OSHA COMPLIANCE and SAFETY FOR DISTILLERIES W R I T T E N B Y R O B E R T P I G N AT A R O
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iscussions of safety compliance often begin with horrific stories: litigation, business loss, legal expense and personal liability are presented as landmines poised to destroy your lifework. Such storytelling is intended to be scary, opaque and catastrophic. That view is wrong. Perceptive entrepreneurs embrace workplace safety and perceive OSHA compliance differently: as a means to improve financial performance and increase enterprise value. Fear motivates managers; value-creation catalyzes owners. When Paul O’Neill—former CEO of aluminum titan Alcoa—began his tenure with an emphasis on safety, market analysts were skeptical. Within a year this commitment to staff, and improved processes, yielded record profits. By the time he retired, Alcoa’s net profits had risen seven-fold while market value increased ten times. The message was clear: safety is profitable. In 1970 the federal government signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act), creating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), in response to concerns about increasing rates of employee fatality, injury and illness. The OSH Act was the culmination of statelevel legislation and demands for a federal standard to ensure safe working conditions for the populous. Safety was transformed from a loosely interpreted concept to identifiable processes that could be scaled, quantified and optimized, thus increasing the total output of the US manufacturing sector. The OSH Act outlines workers’ rights and employers’ responsibilities. Employees are entitled to information about potential threats, training in safe operating processes and protection from retaliation if they
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raise concerns about unsafe working conditions. Employers have a responsibility to be proactive—seeking out and mitigating potential risks—and to provide safety training and equipment. Moreover, the workplace is required to be a safe environment for all visitors, not just employees. Independent contractors are no longer outside the scope of responsibility. Similarly, visitors to any part of a facility, production areas, rick houses, tasting rooms, etc., must be provided with safe conditions. So then, how does one ensure a safe work environment? This is where implementation often falters, even by those with good intentions. Understanding what, exactly, needs to be done is often cited as the barrier to compliance. The following five steps are your roadmap, guiding you through what must be done to be compliant with federal and state workplace-safety laws and regulations.
STEP 1: ASSESS AND IDENTIFY THE HAZARDS and EXPOSURES Every employer must conduct a workplace evaluation to determine whether hazards are present or likely. This assessment must be documented. By identifying the risks, and reducing or eliminating employee exposure, employers can reduce workplace injuries. For example, slips, trips and falls are the leading cause of injury in distillery operations with an occurrence rate 60 percent higher than the general industry benchmark.
STEP 2: DEVELOP PLANS, POLICIES and PROCEDURES For each potential hazard, a written, sitespecific plan must be developed. Each WWW.ARTISANSPIRITMAG.COM