If you work in the construction industry and lead a team of workers, you must do all that you can to maintain the health and safety of your laborers. Aside from the fact that unsafe and unsanitary conditions can lead to poor morale, you may also be in violation of OSHA standards and regulations. OSHA has various regulations in place to ensure your construction site is always up to code, which includes providing a place where workers can use the bathroom. Make sure you are following the rules by providing portable toilets for your laborers.
Bathroom Requirements
According to OSHA's regulations, you must provide toilets for employees. In fact, there is a set number of toilets you must provide. For instance, if you have 20 laborers working until you, there must be at least one bathroom facility on site. If you have 20 or more employees, you are required to provide one toilet and one urinal for every 40 employees on site. If there are 200 or more employees, you must ensure there is one toilet and one urinal for every 50 employees on site.
Sanitation Requirements
Sanitation is also an issue. Just because you have a portable bathroom on site does not mean you are necessarily following the rules. You must keep the bathroom sanitary for the health and safety of your workers. Unsanitary bathrooms would be considered unusable, which means they are "unavailable." If a bathroom is deemed unsanitary and thus unavailable, you may find that you do not have the required number of bathrooms.
Toilet Placement
OSHA is sure to state that you must ensure bathroom facilities are not more than 10 minutes from your employees. If it takes longer than 10 minutes for your workers to reach the bathroom, then you are not adequately providing bathroom facilities. The number of toilets required reduces employees having to wait in long lines while the distance allows for employees to reach the toilet in a reasonable time to avoid health issues and discomfort.
Additional Practices
Additional practices you should take into consideration to maintain OSHA guidelines is to inspect toilet facilities for privacy, which includes the ability to lock the door. There should also be separate facilities available for both men and women to use. Make sure the area where you place toilets is well lit, properly ventilated, and relatively safe and secure to avoid potential accidents and injuries. Finally, make sure you schedule regular servicing to keep the bathrooms clean and sanitary.
If you need to rent portable bathrooms for your next construction job, contact a professional today. An expert can help you select the construction site toilets that work best for your operations to ensure you follow OSHA's regulations.
