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SAFETY CORNER Lessons Learned From Safety’s Best


By Rich Howell, 2018 AGC Safety & Health Council Chair


Everyone wants to have a safety


culture within their company. Te question is, how best to create it? Most companies understand it takes support “from the top” to create and support a safety culture. While top level company leadership


is important to establishing a strong safety culture within a business, it is also important to have employees with the safety “soft skills” and access to mentors who emulate those desired skills in order to keep the safety culture thriving. Te best safety professionals in the construction industry lead by example. Teir years of construction safety experience and knowledge is priceless, and they frequently share their best practices and lessons learned in forums like AGC of California’s Safety & Health Council meetings. Dan Schuetz, former safety admin-


istrator at Independent Construction Company, is one such AGC safety professional who built a long and successful career leading by example when it comes to construction safety. A


'Good Faith' Disputes Continued from page 18


purpose or object, should be harmo- nized and construed similarly.” And, here, explained the Supreme Court, when drafting the good faith withholding exception in other similar prompt payment laws, “[t]he Legislature drafted the dispute exception in these statutes using language that plainly limits withholding to circumstances in which the dispute relates to the specific amount or payment at issue.” Moreover, explained the Supreme


Court, looking at the underlying purpose of Civil Code section 8814, “reading the statute in light of its broader purpose, as we must, supports


www.AGC-CA.org


What experiences or lessons brought you to where you are now?


Dan Schuetz: I started my safety


career in 1976 with Employee Benefits Insurance Company (EBI) as the first loss control representative trainee. EBI was a new workers’ compensation company whose philosophy was to write insureds with high experience modifications, or “ex mods.” Teir concept was to educate owners that by implementing an effective safety program, they could save a lot of money. EBI was a pioneer in the areas


Dan Schuetz addressing an AGC Safety & Health Council meeting during his tenure as Chair in 2008.


42-year safety industry veteran, Schuetz worked for various workers’ compen- sation companies before spending the last 18 years with Independent. He participated in the AGC Safety and Health Council while at Independent, serving as Chair in 2008. We asked Dan to share a few of his


experiences and the lessons he’s learned during his robust career in construction safety.


the conclusion that only withholding for disputes over the retention payment itself is allowed” since the underlying aim of the statue is “to ensure that parties who supply work or materials on projects, and who otherwise might lack leverage, are timely paid, and to provide them recourse in the event that they are not.”


Conclusion Te Supreme Court’s decision in


United Riggers now makes clear that for a higher-tiered party to rely on the “good faith dispute” exception to the state’s prompt payment laws, the “good faith dispute” must involve a dispute concerning the work for the


of claims and loss control. Tey developed a detailed loss analysis to track loss trends, created dedicated claims personnel and implemented the use of video equipment in the field. I fondly remember lugging that big heavy camera and recorder around on my service calls. Tese safety meetings generated good discussion and feedback from employees in the field. Making money and saving money


is the motivation for corporations and individual business owners.


Continued on page 20


specific payment that would otherwise be due. Furthermore, while United Riggers decision concerned a dispute over the correct interpretation of Civil Code section 8814, the breadth of the Supreme Court’s ruling would appear to put an end to similar interpretation issues under other prompt payment statutes. 


Garret Murai is a partner and construction attorney at Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean LLP in Oakland, California. He is the chair of the firm’s Construction Practice Group and editor of the firm’s California Construction Law Blog which can be found at www.calcon- structionlawblog.com.


Associated General Contractors of California 19


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