OSHA steps in after worker deaths and injuries in Idaho construction

Idaho homebuilders who play fast and loose with worker safety may want to rethink their approach — OSHA is about to take a much closer look.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Oct. 1 launched a program focusing on the home construction industry in the Pacific Northwest following Idaho Statesman reporting on widespread problems in 2017. The Idaho OSHA office will ramp up inspections and training as soon as January.

A Statesman investigation last year found “a pattern of carelessness in Idaho’s home construction industry” that caused serious injuries and deaths. At least 19 home construction companies in the Treasure Valley had failed inspections multiple times in a five-year period, the investigation found. Most of them were still doing business after the repeat violations.

Statewide, OSHA had cited residential construction businesses with 576 of the most serious type of worker-safety violations.

News coverage is one of the factors OSHA considers when deciding to focus on a certain industry, a Labor Department spokesman said.

While the new program is regional, it may have a more noticeable effect in Idaho — the only state in the Pacific Northwest without its own state-run version of OSHA.

Washington, Oregon and Alaska have operated their own state occupational safety programs for more than 30 years.

Idaho’s OSHA office has seven inspectors to cover the entire state and expects to hire one or two more soon, according to the Labor Department. By comparison, Oregon’s state-run program had 78 compliance officers and 33 consultants.

OSHA decided to start the new program “after seeing a higher level of non-compliance in the home-building industry,” according to a Labor Department spokesman. It “is intended to help employers understand their obligations under the law and to appropriately focus inspections.”