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Delta Air Lines
Signs Agreement With OSHA On Seat Belt Compliance Measures By Jim Douglas |
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April 19, 2012 - Delta Air Lines has signed a
corporatewide settlement agreement with the U.S.
Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health
Administration in order to protect workers who operate
baggage handling vehicles.
The agreement covers approximately 90 of the
Atlanta-based company's airport sites that fall under
federal OSHA's jurisdiction, as well as 16,000 Delta
employees and 6,000 baggage handling vehicles.
Under the agreement, Delta will come into compliance
with applicable requirements for the use of seat belts
by ensuring that all types of the company's baggage
handling vehicles are equipped with them and that
employees use the seat belts while operating the
vehicles on specified airport routes. "OSHA's corporatewide settlement agreements are highly effective tools for ensuring that companies address hazards that can injure or kill their workers," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels.
"This kind of widespread change within corporations can
go a long way toward keeping workers across the country
safe and healthy at the end of every workday." |
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The
agreement is the result of a citation issued to Delta following
a workplace fatality in which an employee operating a baggage
tug vehicle without wearing a seat belt was ejected from the
vehicle and died. OSHA cited Delta for violating 29 Code of
Federal Regulations 1910.132, which requires employers to
provide employees with personal protective equipment, including
? in this case ? seat belts.
According
to the agreement, Delta has committed to an abatement schedule
that will result in full compliance within two years. During the
first year, Delta will train its employees on the proper use of
seat belts and install seat belts on those pieces of equipment
that currently lack them.
During the
second year of the agreement, the company will fully enforce
seat belt use among its employees, as well as hire safety
consultants to monitor the company's implementation of its seat
belt use program and report the results to OSHA.
In
addition to entering into the agreement with Delta, OSHA will
address this hazard throughout the airline industry. The agency
recently sent a hazard alert letter to airlines across the
nation reminding them that they are obligated to comply with
applicable seat belt use requirements. |