The United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has

cited Concrete Systems Inc for two willful, 18 serious, and 6 other safety and health violations.

They come in response to an inspections in June of 2014 after a complaint in the same month.

The violations are for exposing employees to fall, crushing, noise, and other serious injuries.

These violations carry proposed penalties of $140,000.

“Concrete Systems chose not to provide required safeguards and exposed workers to potentially

fatal or disabling falls and possibly hearing damage,” said Rosemarie Ohar, OSHA’s New

Hampshire area director. “The company must act swiftly and effectively to eliminate these

hazards and prevent their recurrence to protect the health and safety of its employees.”

OSHA inspectors found employees working atop concrete formwork and precast concrete

structures without adequate fall protection. There was also no hearing loss program in place.

These instances led to the two willful violations. The 24 serious violations came in response to

audtiors finding employees risked being crushed or injured by a custom-made lifting device and

by the use of damaged slings to move a 24,000-pound load. They also cited the company for

having an uninspected crane and for failing to employ a qualified crane operator. Inspectors also

found properly operated and unattended forklifts, unsafe arrangement of loads on forklifts,

unguarded saw blades, and hazardous electrical equipment.

If you have not recently updated your occupational safety and health policies and procedures, it

might be a good idea to do that. We recommend at least annually reviewing everything to ensure

you are not exposing your employees to unneeded risks, and your company to unneeded fines. If

you need help in reviewing and updating your occupational safety and health policies and

procedures, consider a third party occupational safety and health audit. A qualified third party

auditor will ensure your facility is up to code.

If you have any questions about third party occupational safety and health audits, please contact

us. If you have anything to add about this case or about the importance of third party audits,

please leave a comment.