Re: Home Depot Crew
Uncle Bob said:
Rick,This is not a "morals subject". Here, we are discussing "legal" requirements and obligations of building inspectors. You have stated that you go to construction sites; where you have designed the building. Providing of course, that you are not blind; you have seen illegal immigrants working on the site. Did you call the Feds and fill out a report that your "client" was hiring illegal aliens, er sorry, undocumented workers? If you ever went to a nite club or bar; you saw drunk people stumble out and get in their car. Drunk drivers kill people and cause property damage. You did not call the police and wait for them to arrive and hollar "Citizen's Arrest, Citizen's Arrest".
You are trying to tell us; that because we are charged with enforcing building codes; that we are also responsible for enforcement of all Federal, State, and local laws that we see violated while we are at work.
Our duty and obligations are written in the code books. If we want to investigate and report violations; that we have no legal authority to enforce, while at work; we must do it on our own time; or look for a new job; because we will be fired.
I rather hope that you simply are trying to be arguementative; than to believe that you don't understand the difference.
Uncle Bob
Look at the section in IBC governing Stop Work Order. In the new 2009 clearly indicates - Whenever the building official finds any work regulated by this code being performed in a manner either contrary to the provisions of this code or dangerous or unsafe, the building official is authorized to issue a stop work order.
First, all work regarding construction of the building is obviously regulated by the code but also the OSHA regulations at the same time - so therefore if the work is being performed in an unsafe (OSHA non-compliant) or dangerous (not adhering to OSHA regulations while performing the work then you may issue a Stop Work Order. This can reach to more then just wildly cutting into trusses and beams.
Regarding the rest of what you said, not everything has to lead to arrest and citizen arrest is alot of latitude when things can be resolved without immediately reporting to law enforcement authorities in official charge over the manner. OSHA regulations regulates how work is to be performed in a safe manner. As a B.O. or inspector of a building, you are a form of a law enforcement authority and you have certain duties to ensure things are safe and it would be an endangerment to yourself and others to not take OSHA safety seriously as it pertains to work at hand and the safety surrounding you performing your inspection.
OSHA regulations does fall under the 'other pertinent laws and ordinances'. Of course, you don't have the authority to issue fines directly on OSHA violations however. You can issue a Stop Work Order and request things be brought into accordance with OSHA regulations and that an OSHA personnel has certified that it is compliant so that you may perform your work.
You're not going to be going up on the 9th or 10th floor of an steel frame office building under construction to inspect the steel framing without there being OSHA compliant fall arrest gear and other safety measures regulated by OSHA. It is where these regulations are incidentally "pertinent". You not primarily going to a job site for "inspecting" OSHA but you better darn well check for compliance prior to putting yourself at risk because YOU also have to follow OSHA regulations when inspecting. You don't go into a job site area without OSHA certified and approved gear, equipment, and other safety measures including hardhat certified for the environment of the work. There are rating systems for hard hats.
So, making sure it is compliant to extent feasible so that you can perform your work safely is the point.
Even OSHA isn't going to immediately fine for non-compliance. They may issue a warning to get things compliant and request corrective measures to be made. You just not going to allow work to move forward until you done your inspection and has had the opportunity to see if the structure is compliant with code. You have some latitude as it is incidental to your work. If you can see some obvious non-OSHA compliance then obviously you are not going to risk your life.