The maritime industry is confronted with distinct environmental, health, and safety challenges which employees are asked to handle every day. If there is a risk to be withstood, maritime employees likely have to handle it at least once in the course of their shift. Due to this, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has comprehensive guidelines designed to protect the well-being of maritime employees. This blog post explains the 3 essential OSHA maritime regulations you need to be acquainted with as an employer.
General Working Conditions
OSHA knows that maritime employees are working in an unusually high-risk environment. Shipyard workers, especially, confronted with some of the most high-risk conditions in the U.S., apart from various industrial operations and complex heavy equipment. Worse, all the work is performed outdoors in different weather conditions, including confined spaces, onboard vessels, and on crowded decks. It doesn’t help that shipyards are multi-employer environments, between shipyard employees, ship crews, & contractors.
Hence, OSHA puts the responsibility for compliance on employers. Starting with the basics, employers are responsible for maintaining good housekeeping practices to diminish hazards. Employers should clear slippery conditions, ensure employees don’t work on slippery surfaces, and provide slip-resistant footwear.
Moreover, they should store equipment and materials in a way that doesn’t create hazards for employees.
Safety While Working Alone
Certain regulations apply to employees who work alone. OSHA maritime regulations elucidate working alone to include:
An employee working alone in a confined space.
An employee working alone on a job at the far end of a vessel or shipyard.
An employee working alone in a sonar space, hold, or tank.
Two employees working on opposite sides of a metal partition.
One employee doing hot work, with a fire watch set on the other side of a bulkhead.
When an employee is working alone, their employer or the employer’s representative should be liable for each worker. Employers or their representatives should check employees regularly by visual communication both in one’s presence and camera, or verbal communication (face-to-face, two-way radios, or intercoms).
Medical Services and First Aid
At the basic level, OSHA mandates employers to ensure that medical services and first aid are readily accessible. For instance, the employer should ensure that there are quite a few employees trained as first aid responders available during the shift. This is established based on:
The size and location of the worksite.
The hazards at a worksite.
The number of employees at a worksite.
The distance of each worksite from the nearby hospital, clinic, or rescue squad.
Employers should further demonstrate that external emergency medical providers can reach the worksite within five minutes after an injury or illness is reported. Moreover, there should be an adequate amount of first aid supplies at a worksite.
The Summary
Summing up there are plenty of potential hazards and work conditions change so suddenly that it’s hard to stay on top of all of them. However, as an employer, you should take the responsibility to do so.