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Saturday, May 16, 2009 | 2:32 p.m.
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CARSON CITY – In response to a rash of deaths on construction projects in Las Vegas, the Assembly is pushing through a bill to require safety training for workers.
“There were more deaths in two years than in the previous 10 years,” said Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, who has headed the effort in developing Assembly Bill 148.
The Assembly Ways and Means Committee on Saturday approved, without opposition, the bill and sent it to the floor of the House, which will vote on it next week.
Don Jayne, director of the state Division of Industrial Relations, said this puts Nevada at the forefront in the nation in requiring safety courses for construction workers. He said some states require safety course training on public projects.
But this bill requires the worker training on all projects –- public and private. It grants an exemption from the state Department of Transportation.
A construction worker must show his employer within 15 days of being hired that he has completed the required training. If he does not, he would be fired.
If the business keeps the worker on the job without the safety training, it can be fined $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for the second offense. For a third and later violations, the employer could be fined up to $70,000 for each violation but not less than $5,000 for each willful violation.
Supervisors also must complete a 30-hour safety course.
The completion of the courses is good for five years and then the training must be renewed.
Asked who would pay for these courses, Oceguera said the employer might pay or the worker might be assessed.
The courses, Oceguera said, will consist of such things as training in the handling of electrical equipment, breathing methods, trip avoidance and fall protection.
During construction of the CityCenter project, safety training programs paid off with fewer incidents, Oceguera said.
The Assembly also approved 40-0 a bill doubling the penalty for a traffic violation in a temporary construction zone.
Present law provides that a motorist who violates the signals or directions of a flagman in a construction zone can be punished by a fine up to $2,000 and 120 hours of community service if a worker is injured.
That penalty is doubled under Senate Bill 134. The bill goes to the governor for his signature.
The local workers are getting the shaft by travelers but mostly by undocumented workers. There are interpretors at our safety orientation classes, but they're only there to help the illegal fill out the proper forms. Once the paperwork is done the interpretor leaves and the class is taught in english.
Do you think the illegals have a problem with safety training when they don't speak English? Do you think illegals have a problem working safely when they don't understand safety rules?
Now the lobbists will say that we should teach them safety rules in their foreign toungue. It will cost more but the illegals will learn...
Instead of spending more money to help the illegals why can't our elected officials obey our laws and deport these illegals so we can put some of the over 125,000 unemployed citizens in Clark County back to work and get them off the breadlines.
1.Illegal immigrant workers are a problem. 2.Employers enabling illegals to work are a problem.
3.Inactive law makers are a problem.
4.Inactive lawkeepers are a problem.
Where and when do we as citizens start to correct these problems?
If it is left up to any of the group of four listed above, it will never happen.
All of the OSHA 10, OSHA 30 and even OSHA 40 training in the world is not going to change the fundamental problem - the primary cause of construction hazards is the profit motive.
As long as clients push their GC's to get the job done faster, and the GC's crack the whip on the subs and the subs push the workers, there will be accidents, injuries and deaths.
The only way to limit those hazards is strong unions that are willing to strike and picket to prevent unsafe practices by the contractors.