Smoke and mirrors

Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008 | 2:04 a.m.

In the construction boom on the Las Vegas Strip, safety has been far from the top priority on job sites. Over the course of 18 months, 12 men died on the job and an untold number of others were injured.

Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors cited and fined contractors and, as a Las Vegas Sun analysis of government documents showed, when challenged, OSHA routinely backed off and negotiated them away.

Since a series of investigative stories in the Sun this year, OSHA has taken a tougher stance, refusing to back down. But contractors have started pushing back. As Alexandra Berzon reported in Monday’s Sun, contractors are appealing fines and citations to an OSHA review board, and winning, because the agency routinely fails to prove its cases.

Nevada OSHA inspectors say they go into review board hearings unprepared. One said he was briefed by the state attorney only minutes before a hearing. Other people involved in the process noted that employers regularly outgun the state. Employers bring in experts and put on elaborate cases. Unlike other state OSHAs and their federal counterpart, Nevada OSHA doesn’t. It bases its case on the testimony of an inspector.

It is not just that inspectors are not well prepared. They are also overworked. A Nevada OSHA inspector’s workload is about three times that of a federal OSHA inspector in the region.

It is no wonder there has been a dramatic increase in employer appeals. From 2003 to 2007 there were just five appeals to the board, which is made up of management and labor representatives appointed by the governor. This year there were eight, and four hearings are scheduled for 2009.

In the past six months, there have been no fatalities on the Strip’s construction sites. But without the resources and the will to back up its investigations when its rulings are appealed, OSHA’s effort in the end will be nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

Few improvements to worker safety will be made once word gets out that Nevada OSHA is still a toothless lion. It shouldn’t be that way. Considering the terrible human toll on the Strip construction sites, state lawmakers should provide the agency with the resources it needs to improve worker safety in Nevada.