Pinellas deputies began pounding on doors at 5 a.m. Tuesday, part of a widespread roundup of contractors accused of working without licences and workers compensation. The arrests of roofers, painters and others in the construction trades came two months after Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri started a pilot program –– the Construction Licensing Investigative Unit –– to help the floundering Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board crack down on unlicensed violators. He called it troubling and disturbing that the violators are collecting thousands of dollars from residents. "They're thieves. They're scammers," Gualtieri said of the 20 suspects. "They're ripping people off." Click here to read more:

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Jax Utilities Management Inc., a Jacksonville utilities contractor, for exposing employees to trenching hazards. The company faces proposed penalties of $271,606. OSHA initiated its investigation after an employee was injured and hospitalized when an unprotected trench collapsed. Willful citations were issued for exposing employees to struck-by and caught-in hazards, and allowing employees to work without cave-in protection. The company was also issued a serious citation for allowing water to accumulate in the trench, which contributed to the collapse. The investigation was part of OSHA’s National Emphasis Program on Trenching and Excavation. Jax Utilities Management Inc. has been placed in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program. Click to read more:

You need a team you can depend on to get the job done safely, on time, within budget, and without mistakes. Companies with teams that work smoothly together are successful and earn good industry reputations. So how do you get this kind of crew? Of course it’s important that your workers can handle all the technical and physical tasks of the job – and know how to do the job safely, but if you want to create a professional, efficient team, your employees need more than just technical know-how. Traits your workers should have are: Good Communication Skills God communication traits are the key to teamwork. It’s critical that your entire company, from supervisors down to the new person, are able to clearly share information and get their point across respectfully. Everyone needs to be able to talk to and share information with each other to prevent oversights that result in mistakes, serious damages or injury. They need to have the ability to ask questions if they aren’t sure, for help or training when they need it, or to show another worker a better or safer way of doing a task. Plus, your crew represents your company while they’re on the job. They need to be able to clearly give updates to property owners, other teams or management on the site if you or your supervisors aren’t at the site. Communication skills lead to the other necessary traits of a close-knit crew. Trust Good communication skills lead to trust. If your crew doesn’t trust each other or their supervisors, they cannot work as a team. Crew members don’t have to like each other, but they have to trust that the other person “has my back” in work and safety issues. Workers who can cooperate and are on the same page, and feel “we’re all in this together” will feel the bond of a team and they are more productive. When one worker disagrees with another, they are more likely to listen to and respect the opposing viewpoint, whether they agree or not, instead of personally attacking the other person. Once a decision is made, team members work together towards common goals. Workers who trust are comfortable sharing suggestions and concerns. They’re more likely to: · Actively participate in safety training site inspections and hazard identifications. · Ask questions, request training or guidance when they aren’t sure how to do a job safely. · If they see a hazard, they correct it if it safe to do so, or bring it to the attention of their supervisor. · Set aside their individual egos, jealousy and agendas so they don’t look like the “difficult weak link” or “odd one out.” Direction Good communication skills help give direction, which is the purpose for teamwork. When everyone is aware of the bigger picture , and focused on meeting the same goals, they reach out to each other on how to make the goal a success. Providing clear and complete direction for your team gives positive motivation, helps your workers fully understand goals and expectations, and gives them the information needed to make good work decisions. Crews with poor or little direction are left to guess at what needs to be done. They may miss tasks, and end up with the job not done correctly, or not to specifications. A lot of time is wasted while they figure out what to do, so productivity – and profit – decline. Leadership Once your crew are communicating, trust each other and have direction and common goals, it can lead to confidence and leadership. Leadership confidence within the team helps every team member, so no matter their position or title, everyone can lead in a given situation. It is healthy respect among the crew to give way to the member with the greater knowledge, experience, or commitment to various tasks. Crews with leadership skills: · Offer suggestions to make a job easier or safer. · Take time to show or teach co-workers how to do certain tasks or show the correct way if they see unsafe behaviors. · Maintain good housekeeping on the construction site, even if it isn’t their mess. · They aren’t afraid to call for a stop work, if it is necessary. Work to make these traits part of your company. Good teams are built with valuable communication skills, by sharing information, and building trust. When individual workers make the commitment to each other to be a team, injuries are reduced, and productivity and quality are improved. Construction teamwork builds safety into every job to achieve successful projects.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Kasper Roofing & Construction Inc. for exposing employees to fall and other hazards after an employee suffered fatal injuries at a Maitland, Florida, worksite. The Orlando, Florida-based roofing contractor faces $134,510 in penalties, the maximum allowed by law. OSHA inspectors determined that the employee was performing residential roofing activities without fall protection when he fell. OSHA also cited the company for failing to provide fall protection training to employees and conduct frequent inspections to ensure employees were utilizing fall protection. Click here to read more:

