Getting safety without getting fired?

galdon

Ok it might be a bit whiplash to ask about something completely different right after asking something that caused a bunch of arguing but this is bothering me quite a bit.

I work at a sewer plant. One of my duties on a daily basis is flushing something called a trickling filter. For those who do not know what this is, it looks like this


What I, and one of my coworkers are required to do, is get up into this thing, ours has 4 arms, and open the end of each arm and let it run a minute, then go back and close them. The inside of the trickling filter is the filter. On the one I do, there are rocks, which I can walk on. Though they are slippery, and if I fall down I will hit the rocks, which are covered with sludge and sewage. My coworker though has it worse, his is a fiberglass filter, so he can't walk on the inside and if he falls in, he would land in sewage soaked fiberglass and get cut up, and a 12 foot drop to the ground if he falls to the outside.

As you can probably see from the picture, there is no walkway. No guard rails. Just a foot wide cement wall to tightrope walk along. Thursday, my coworker fell off, from what I've heard, the boss yelled at him over his radio about something that upset him, and he got in a hurry while walking along the wall. He was not at work on Friday, though I heard he should be back Monday.

I asked a couple coworkers in as non-serious a way as possible sort of a 'wouldn't it be nice if we had some handrails up there, and I was told both times that the city would never pay for that. It makes me fairly concerned, as a place where someone has to walk around on a daily basis, it seems excessively dangerous not to have a wide walk space and guard rails to prevent exactly this sort of accident. I want to try to get better safety, and the bosses seem to be friendly, but I'm afraid that my being so new would cause me to get into trouble if I tried pushing to get them to spend that kind of money.

What exactly can I do in this situation? I know you can anonymously complain to the safe workplace people, but considering my coworker just finished getting hurt I'm a bit worried if an anonymous complaint came in they would assume it was him, and he's already kind of on a 'last straw before we fire you' situation.

Effef

You could definitely go to OSHA with this, though how much hot water that would land you and your coworker in is debatable.

galdon

Yeah its that chance of getting into trouble that worries me; I doubt anyone but the people who work directly at the plant even knows that people walk on top of the trickling filters on a daily basis, so they'd know any complaint had to come from one of the like 10 people that work there, and most likely me or my coworker since we are the ones actually working on them.

Tox

Virtually every state has whistleblower protection laws, if they aren't federal (and I think they are). Going to OSHA with a legitimate complaint protects you from getting fired (although it never hurts to bring the redress to your boss first anyway). If you do get fired, you can sue for wrongful termination, and get unemployment at worst, but probably get your job back.

Ask yourself this: What's a worse consequence? Getting fired and getting unemployment for doing the right thing, or getting badly injured and getting fired and having to ask yourself this question all over again regarding workman's compensation?

Grimm

Effef wrote:

You could definitely go to OSHA with this, though how much hot water that would land you and your coworker in is debatable.

You can make an anonymous report to OSHA.

minirhyder

Grimm wrote:

Effef wrote:

You could definitely go to OSHA with this, though how much hot water that would land you and your coworker in is debatable.

You can make an anonymous report to OSHA.

I know you can anonymously complain to the safe workplace people, but considering my coworker just finished getting hurt I'm a bit worried if an anonymous complaint came in they would assume it was him, and he's already kind of on a 'last straw before we fire you' situation.

MechMantis

minirhyder wrote:

Grimm wrote:

Effef wrote:

You could definitely go to OSHA with this, though how much hot water that would land you and your coworker in is debatable.

You can make an anonymous report to OSHA.

I know you can anonymously complain to the safe workplace people, but considering my coworker just finished getting hurt I'm a bit worried if an anonymous complaint came in they would assume it was him, and he's already kind of on a 'last straw before we fire you' situation.

Tox wrote:

Virtually every state has whistleblower protection laws, if they aren't federal (and I think they are). Going to OSHA with a legitimate complaint protects you from getting fired (although it never hurts to bring the redress to your boss first anyway). If you do get fired, you can sue for wrongful termination, and get unemployment at worst, but probably get your job back.

Ask yourself this: What's a worse consequence? Getting fired and getting unemployment for doing the right thing, or getting badly injured and getting fired and having to ask yourself this question all over again regarding workman's compensation?

Tox has the right of it.

Ruckus

minirhyder wrote:

Grimm wrote:

Effef wrote:

You could definitely go to OSHA with this, though how much hot water that would land you and your coworker in is debatable.

You can make an anonymous report to OSHA.

I know you can anonymously complain to the safe workplace people, but considering my coworker just finished getting hurt I'm a bit worried if an anonymous complaint came in they would assume it was him, and he's already kind of on a 'last straw before we fire you' situation.

If they did fire him, he'd probably get an extremely large settlement as soon as he launched his wrongful dismissal lawsuit, eventually.

