Safety Alert

Roofing falls and stop-work authority

As a service to our policyholders, Texas Mutual shares serious workplace injury trends based on catastrophic injuries and fatalities reported to our claims department. Not all of these reported injuries are covered by workers’ compensation, but our goal is to help you ensure these types of incidents do not happen in your workplace. Find tips and suggested e-Learning training courses below to help keep your employees safe on the job. To access the e-Learning courses, policyholders can log in to their texasmutual.com account and then use the links below.

If you have questions, we encourage you to contact our safety services support center at 844-WORKSAFE (967-5723) or safety@texasmutual.com.

Roofing falls

An employee was performing clean-up duties on a rooftop when the roof collapsed, causing the employee to fall more than 15 feet to the ground below. Another employee accidentally stepped on the edge of a skylight and fell through.

So far this year, at least 10 employees have been seriously or fatally injured after falling from a rooftop. Proper training and fall prevention measures are required to ensure that your crew is safe at the next job.

Safety tips:

• Ensure your company has completed or witnessed an inspection of the rooftop before work begins.
• If your fall protection includes a personal fall arrest system, keep your harness connected to an anchorage point at all times while on the rooftop.
• Do not work or walk in areas that are blocked off as unsafe zones.
• Check the position of your extension cords and clean up debris throughout the workday to avoid tripping hazards.

e-Learning course suggestions:

Fall Prevention/Protection

Slip Trip Fall Prevention & Inspection

Slips, Trips & Falls

Stop-work authority

An employee was told several times not to walk under a piece of equipment while it was in operation. When they decided to do so anyway, they were crushed by the equipment.

When one person acts in an unsafe manner, it affects others. Are your employees authorized to intervene in unsafe situations? Stop-work authority gives all employees the power to stop a job or task during a hazardous situation. However, many employees feel uncomfortable stopping work due to the risk of conflict or potential punishment from slowing work down. Read on to view tips on utilizing stop-work authority.

Safety tips:

• Get clarification on work tasks ahead of time so that you fully understand the expectations.
• Stop work when there is an unaddressed hazard, required personnel are not available, team members have a lack of training on the protocols or when someone is acting in an unsafe manner.
• Remember that stopping work during a hazardous situation could save lives.
• If you do encounter retaliation for stopping work, report it to management.

e-Learning course suggestions:

Basic Safety & Health

Advanced Safety & Health

Safety Inspection & Observation

Get free safety resources

Texas Mutual policyholders have access to thousands of free training materials in our multimedia safety resource center. This includes access to our robust safety catalog with up-to-date resources, 400 free e-Learning online training courses and more. With e-Learning, you can assign safety courses to your employees to help train them and keep them safe.

To access the free materials, log in to your texasmutual.com account and select Safety. If you need help accessing the safety resource center or you have a workplace safety question, call us toll-free at 844-WORKSAFE (967-5723).

Download a PDF (608KB) version of the June Safety Alert.

Courtesy of Texas Mutual

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