ATLANTA — Edwin Foulke Jr. knows a thing or two about safety.
He is a partner in the Fisher & Phillips LLP law firm, and co-chairs its Workplace Safety and Catastrophe Management Practice Group.
Before that, Foulke was assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, and the head of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) under President George W. Bush.
During an educational session here at Clean 2015, Foulke revealed that the laundry industry isn’t as safe as it needs to be.
“I do a lot of inspections with my clients, and a lot of times I get called in after they get the citations,” says Foulke. “You’re in an industry that’s targeted. Like it or not, OSHA is targeting you and your facility.”
Too many laundry operators, in Foulke’s view, think they have great safety because they have safety manuals. They have 4- to 5-inch thick manuals filled with procedures that employees and management are supposed to follow—and those manuals sit on the shelf.
“Don’t try to pretend that you have great safety, because like it or not, you don’t have great safety,” Foulke says. “You may not have had lost time due to injury this year, but it may be just by luck.”
He adds that, statistically, a facility can have no injuries, fatalities or illnesses in a year or two years but the company still can have an inadequate safety program.
“It is critical to have a great safety program if you want to maximize your profits and be as competitive as you can possibly be,” says Foulke.
THE REALITY CHECK
There are some big risks to laundries that don’t have a road map for safety—and haven’t made sure the facility and equipment meet OSHA regulations.
For starters, Foulke points out, several federal and local agencies could become involved in an investigation into the facility, depending on the violations. Agencies that could become involved (besides OSHA) include the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Department of Transportation (DOT) agencies; the Chemical Safety Board: and the U.S. Justice Department.
Foulke also says that not being in compliance with safety regulations could leave a laundry facility open to potential liabilities. In terms of civil liability, they could be open to workers’ compensation claims (including safety penalties), personal injury claims and property damage, and insurance coverage disputes.
Then there are the possible ways a facility could be subject to criminal liability. OSHA could make a criminal referral if it is believed a fatality occurred due to a willful violation. Charges could be made for reckless endangerment or fraud.
Criminal liabilities are at the extreme end of possible consequences for not making safety a top priority. However, the monetary penalties for not being in compliance with OSHA regulations can be catastrophic to a laundry business.
As an example, Foulke points out that, by the beginning of 2015, laundries were supposed to have all of their employees trained on the new OSHA standards that were set in fall 2014. That may not seem like a big deal, but Foulke says if OSHA inspects a plant and finds no proof that employees have been trained, the facility can be fined $7,000—per employee.
“I have two small clients, both less than 50 employees. One received $1.9 million in penalties. The other received $2.1 million in penalties,” says Foulke. “You need to understand that just because you’re a small employer doesn’t mean you’re not going to get hit. If you get hit by a $2.1 million penalty, is it going to affect your ability to stay competitive and stay in business? Yes.”
SAFETY IS NO. 1
While there can be financial and even criminal consequences for being in violation of OSHA regulations, of not truly making safety No. 1, Foulke points out the real reason to create a safety road map: Without a plan in place, employees could be killed or injured.
The goal for each plant, Foulke says, should be to have zero incidents a year.
He points out several steps to ensure that a laundry facility makes safety its top priority. The first is to make safety top of mind, mentioning it in the company’s mission, vision and value statements. Facilities also need to have defined goals and a way to measure and demonstrate the effectiveness of the safety programs.
Another way to place safety first, Foulke says, is to have employees be engaged with the plan, and make sure they know, understand and can implement safety procedures. Along those lines, it’s a good idea to let employees have “stop work” authority if a safety issue is discovered.
“You have to get employees engaged, because once you do that, it dramatically increases the effectiveness of the safety program,” he says. “It reduces incidents and illnesses and the associated causes.”
But Foulke’s recommendations don’t stop at employees—management has to demonstrate its commitment to safety, too. Every level of management must care about and take an interest in safety, along with consistently speaking with employees about it, he says. And both management and employees should have a regularly scheduled safety-performance assessment.
“If you don’t have a road map, you don’t know how you’re going to get to zero incidents and know that the things you are actually doing are working,” Foulke says. ”You can’t just tell employees that ‘You’re going to get to zero, now go do it.’ You have to tell them how they’re going to get there, why it’s important.”
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