Usagi

Thank goodness he didn't fall and hit his head or break something important!

But seriously, they're supposed to report workplace accidents like this to OSHA anyways, so they can come and investigate why it happened and how to prevent it from recurring.

So you can do one of three things:

1) Nothing, which is unacceptable
2) Bring your safety concerns up with your manager in a documentable format (email?) so if he or she refuses you can use it as supporting evidence
3) And really what you should do regardless of 1 or 2, is report this to OSHA. That's what OSHA is for.

Grimm

I work in construction building scaffold in power plants so i deal with heights every day. From my understanding, OSHA says you must you fall protection once we are ten feet in the air. Fall protection could be handrail, a full body harness, a safety net secured below, etc. A quick google search turned this up http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_Hurricane_Facts/fall.pdf

I would call and discuss this issue with OSHA as they have different rules for different industries. Some of the rules that apply to me, might not be applicable to you. They will be able to answer any questions you have and explain their codes better then i can. I've seen OSHA come out for random inspections a few times. As far as your boss is concerned, they could be there for a random inspection, they could have heard about your coworker falling on their own, or they could have received a call. If you call, they should never be able to find out you had anything to do with it.

Grimm

This reminds me of all those treads i've seen on here about people dealing with loud neighbors in apartment buildings. Usually im on the side of talking to the neighbor first before calling the police and filing a report. The only problem is though, if you talk to them, nothing changes, and you eventually file a report, they are going to know who did it. You might not care if your neighbor knows you turned them in, but they are not in a position to fire you. As alot of others have said here, there should be laws in place to protect you from being fired over this if they were to find out you made the call. However, do you really want to work in a place where they will be looking for any excuse to get rid of you after this? This is just something to consider before you go to you're boss directly.

Skoal Cat

galdon wrote:

Ok it might be a bit whiplash to ask about something completely different right after asking something that caused a bunch of arguing but this is bothering me quite a bit.

No worries, that's not our style

zepherin

Ruckus wrote:

If they did fire him, he'd probably get an extremely large settlement as soon as he launched his wrongful dismissal lawsuit, eventually.

Likely 3x the amount he would have been paid, however with a government agency it will take years to collect. I think you can also have OSHA keep your name secret if you'd like, but you have to tell OSHA that you want your name kept secret.

LadyM

I think you should report it . . . I definitely understand the concern about your job and your coworker's job, but dang, look at that thing. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

Draygo

check with OSHA, they might be fine because of the tightrope. One thing of concern is that your friends fall should have been reported to OSHA.

Is there any way you can clip into the tightrope? Or is that option not availible to you? If you can wear a harness, I would start doing that. A harness is not very expensive and it can save a lot of money for the plant. You can clip right into the tightrope as you walk along. If you slip you wont fall very far.

see317

Also, if you do go talk to your boss about this make sure you keep records of what was said and who you said it too (this includes mentioning it to your co-workers, even in a joking manner). Maybe send your boss an email voicing your concerns so you can keep a copy.
(Dear Boss, since Co-worker slipped on Thursday I'm a bit concerned that working on the trickling filter may be more dangerous then we were aware. Would it be possible to install some safety measures to prevent future on the job injuries? Maybe a handrail, or a tensioned guide rope etc...)

If you do get fired for this, having that record could help your case.

Xaviar

Interestingly enough, if your friend got hurt during that fall, the city should be paying his medical costs.
Also interesting, usually the cost of installing a handrail is cheaper than medical costs.

I, among other things I do, am one of the people in charge of safety at the factory where I work. I see the costs associated for both things, frequently.

Also, call OSHA, for reals.

galdon

Ok, I'll get ahold of OSHA then, hopefully we will get some rails installed without too much drama. Thanks

JebusUD

Yes call OSHA. Also, legally, according to the OSH act, you have the right to refuse to do anything which you can reasonably expect to injure you. You can't just leave the job though.

schuss

Xaviar wrote:

Interestingly enough, if your friend got hurt during that fall, the city should be paying his medical costs.
Also interesting, usually the cost of installing a handrail is cheaper than medical costs.

I, among other things I do, am one of the people in charge of safety at the factory where I work. I see the costs associated for both things, frequently.

Also, call OSHA, for reals.

Yeah, I work for an ins. co and used to do the reporting analysis behind this all the time. If the boss isn't being cooperative, you have to push the issue. Prevention is way easier than payment, and preferred. Insurance premiums will even go down.

Dhalphir

So you've already decided, but i'll echo it and say get in touch with OSHA and ask them to do a random inspection of the site, and announce it as such.

bowen

OSHA as others have said.

Just a reminder, getting hit with sewage is not something that should even be a "benefit" of your job. There should be all sorts of safety equipment in play here.

Unknown

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