OSHA and EPA are now citing for not doing MOCs on personnel changes! The debate rages on for those living in the PSM/RMP world. Just this week, a client called me to help them with an audit finding they received in a third-party audit. The auditor wrote the finding that they were not considering personnel changes in their MOC program. I too often write a similar finding when I come across situations where staffing levels have changed and the change could have significantly impacted process safety. For example, some of the situations I have taken exception with:
- The facility went from four operators per shift to three; their emergency shutdown procedure(s) had assigned tasks to four qualified operators, and they had not gone back and updated their emergency shutdown SOP. Their argument was this would have been caught in the annual review of the SOPs; however, this review was not due for another nine months!
- The facility reduced the staffing levels of their full-time fire brigade/ERT members on site without any formal review to determine the impact this would have on their documented emergency response preplans for fire, HAZMAT, and CS rescue. They actually went from being 100% self-sufficient in all types of emergencies to needing a solid reliance on the community response services, yet had not contacted them to verify they had the equipment, training, or staffing levels to meet the facility’s needs. Since we were doing a PSM audit, we cited them under MOC; but keep in mind the ERT issues can be cited under 1910.120(q), or if it was for CS rescue, we could use 1910.146(k). Management of Change is exactly what it sounds like…a system to help us “manage changes” to our critical safety infrastructure surrounding our covered processes. This is one area that we should always strive to do more rather than less.
- The facility had three key personnel leave within one year. These three key personnel were the Safety Manager (also responsible for PSM), the Unit Manager where the covered process was, and the unit Superintendent. These three employees were the heart and soul of the Process Safety efforts; they were the ones that developed, implemented, and managed the day-to-day functions of PSM. The facility hired three new workers to replace these individuals; however, the three individuals hired had ZERO experience working with PSM/RMP and had never worked with the standard(s) before. The new manager was actually one of the company salespeople who wanted to get into manufacturing to reduce his travel schedule!!!! Two years later, during their 3-year audit, we noted that there had been a steady stream of MOC/PSSR for many years up to the time these three individuals took over; there had been a lot of activity around PHA closures up till these three new individuals took over, and no PSM investigations or Contractor evaluations done since they took over. The mere absence of this data is not an issue but it has raised many red flags for us. During our interviews, we determined the facility had just dropped the ball from the senior management all the way down to the employee level. The new personnel did not know what they were to do – none of them took the time to read the PSM/RMP programs because they did not even know anything such program existed (based on their experiences). Senior management actually felt that the facility had come a long way since no issues were being brought up at staff meetings. This was a complete failure of any management system, but we used the MOC as the element to write our findings and all the other specific deficiencies that came with this issue (PHA, II, MOC, PSSR, SOP, etc.)
In July 2011 EPA cited NH3 refrigeration facility for “staffing issues”. Click Here to see the news release. Here is a piece of what they took issue with…
While Tanner did take some actions to address the risks of an accidental release of ammonia at its facility in Rhode Island, Tanner failed to address the risk associated with the fact that its facility is not staffed except when ammonia is being received or distributed there.
In March 2011, OSHA cited a NH3 refrigeration facility for not implementing procedures to manage changes to the management personnel before the change. Specifically
- Changes to the Facility Manager,
- Changes to the Powerhouse Supervisor,
- Changes to the PSM Coordinator).
Click Here to see the citations.