often be pressured to work in unsafe conditions without complaint, or risk losing their job. See generally e.g., Suter v. San Angelo Foundry & Mach. Co., 81 N.J. 150 (1979) (recognizing that workers of have “no meaningful choice” but to work in unsafe conditions; they either do so “or [be] subject to discipline or being labeled as a troublemaker.” Cavanaugh v. Skil Corporation, 331 N.J.Super. 134, 185 (App. Div. 1999) (workers on construction sites often have no real choice about working under known unsafe conditions.); Tirrell v. Navistar Intern., Inc., 248 N.J.Super. 390 (App.Div. 1991) (same- construction site worker who was not paying attention was killed when tractor trailer backed up over him).
As such, general contractor enforcement is a key component of the federal workplace safety scheme embodied in OSHA. Contact a workplace accident attorney in NJ today for a free consultation of your accident injury case.