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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Nine Oregon bars and restaurants reported to OSHA for violations

Credit: KDRV
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Nine Oregon bars and restaurants reported to OSHA for violations
Nine Oregon bars and restaurants reported to OSHA for violations

The OLCC conducted 800 inspections across the state over the Fourth of July weekend, and some violations have been forwarded to OSHA.

This numfollowing up on the o-lc spot checks over the weekend- o-l-c-c inspectors checked on 800 businesses across oregon over the 3-day holiday weekend.

Inspectors issued 74 verbal instructions to bars and restaurants.

This gives these businesses a chance to immediately correct whatever it is they're doing wrong rather than get a formal violation.

48 businesses in southern were checked.

10 of them got the verbal warning.

There are 8 bars or restaurants in the whole state that were refereed to oregon osha for violations.

About the spots.

I also spoke with oregon osha about what's being refereed to them and what happens next.

So how busy were your investigators or lcc investigato over the big holiday weekend?

Well, the occ investigators were quite busy, so they did a sweep over the 4th of july weekend.

It was done in coordination with oregon osha.

Um, and this has been, uh, an effort on the part of state government to, to coordinate this.

Um, uh, we were on stany and, uh, llcc did not need our immediate help.

However, um, there have been some cases that have come out of the olc c suite that they have referred to us and we will be following up on those.

Now as i understand it, none of those referrals came from a city in southern oregon.

If someone, a civilian has something they think might be in violation, how do they get it to you?

That's a great question.

So they can easily file a complaint online with oregon osha.

So what we're doing is we're encouraging, uh, workers, members of the public who may be concerned about certain requirements.

For example, the face covering requirements, social distancing.

Um, we're encouraging.

We're encouraging them to use our online hazard reporting form.

And that can be found@oshaororegondotosha.gov.

Now for most people who walk into a business and they think someone is out of compliance, assuming it's not a bar or a restaurant, would your organization be the one to contact to try and find out if that business is out of compliance?

Um, yeah, we, so oregon osha is kind of taking the lead on, uh, enforcement of this issue.

And so if someone's concerned about a workplace not following the requirements, then they can certainly come to us.

I mean, they're also free to raise the issue at first with the employer, but we, uh, we absolutely are prepared to take, uh, complaints and concerns and follow up on those.

It's really in the oregon osha context.

Of a workplace hazard and this public health crisis that we face, uh, in our assessment will be really focused on, uh, the potential for worker exposure, um, the customers inside of the establishment folks coming in, um, uh, and they need to be wearing that face covering.

Um, and so our focus here is really the exposure of the potential exposure to covid-19 and an establishment.

Particularly when we're talking about workers, the employees of the established.

So it really is a situation where you're talking about not only customers are seeing violations, but those who may be working for an employer that that employee may feel is not a compliance.

Correct?

Absolutely.

So we can absolutely take complaints from workers who feel that something may be off.

Uh, we will take them from customers as well.

If they see something, um, the, the, um, to the degree possible, um, we look for a specificity.

Um, substantive allegations, uh, and we will certainly take those complaints and follow up on them.

I guess my next question would be if an employee feels their employer is out of compliance, is that employee protected in terms of confidentiality?

Um, yes.

And in fact that begins from the get go with the fact that people have a right to a safe and healthy workplace.

I can't say that enough, that begins with the fact that you have a right.

In oregon to a safe and healthy workplace.

And we can absolutely extend the legal protection of confidentiality to an employee if they so choose.

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