Safety laws ignored

Sunday, Oct. 10, 1999 | 10:26 a.m.

Veteran construction worker Kenn Egbert told coworkers he was nervous about working in a 20-foot-deep trench without any wall supports.

But he still climbed down into the ditch that lacked the supporting walls required by federal safety regulations.

It caved in and killed him on Sept. 16 at a Henderson job site.

Thousands of injuries and deaths happen because of lax enforcement of safety rules at Nevada job sites, say workers, union organizers and a group working to improve workplace conditions in the state.

Even a cursory inspection by the state's Occupational Safety and Health Division would have found that the 20-foot-deep trench was in violation of federal safety laws, workers and their advocates say.

Although state and federal officials couldn't provide a count of the number of construction-related deaths in the state this year, there have been at least seven, according to media accounts. There were nine last year and 11 in 1997, according to federal records.

In 1997, the last year for which complete records are available, Nevada construction workers were 30 percent more likely to be injured than the national average, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More than 10,000 construction workers in Nevada were injured on the job in 1997. Fatal falls, broken backs and lost limbs are among the accidents that workers' advocates argue wouldn't happen if construction companies in Nevada paid more attention to safety. Too often, the critics say, the price of building homes and businesses to serve a population growing by 60,000 a year has been paid in blood.

Workers say that the true picture is actually worse -- that the number of injuries is far higher because perhaps 50 percent of construction-related accidents are never reported.

Industry representatives agree that any injury or death is serious. But the companies and labor disagree on the scale of the problem.

Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics figures indicate that the number of fatalities and injuries in construction has stabilized in the last few years. But labor organizers say that under-reporting by companies that have accidents hides the true extent of the problem.

It isn't hard to find violations of federal labor laws. A recent visit to commercial sites on the booming south end of Eastern Avenue found laborers working without hard hats, in shorts and sneakers and working from improperly secured and tilted scaffolding.

"This stuff is rampant," says Daniel O'Shea, an organizer with the Southern California-Nevada Regional Council of Carpenters. He says perhaps one company in 10 has a legitimate safety program.

Accident rates generally will rise when a town goes through a construction boom like the one in Las Vegas, says John Gambatese, director of UNLV's construction management program. He doesn't believe that Las Vegas' accident rate is abnormally high, but when there are "a lot of new companies and a lot of competition," some companies are tempted to cut spending on safety, he says.

But the unions overstate the problem, industry representatives say.

Steve Holloway, executive vice president of the Las Vegas chapter of Associated General Contractors, a trade group, says his organization is responding to safety concerns with stepped up training and education programs.

His organization now represents 460 companies, up from 215 companies just three years ago. Holloway says the companies in his organization have good safety records.

"Overall, most of them are in compliance," he says -- although Holloway acknowledges that "there's always going to be noncompliance" with safety rules by some companies.

It makes sense for companies to maintain good safety records, he says. That keeps the companies' workers' compensation insurance premiums down.

Gambatese, who also is an advisor to AGC, says that is why companies that are successful over the long run don't cut corners on safety.

"The most successful companies are usually the safest," Gambatese says.

"We're constantly pushing that safety consciousness out to the industry," Holloway says. "Most of our companies have their own safety staffs. Ten years ago they didn't."

Safety programs

But O'Shea criticizes the industry's safety-training programs as "paper classes" to train management to pass tests without much real-world value. A $14-million training center for construction workers that the union is now building in Las Vegas, he says, is the way workers and management need training: the school will focus on practical, hands-on safety training, he says.

The safety efforts have gotten a boost from the Las Vegas Interfaith Council for Worker Justice, a clergy-led effort to improve safety and working conditions in the construction industry. The council and the unions are waging a campaign to improve job conditions across the board.

Some big customers are listening.

Under a School Board directive, the Clark County School District is evaluating how to include safety records in the criteria for selecting a construction bid.

Dave Broxterman, administrative manager for school facilities, says the district has a "moral and fiduciary responsibility" to ensure worker safety.

"It's a tricky issue," Broxterman says, pointing out that rejecting a low bid can lead to lawsuits from rejected contractors.

The Clark County staff also is investigating whether a similar rule can be adopted on the county level. Governments now are obligated to take the lowest bidder for construction.

But the lowest bidder can save money and construction costs by giving safety short shrift and hiding accidents after they happen, union organizers say.

That is a big part of the problem in both the private and public sectors, O'Shea says. Those companies that conscientiously follow good safety program are more likely to have higher costs. The companies that scrimp on safety often underbid those that don't, he says.

In Nevada, the injury rate for people in the construction industry was 12.6 per 100 workers, third worse in the nation and significantly higher than the national average of 9.6 injuries per 100 construction workers.

Among construction categories, residential construction in Nevada was one of the most dangerous, with 14.8 injuries. Carpenters in that category suffered 15.3 injuries and concrete masons 16.4 injuries per 100 workers.

The state recorded 55 workplace fatalities in 1997, or 6.5 deaths per 100,000 workers; 11 of those deaths were construction-related.