Cape Coral law enforcement conducted a joint operation of multiple contractors and found several individuals who were doing business without legal compliance, police said. The Financial Crimes Unit, Property Crimes Unit, and City of Cape Coral Code Compliance investigated unlicensed contractors at 4841 Manor Court in an effort to find, educate unlicensed contractors, Cape PD said. Click here to read more:

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Turnkey Construction Planners Inc. - a roofing contractor based in Melbourne, Florida - for exposing employees to fall hazards. The company faces $199,184 in penalties. OSHA initiated an inspection as part of its Regional Emphasis Program on Falls in Construction. Inspectors observed employees working without the use of conventional fall protection at two separate worksites in Port St. Lucie, Florida. OSHA has cited the company four times in the past five years for similar violations. Click here to read more:

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Crown Roofing LLC for exposing employees to fall hazards at two separate residential worksites in Port St. Lucie and Naples, Florida. The Sarasota, Florida-based contractor faces penalties of $265,196. OSHA initiated the inspections in August and October of 2018, as part of the agency's Regional Emphasis Program for Falls in Construction, after inspectors observed the company's employees working on roofs without fall protection. OSHA cited Crown Roofing for exposing employees to fall hazards. The company has been inspected 17 times in the past five years, with 11 of the inspections resulting in repeat violations of the fall protection standard. "Companies that fail to meet basic fall protection requirements are placing workers' lives at risk," said OSHA Fort Lauderdale Area Director Condell Eastmond. "Crown Roofing's repeated disregard for complying with safety and health standards demonstrates their indifference to employee safety." Click to read more:

he U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Florida Roofing Experts Inc. for exposing employees to fall hazards at a Jacksonville, Florida, worksite. The company faces the maximum penalty allowed of $132,598. OSHA initiated the inspection as part of the Agency's Regional Emphasis Program on Falls in Construction after inspectors saw employees performing residential roofing activities without fall protection. OSHA cited the roofing contractor for failing to provide fall protection for employees working at heights up to 13 feet. Click here to read more:

A flurry of tradespeople is often a sign of work getting done. It’s also a sign of potential safety issues. Every contractor will face different hazards, have different approaches to safety management, and will employ people whose attitudes towards workplace safety differ widely. Responsible organizations do their best to get every contractor to follow the same safety playbook. It’s not an easy process, and it’s one that requires you to go beyond the usual advice of planning and monitoring contractors for obvious safety violations. Here are a few elements to take into account if you’re earnest about improving the safety performance of your contractors. Click here to read more.

Safety meetings are the key to protecting your workers and your company from the daily hazards faced on the job. The goal of safety meetings is to increase people’s awareness. Frequent tailgate safety discussions will help your crews make it home healthy and happy every night. Daily – Weekly - Monthly Every day construction crews face different tasks and a different set of hazards, especially when they change locations. Holding a safety moment every day before work is realistic. It could be one or two minutes, pointing out dangers of a specific task to be done, or a weather related comment, and reminding the crew to take precautions, and to be sure to take time to drink water during the day. Two groups are most prone to accidents and illnesses; new workers and skilled workers with 15 or 20 years of experience who have a momentary lapse in judgment. Daily and weekly safety talks keep reinforcing points to make sure it’s in worker’s thoughts when they go to work. A five- or 10-minute toolbox meeting in the morning is good for giving a single-point lesson. Fatigue and heatstroke are common cause of accidents: When you are tired there is more of a chance of injury. Ergonomics would be another, how to pick up something correctly: keeping your back straight, using your legs, not bending over your center of gravity. If respirators are needed, give a short refresher on their fit and use. Talk about real-life incidences to get a single point across. For instance, if someone was hurt or had a near miss, discuss what happened. This helps the crew understand the “why” when things are done a certain way for safety. After discussing the real life incident, ask your crew for suggestions for making things safer. When starting work at a new jobsite, get the team together beforehand to discuss what’s going on at that site, and their specific work area. Five to fifteen minutes to look at the dangers like slippery surfaces, construction going on around them, the position of cranes and heavy equipment, overhead power lines, and where the first aid and eyewash stations are located. Cover in-depth “how to” topics with half-hour or an hour PowerPoint presentations once a month or when training is necessary. For those covered by OSHA rules, hazard communications training is required once a year. Get workers to think and participate in meetings, by asking “what would you do” questions, make it interesting and get people’s attention. Planning and Scheduling Keep a log of safety topics so you know what you have already covered and what subject to use for planning your next meeting. Sessions should be held on company time and you should discuss topics and hazards that are timely and specific to your employees. Think about the tools and equipment your teams use often or what hazardous situations may be likely to occur on the job. No topic is too dumb or too easy. It is important to cover the basics like ladder safety, PPE and electrical safety often. Keep a record of who is in attendance. A routine sets expectations, so set a regular schedule for safety meetings. Block out ten minutes at the start of every morning for a brief tailgate talk. If you’re starting a job at a new location, block out 15 minutes on the first day to cover the dangers specific to that jobsite. Monday and Friday tend to be days that most workers take for personal days or vacations, so for weekly or monthly meetings, consider a mid-week schedule like every Wednesday morning, the first Thursday of every month, or every other Tuesday. Tell Employees Use the communication method most likely to reach everyone. This could be email, texting, a poster on the common area bulletin board, a calendar invite or an announcement at the start or end of shift crew meetings. Let everyone know the date, time, location, length and purpose of the meeting. Be clear about the “why” for the meeting in your communication. If you aren’t clear, nobody knows what the meeting is about; why are we having this meeting? Why should I bother to go? If you are asking for suggestions and opinions, do just that. Often, management will call meetings to ask for “suggestions” to make a decision they have already made. If you do that too often, people catch on really fast. The appearance of asking for opinions and actually asking for opinions are different. Safety meetings are important to keeping the injury rate down. They are valuable and productive if you follow a few key steps to communicate, engage and deliver a message that is relevant to your crew.

