Ken, Thanks for sharing. I'll tell you another California story. Way back in the early 1990s I had a contract to travel to several California state universities to do a series of Title 8 right to know trainings for art departments. At one school, I was met by the department Chair who looked over my training outline and crossed off the items they were not in compliance with yet. He told me I couldn't talk about these or they wouldn't pay me.
I told him either I did the whole thing as planned or I'd leave, bill him anyway, and drop a dime to CalOSHA. Sadly, he folded. It would have made a much better story if I would have had to carry out my threat.
But the fact that he even THOUGHT that that was acceptable was beyond me.
Monona
In a message dated 8/2/2012 7:46:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time, smith.j.k**At_Symbol_Here**SBCGLOBAL.NET writes:
Well said Monona,
In my experience with one well known California University, a good share of the negative response I got was from the department head. As a Ca//OSHA IH, I was infringing on his authority and he let me know about it. In this case, we had to threaten the regents with a court action before we got any progress. Their EHS group had no teeth, only advisory. It was a few years ago and I hope they are now better.
Someone who seemed to have a good relationship between their EHS and school administration took issue with your statement. They are fortunate to have a good working with the administration and be able to use their knowledge to get a good health and safety program that has some teeth. I hope that the majority of higher learning institutions have it so good also, but I doubt it.
This [DCHAS] blog is a great way to compare outlooks with others and is very educational. Keep it up folks!
Ken Smith [a CIH before retirement]