Clearing Up Confusion About Host-Contractor Relationships

In my consulting work, I’ve found there is some industry confusion regarding the relationship between a host utility and an independent contractor company. To help provide clarity, I’m going to kick off this installment of “Voice of Experience” with an overview of each party’s obligations from an OSHA perspective.

A contract employee performs work covered by a signed agreement between the host utility and the contractor company. The host’s construction coordinator must work with contract employees on the host’s system. The host must also provide training for the tasks contract employees are expected to perform. Further, the host’s management team determines all personal protective equipment to be used, the supervisory oversight required, and training and work schedules.

One exception is that a host utility should not record contract employee illness and accident data on their OSHA log; that should be captured in the contractor’s log. Also note that contract worker benefits must be supplied through the contractor company.

There is a risk of tort lawsuits if these obligations aren’t met. In addition, if a contract employee working on a host utility system is significantly injured or killed, OSHA’s 1999 Multi-Employer Citation Policy (see www.osha.gov/enforcement/directives/cpl-02-00-124) could come into play. The host and contractor company are responsible for managing the job together to prevent accidents and monitor employee activities.

Four employer roles are defined by the 1999 OSHA policy. The host utility or contractor company may be considered an exposing employer (employees are exposed to a hazard) or a creating employer (the employer caused a hazardous condition that violated an OSHA standard). A controlling employer has general supervisory authority over the worksite, including the power to correct violations or require others to fix them. A correcting employer has oversight to stop and correct work if noncompliance or unsafe practices are observed. Per OSHA 29 CFR 1910.269(a)(3)(iii), the contract and host employers shall coordinate their work rules and procedures so that all employees are adequately protected.

Construction Coordinator: A Critical Role
Based on the information above, it is obvious that either or both the host utility and contractor company can be held accountable and responsible for all jobsite employees. For example, an on-site construction coordinator who doesn’t put a stop to unsafe work practices could be cited for failure to do so as OSHA views an employer’s silence as consent for the unsafe work to continue.

This means host utilities must employ highly qualified, trained individuals as construction coordinators and ensure they fully understand system and equipment grounding principles. For instance, not all companies require employees to wear sleeves when performing energized work, but to comply with 1910.269(l), they must have an exceptional coverup, insulation and isolation program to enable safe work on exposed energized conductors and equipment.

Construction coordinators should visit jobsites at unannounced times when work is in progress. A coordinator who is on-site every day could give the impression that the host utility is “supervising” the job, which has the potential to become deeply problematic if an incident were to occur in which a worker sustained severe injuries or worse. Among other things, such circumstances can increase the likelihood that contract employees will file civil tort cases against host utilities.

Typically, a construction coordinator engages in two primary functions. The first is quality control, or confirming that the contractor is doing their work as well as can be expected while adhering to the host utility’s contract specifications. Quality control also requires the coordinator to verify that all work complies with applicable local, state, Department of Transportation and OSHA rules and regulations.

Second, to successfully manage a multiemployer project, the construction coordinator must fully understand the contents of the signed contract between the host utility and contractor company. Readers should note that if the host utility requires contract employees to engage in specific work practices that exceed the minimum OSHA requirements found in 1910.269, those practices must be described in the contract. If the contract does not reference specific practices, the OSHA standard provides the basic requirements to be met.

Let’s say a construction coordinator offers workers advice or suggestions regarding safe work methods that are purely the coordinator’s opinion (i.e., not found anywhere in the rules or contract). This is a red flag that the employer must address once it’s recognized. If an incident were to occur due to a coordinator’s misinformation, the investigation would involve the host utility and contractor company and include a review of any instructions or corrections the coordinator made. Both parties could face OSHA citations, and the host utility might even end up with a tort liability case filed against them.

I’ve occasionally discovered this when working with industry clients. A construction coordinator provides a suggestion or direction to employees about how to complete a task, but it’s not considered the best practice, or maybe they offer up incorrect work practices based on personal experience or procedures written by the host utility that conflict with regulatory requirements. These instances often occur due to erroneous interpretations of industry regulations, underscoring my earlier point that utilities must employ highly qualified, trained individuals as construction coordinators.

From Policy to Law
During preamble meetings when the 2014 OSHA regulatory updates were being developed, contractor companies shared one of their primary concerns – that host utilities sometimes failed to provide them with all the safety-related information they needed to comply with OSHA regulations on host systems. The choice was made to adopt language from the 1999 Multi-Employer Citation Policy into law. Found at OSHA 1910.269(a)(4), the rule details information that host utilities must provide to contractor companies, stating the following: “Existing characteristics and conditions of electric lines and equipment that are related to the safety of the work to be performed shall be determined before work on or near the lines or equipment is started. Such characteristics and conditions include, but are not limited to, the nominal voltages of lines and equipment; the maximum switching-transient voltages; the presence of hazardous induced voltages; the presence of protective grounds and equipment grounding conductors; the locations of circuits and equipment, including electric supply lines, communication lines, and fire-protective signaling circuits; the condition of protective grounds and equipment grounding conductors; the condition of poles; and environmental conditions relating to safety.”

Conclusion
I hope I have helped to clarify some of the industry misunderstandings regarding host utility and contractor relationships and responsibilities. If you have related questions not addressed here, feel free to reach out to me (rainesafety@gmail.com) or email Incident Prevention’s editor, Kate Wade (kwade@utilitybusinessmedia.com). We will help you find the answers you need to best protect your workforce.

About the Author: Danny Raines, CUSP, is an author, an OSHA-authorized trainer, and a transmission and distribution safety consultant who retired from Georgia Power after 40 years of service and now operates Raines Utility Safety Solutions LLC.

Learn more from Danny Raines on the Utility Safety Podcast series. Listen now at https://utilitysafety.podbean.com!