n 2017, there were 270,000 injuries reported in the transportation and warehousing industry. The same industry also saw 819 deaths, a number only surpassed by the construction industry. The number of preventable fatal work injuries in transportation and warehousing grew 5.3% from 2016 to 2017.1 What do these statistics have to do with loading docks? More than 25% of all industrial accidents happen at the loading dock, and for every accident, there are about 600 near misses.2 If your job has anything to do with loading docks, these figures are meant to help you understand how important loading dock safety really is. Click to read more:

June 2020: This article is the first in a planned series on types of remuneration (payments and goods given to workers) and how they affect the premium on your workers' compensation policy. The pandemic has impacted every business in the country. Your payroll may have increased or decreased. You may be paying your workers for different reasons now, also. How does this change your policy's premium? What record-keeping is now required so that you can take advantage of the new types of payroll that you may pay? As the Monty Python cast would agree, nobody expects a global pandemic. The shutdowns that Florida experienced have likely impacted your own company. Let's go over three common questions that may affect you. I've laid some people off and paid them severance. How is that classified? Severance pay can fall into one of two categories. If you are paying an employee for work they already did or for vacation that they already earned, then the pay is included in your premium calculation. However, if you give a bonus to a worker at dismissal, the pay is not included in your premium calculation. Just make sure that you note your payroll records so that you'll remember the circumstances when it comes time for your audit. I've kept some workers, but I am paying them for time that they are not working. How do I handle this? You may be paying workers even though they're not working at all. You may also have some workers who aren't able to work their full schedules, and you're supplementing their pay. These two circumstances are handled in two different ways. First, if a worker is not doing any work for you, payments you give them are considered "payments to paid furloughed employees," according to the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI). These payments are not included in your premium calculation, unless they are payments given to the employer as funds or loans to retain or hire working employees. You will keep up with these payments under a new class code: 0012, Paid Furloughed Employees. For instance, let’s say your employee Maria usually cooks in your restaurant’s kitchen. If you sent her home because you have no work for her, but you are continuing to pay her because you want to keep her as an employee, then your payments to Maria are “payments to a paid furloughed employee.” Second, if a worker IS doing some work for you, but you are supplementing their pay with additional payments, the extra pay is called "Idle Time" pay. It is included in your premium calculation. This pay is treated just like your normal pay, and you do not have to record it separately for workers' compensation purposes. Here’s another example: normally Joe has 8 hours of work each day, mowing lawns for your maintenance company. Because many of your customers have reduced their contracts, you only have 6 hours of work for Joe each day. If you choose to keep paying Joe for 8 hours each day, then 6 hours would be classified as normal work and 2 hours would be “Idle Time.” For either type of payments, please notify us so that we can make sure that your premium payments are accurate during the policy period. I am on a pay-as-you-go payment plan, where I report payroll for each of my class codes. Now some of my workers are doing a different type of work. How do I classify them? If you have employees who are temporarily working from home, you can usually report their pay during their work-from-home period under a clerical code, like 8810. Let us help you to review your class codes and make sure that the correct code is available for your report each month! If you have any questions about the above, don't hesitate to give us a call. We will be glad to talk with you and explain these items at more length. Definitions Paid furloughed employees: Workers who are not doing any work but are being paid. Code 0012: The class code used for payments made to paid furloughed workers. Idle time: Pay given for non-work time to a worker who is working a partial schedule. Idle time is handled the same as normal payments. See Also CARES Act at U.S. Department of the Treasury