Changing regulations.

• Position: Alaska's construction industry - Special Report: 1990 Associated General Contractors of Alaska Annual Conference

Changing Regulations

Today's construction industry is up to its backhoes in regulations and paperwork. Material safety data sheets. Inspection records. Equipment modification files. Work-site plans. Form 200s.

Employers know the paper chase is here to stay. It's a side of construction that didn't exist years ago. But in the last two decades, the industry has become increasingly supervised by federal, state and even local agencies set up to safeguard people and the environment and to make the job site a safer place to be.

The regulations imposed have not always been welcome. Sometimes they have been confusing. They most always have added to the cost of a job. But they're not going away. Quite the contrary: New and tougher standards with stiffer penalties for noncompliance are whipping through the channels.

In coming months, construction bosses may see sheaves of new regulations cross their desks due to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's renewed vitality. OSHA, in the Department of Labor, is the national agency responsible for worker safety in all industries. It's not the only agency that oversees construction in some way, but right now it seems to be the one generating the most changes in the way the industry does its job.

OSHA's new Assistant Secretary Gerard Scannell wants to make the nation's 6 million workplaces safer than they've ever been. He's got some definite ideas about making that happen, and he has the experience to know what he is talking about. Scannell is former safety chief at Johnson and Johnson; during his time there, from 1979 to 1989, the number of work days lost to injuries dropped 92 percent.

Since Scannell's appointment last year, OSHA has released a raft of revised rules and has proposed a considerable list of new ones. The agency also is pushing for stiffer fines for noncompliance and favors lengthy prison sentences when violations result in worker deaths.

Already, OSHA has levied substantial fines and recommended criminal prosecution against companies with ongoing files of willful violations. And a bill may be introduced in Congress that would increase to $50,000 the maximum fine for an employer twice convicted for employee death and allow for a 20-year jail term.

In addition, OSHA has opened a new national Office of Construction and Engineering. This office is dedicated to improving workplace safety and health in the construction industry, one of the most hazardous industries in the nation...