In a High-risk Industry, COVID Steals the Spotlight

By Randee Johnson

s Alaska businesses scramble to maintain and gain compliance with the ever-changing landscape of COVID-19-related issues, attention to field safety has taken a back seat. Fear of the repercussions of non-compliance has seeped into many contractors throughout the state. This trepidation, paired with genuine concern for people and desire to do the right thing, has resulted in hastily pouring massive resources into the enforcement of COVID-19 protocols.

Many companies were deeply affected by productive time lost awaiting COVID-19 test results. In some cases, projects were stopped altogether. Struggling to avoid citations by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, losing government contracts, or receiving negative press, local companies have had no choice but to adapt to this new way of operating—whether or not it was feasible or aligned with their values.

Many business owners, corporate executives, and compliance officers are so overwhelmed by daily COVID-19 related matters that they find themselves with little time left to devote to regular duties. Safety leaders at Alaska companies have been so burdened by managing COVID-19 programs that they have reported a substantial loss of time and energy to focus on other equally important safety- and health-related matters. Human resources departments have been exceedingly challenged to ensure employees with non-COVID-19 related health or personal issues are appropriately attended to, due to the extra workload from the pandemic. Keeping a company’s full safety and health program efficiently executed in all areas needs to remain a top priority during this unusual time. Unfortunately, many Alaska companies are letting their non-COVID-19 safety and health programs slip to the wayside as they struggle to stay on top of COVID-19, hoping to catch back up in the future.

To add to the chaos of managing field safety during this two-year-long pandemic, Mother Nature decided to drop the mic. Early this year, unusually strong winter storms ravaged personal and commercial properties in the Mat-Su Borough, delivering wind gusts up to 90 miles per hour. Before the storm even ended, tradesmen and women got to work repairing the damage left in its wake. It is well-known in Alaska that repair work, especially of power lines, is done around the clock. Workers heroically step up to the plate to put our communities back together. During these times, crews are left to figure things out themselves, making quick decisions to get the job done. By no fault of their own, they often find themselves needing to complete a task without the correct tool for the job. In this case, OSHA found that ladders, man-lifts, and fall protection systems were lacking.

Jim Pinder from OSHA Enforcement states, “There has been an uptick in ladder injuries throughout 2021, much more than usual. Several ladder accidents resulted in devastating injuries. This was the worst year in my five years at OSHA enforcement.”

OSHA has had no choice but to act after seeing a dramatic increase in fall injuries, which have left Alaska workers with permanent disabilities and resulted in one fatality. With several new enforcement officers, they quickly covered a lot of ground. It is tragic to see our front-line heroes—members of our community—with fractured spines, traumatic brain injuries, torn rotator cuffs, and, in some cases, loss of life from preventable workplace injuries.

How do we mitigate these varying occupational hazards? Planned work is safe work. Having tool-box meetings and other types of ad-hoc safety meetings prior to dispatching crews for storm repair work is crucial to mitigating safety issues in the field.

To supplement pre-task planning, stop-work authority is a key element of a good safety program and culture. Stop-work authority is the employer granting express permission to employees, along with clear expectations, to stop the task at hand when unsafe work conditions or behaviors exist. All employees should be educated at the time of hire, and refreshed annually, on stop-work authority.

When local contractors, big or small, cannot maintain safety and health requirements, many resources exist to help. The OSHA consultation and training division provides some free services, and employees there welcome project-specific consultation requests, as well as membership in their Construction Health and Safety Excellence (CHASE) partnership. Information for this program can be found on the CHASE website.

For those who prefer not to engage OSHA, an array of third-party consultation, training, and medical service providers exist to supplement in-house safety program management. This handful of vendors render services including written programs, standard operating procedures, on-site training for all required OSHA topics, job-site audits, COVID-19 employee management, and much more. Business owners and managers who need extra support staying compliant with safety and health regulations can benefit greatly from the work of these professional experts.

Finally, I encourage all companies to reach out to their insurance carriers and brokers. Many insurance companies have websites with training modules, written plan templates, and general safety and health guidance available that, sadly, often goes unused by their clients. AGC of Alaska also has a safety resources website.

As a community, we benefit from banding together in all circumstances to ensure Alaska workers go home safely each night to their family. To make it home safely, this means we need to focus on more than just exposure to a virus and redirect our focus to include the high-hazard work that we do here in our beautiful state. From construction to petroleum extraction, and from logistics to tourism, Alaskans put their lives on the line day in and day out to keep our state running. With teamwork, using the above-mentioned resources, and putting a rejuvenated focus on working our plans, we can mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 without sacrificing field or office safety.