Prevent Falls in the Construction Industry
Despite the best efforts of safety professionals on jobsites across the nation, the fact remains: falls continue to be a leading cause of work-related injuries and fatalities. According to OSHA's website, here are some of the numbers from 2018:
- 320 construction fatalities—out of a total of 1,008 fatalities—were from falls to a lower level.
- 18,350 non-fatal falls caused construction workers to lose at least one day of work.
- On average, a worker’s compensation claim for a slip/fall costs $46,600.
The time to Prevent Falls is now. Take a few moments sometime during the week to pause from work and discuss fall hazards and fall prevention. The goal is twofold: to increase awareness of fall hazards and to reduce the number of falls. The idea is for employers and supervisors to educate workers about fall risks and fall prevention so there are fewer fall-related injuries and fatalities.
Safety Meeting Outlines Makes Training Simple and Effective
We're making it easy for you to train your workers. This collection of Fall Prevention and Fall Protection Safety Meetings include:
- Duty to Have Fall Protection
- Ladders
- Falling Objects
- Fall Protection
- Rescue Plan for Falls
These Meetings can be e-mailed as a PDF or printed on plain paper and delivered by mail. Each Meeting, Quiz, and Answer Key will be personalized with your company name and is available in both English and Spanish. Use these meetings over the course of a week to cover a new fall topic each day. Or spread the training over the month to boost fall awareness.
How does it work?
- All of our Weekly Safety Meetings provide information that line-level employees can use to make safe choices as they work. Our Meetings are written and tested to make sure that they are both easy to read and easy to understand.
- We recommend that you read the text once beforehand, so you understand the material. Then read the Meeting to your crew, have everyone sign the form, get them back to work, and file your signed copy as proof of your training session.
- Keep signed copies of your Weekly Safety Meetings in your files. Those signed Meetings can prove invaluable down the road; demonstrating to OSHA inspectors that you do provide ongoing safety training. They may also come to your aid in a liability, negligence, or personal injury lawsuit.
What does it cost?
The initial cost of the Fall Prevention Collection is $25. As the number of printed copies, or the number of workers trained increases, the cost of the Meetings per person trained will decrease.
Additional Resources Here are some additional links to compliment your Safety Meetings on Fall Prevention and Fall Protection.
- Overview: National Safety Stand-Down To Prevent Falls in Construction: https://www.osha.gov/StopFallsStandDown/index.html
- Suggestions to Prepare for a Successful Stand-Down: https://www.osha.gov/StopFallsStandDown/suggestions.html
- Plan, Provide, Train: Three Simple Steps to Preventing Falls: https://www.osha.gov/stopfalls/index.html
- Fall Prevention in Residential Construction: https://www.osha.gov/doc/topics/residentialprotection/index.htm
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Workplace Safety Index 2020 — Construction: https://viewpoint.libertymutualgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/WSI_1002.pdf
Weekly Safety Meetings are Copyrighted
We ask that you respect that copyright, as you expect others to respect the copyright on your plans and drawings. Our product is the content in the Weekly Safety Meetings. If you make copies of that content, you diminish our ability to make money and pay our employees.
Additional copies are convenient and don’t cost much more than having someone in your office make photocopies. You may purchase additional copies in both English and Spanish. Purchase a copy for each crew, superintendent, or use; and avoid violating federal copyright law.
If you are receiving the meetings electronically, the content of the Meetings is licensed to you based on the number of people you train. The number of people trained includes everyone who attends or uses Weekly Safety Meetings. Depending on how you train, the number of people trained could include:
- Some or all of your employees (front office staff aren't counted if they don't attend or read the Meetings)
- Employees of other contractors, if those people attend your Weekly Safety Meetings or you let them use or read your Weekly Safety Meetings.
- Purchase the number that is representative of the number of people you will be training, and avoid violating federal copyright law.