Union organizers say that state OSHA inspectors can't do the job with the resources available. The national AFL-CIO estimates that it would take 30 years to inspect every work site in the state with the current number of OSHA investigators.

About a dozen OSHA inspectors -- employees of the state Division of Industrial Relations, which administers the federally sanctioned program -- are theoretically responsible for monitoring literally thousands of construction sites throughout Southern Nevada.

More inspections

Labor organizations say the most pressing need is for more inspectors and more inspections of worksites. They point to the accident in Henderson as an example: even a casual inspection, they say, would have found that the trench was unsafe.

The labor groups should soon see more inspectors in Southern Nevada. Division of Industrial Relations administrator Roger Bremner, says he has funding from the state to hire 17 more inspectors, most of whom will be hired for this region.

Holloway, however, says more inspectors won't solve the problem.

"I don't think we see that as a potential problem," Holloway says. OSHA inspectors shouldn't and can't replace company safety directors, he says.

Holloway says that better monitoring of licensing requirements and continued education of the safety directors in the contracting companies will bring safety to worksites.

Construction workers are quick to say that not every construction contractor is violating the safety rules. But they say almost all companies try to save money by scrimping on safety.

"This is a money issue for these guys. That's all it is," O'Shea says. "They don't care about the workers."

Tight budgets and deadlines are what usually contribute to accidents, he says.

"Accidents happen when workers get pushed beyond their capacity to do their work safely," he said.

Union sites are generally safer than nonunion because labor ensures that there is a real safety program in place, organizers say. But nonunion worksites also can provide the required safety systems -- it depends on the contractor, they say.

On one issue the unions and contractors agree: out-of-state and fly-by-night contractors are flocking to the Las Vegas area, and they usually have the worst safety records.

"The same people who ignore the licensing requirements will ignore the safety requirements," Holloway says.

Bremner agrees that it is a significant problem for his state agency. Subcontractors with safety violations can disappear before OSHA hears about problems, he says.

The region's rapid growth has made enforcing regulations difficult, Nancy Mathias, licensing administrator with the State Contractors Board, agrees. But the board, armed with new powers and with a beefed-up staff of investigators, is addressing those gaps, she says.

Union organizers, however, say the contractors' board is much too cozy with the industry it is supposed to regulate. It could pull the licenses of companies that have significant safety violations, but that rarely, if ever, happens, says carpenters' union organizer Mark Sheehan.

But George Lyford, director of the contractors board special investigations unit, said that before the board can pull the license of a company that fails to abide by safety records, the board must get a referral from state OSHA inspectors. In the 18 months since the state created Lyford's unit, he hasn't gotten a single referral, he said.

Fly-by-night operators also are more likely to fire workers who complain about safety problems, although organizers say the same problem can be found with established contractors.

Worker complaints

Workers who complain about safety violations are usually given a choice: take it or leave it, union organizers and construction workers say.

Workers at the Henderson water treatment plant expansion say that was the choice that contractor Ellsworth-Peck gave them before the walls of the trench collapsed, killing Egbert and injuring two other workers.

The trench that collapsed did not have supporting walls, although OSHA regulations clearly state that any vertical hole of that type must have some method of preventing collapse. The rules apply to any trench over 5 feet deep.

Workers said following the accident the company told them it did not have money in the budget or time to build supporting walls for the trench.

The company, which was cited for violations of the trenching law at a Colorado worksite last May, has declined to discuss the accident in detail. OSHA officials will say only that the incident is under investigation.

The situation in Henderson is common, O'Shea says.

"Time after time, I hear 'If I open my mouth, they'll fire me,'_thinspace" he says.

Efren Rodriguez, a member of the contractors union, says companies routinely charge workers for safety equipment that, by law, should be provided. Many employees can't afford that deduction and will simply not use the proper safety equipment, he says.

Companies have other ways of discouraging workplace-safety complaints. Some companies hire undocumented aliens as a matter of policy -- then threaten to disclose their status to U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services if they complain about safety violations.

Union organizers and workers say they realize that construction sites are inherently dangerous. Accidents will happen, they say.

An example appears to have been the death of a worker on the Aladdin resort construction site in April. Sheehan, carpenters' union organizer, says companies at the worksite comply with OSHA safety standards, but an engineering failure sent a concrete slab crashing down on a worker.

OSHA has fined a subcontractor on the project, S.M.E. Steel Contractors, $4,900 for failure to protect workers against falling objects. The company is contesting the fine.

Despite the accident, the Aladdin worksite is one of the safest in town, Sheehan says.

A worker on the site agreed.

"This is probably the safest job I've ever been on," said Joe Giamanco, a ceiling framer. Gaimanco wore safety glasses and a hardhat sporting a "Safety Pays" sticker.

But Sheehan says that worksites such as the Aladdin's are few and far between. A few miles away from the Aladdin he looks at construction springing up in the desert.

Workers on a rooftop of a soon-to-be strip mall lack hardhats, heavy boots or safety lines. Grimacing, he points out exposed rebar and debris where a worker would fall.

"This is happening all over," he says. "And every time you see a safety violation, that's an accident waiting to happen."

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