Safety in the "Gig Economy"

[vey]

I come around here every 3 years mostly to lurk, but I thought I would bring up a topic that the committee is completely missing and that is how to patrol the "independent contractors" that service state agencies in the South.

I service the 10th largest school system in the country and they still operate as if it is 1980. Since Florida chooses not to have their own OSHA replacement agency, state agencies (school boards are state agencies) are exempt from OSHA rules. Since I am exempt from OSHA, too we are all home free, right?

Well, no. Not if I want to keep my heart beating in a normal manner.

Even better is that they require me to maintain a million dollars of liability insurance, when they routinely claim sovereign immunity limits of 200K. I am the "deepest pockets" in the room as soon as I walk into the room.

Everything I read in 70E is slanted towards employees and management like things are Up North. Down Here, with no unions and many "contractors" (designed to lessen liability) things are "different."

Comments?

 

[jmo103]

I don't claim to be an expert on OSHA, but the way I understood it when I last took an OSHA class, employees of state agencies are exempt, but not contractors working for a state agency. Your employees, if any, are protected by OSHA rules, as are the employees of any other contractor on site. So even if you don't have any employees, the sheetrocker's employees, for example, cannot be put at risk because of your actions.

I would also suggest that, if you are an independent contractor, you can make your own rules, about safety or anything else. They can't make you work unsafe.

 

[vey]

"They can't make you work unsafe."

No, they can't, because I can refuse to do the work and I have done so on a few occasions. I lost business when that happened and not just that particular job, either. One can get get a reputation of being "finicky" and the way these cowboys work anything you would consider safe, they would consider finicky.

When I go to work, I have my long sleeve HRC2 clothes on and my 2 1/2lb boots on and my class 00 gloves on when exposed to live conductors. They are wearing sleeveless tie-died teeshirts and barehanded is a way of life. I've never seen them wearing rubber gloves unless they are dealing with 15kva and up.

But I can't be the only one that has this problem and the new "gig economy" will only make things worse.
According to my bookkeeping software, I serviced over 200 locations last year. Most were schools, in eight different counties, but many were businesses and residences. I never saw a single label on anything other than "high voltage,"

I rarely see anything over 240VAC and most of my work never exceeds 90A, but a 50A short at 208VAC makes one-heck-of-a bang.

Probably because 208 is "low voltage" they don't see a problem.

I do believe that if I presented an energized work permit for a signature, I would cause a panic.

 

[peter d]

I'm confused, are you employed by the school department or are you an electrical contractor?

 

[vey]

I am not a licensed electrical contractor. I am an "independent contractor" that works for about 75 different companies a year. I install and maintain specialized equipment -- more specifically glass and pottery kilns which are (for the most part) UL listed appliances.

So far, there is no licensing requirement for appliance repairmen in Florida except for TV repairmen. (Shhh.) Yet, like the kid who was here a few days ago talking about HVAC, http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=177622
there is a real shock hazard present, if not arc flash.

I had a kid looking over my shoulder a couple of years ago when I did a Live-dead-live test before I tore down a piece of equipment to work on it and he said, "Wow. Is that the way it's done? They told me in school how to do it, but I have never seen it done before." He was a licensed journeyman. I think there is way too much emphasis on construction skills and not enough on industrial.

That kid could be an independent contractor.

 

[David Goodman]

Yet, like the kid who was here a few days ago talking about HVAC, http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthread.php?t=177622
there is a real shock hazard present, if not arc flash.

That kid could be an independent contractor.

I'm actually amused by being referred to as a "kid". No offense taken. I suppose my question did sound a bit sophomoric. I'm 54 years old, but I am looking at things I have done in the past, with a child's eye, asking "why?".

I'd like to believe that I am in fact getting smarter. I'm not willing to accept the "well, that's the way we have always done it" approach, and as an independent contractor, I don't have a union hall full of seasoned veterans to bounce ideas off.

That is why I joined this forum.

 

[vey]

I don't have a union hall full of seasoned veterans to bounce ideas off.

I'm not sure that is such a bad thing. The old-timers are the ones that resist the most. I guess somebody is going to have to die before these school boards do anything about personal safety.