July 2017

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Page A14 JULY 2017 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A
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Let the period of a lean but even more meaningful
OSHA begin. For funeral homes, it should reduce in-
spections to cases where employees file complaints.
Even in those inspections, violations will focus on
firms being required to institute corrections. Finan-
cial penalties will be reserved for the most egregious
violators. For reasons I have never understood, em-
ployee complaints are rare in our industry. This is
true even when employers are lapse in conducting re-
quired initial and annual safety training.
I am hoping that funeral home employers respond
with more meaningful compliance. It is time for small
independent family firms (so prevalent in our industry)
to offer new employee safety training before those new
employees are exposed to blood and other hazards. SCI
and other conglomerates have been doing this for a de-
cade. They are far more aware of liabilities when dis-
gruntled employees file mental anguish suits over their
failure to meet minimum safety training guidelines.
The new era allows me to develop training that is
more in-sync with real workplace safety issues and
less bureaucratic. When safety officers call with ques-
tions, I hope to give an answer that contains less ifs,
ands, and buts. This will start to show with 2018
training. All hail the new OSHA. Now there is even
less excuse for non-compliance.
The Unveiling of a New OSHA,
and It’s About Time
There was a five-year period from 1989 to 1994 that
OSHA was active with inspections in the funeral in-
dustry. This was understandable as OSHA enacted the
hazard communications (MSDS) and formaldehyde
(monitoring) standards in 1988 and the bloodborne
pathogen (hepatitis B) standard in 1991. Starting in
1995, funeral home inspection activity dropped sig-
nificantly in most states.
It dropped again in 2010 when President Bush estab-
lished a system where random inspections would be lim-
ited to industries with the highest accident and injury
rates. Relief was immediate in states under federal OSHA
but slower in states that operated their own enforcement
programs. It has been particularly slow in North Carolina
and Virginia where enforcement was tricked up to allow
unnecessary frequent inspection activity.
I always felt like this was abusive to the funeral indus-
try in those states and a waste of time for state inspec-
tors. Certainly, there were other industries with higher
accident rates that were ignored so their inspectors could
allocate time for funeral home inspections mandated by
their state authority. It always ends up with the targeted
industries losing respect for OSHA and the agency hav-
ing few accomplishments to show for their effort.
Why bother to inspect an insurance office or funer-
al home when you have a ship builder and a steel plant
just down the road. To what greater good does it serve?
I think very little. We are now on the verge of another
transitionary period as unnecessary regulations are being
reviewed and proposed for elimination. It cannot happen
soon enough for me.
Gary Finch is a licensed funeral director and embalmer in Texas.
He founded Compliance Plus in 1992. Today, they represent over
700 funeral homes and cemeteries in 37 states. Compliance Plus
also serves as an advisory consultant for the International Order of
the Golden Rule. For more information on Compliance Plus visit
. Contact Gary by phone at (800) 950-
1101 or by e-mail at .
By Gary Finch
OSHA
Compliance
Manchester Avenue Location
First photo of the Baker Funeral Home
The award-winning seating area in the Roosevelt Avenue location.
Baker-Stevens-Parramore Funeral Home
When Dan decided to retire, he sold the funeral home to
Carriage Services in 1997 and remained on as a consultant.
He appointed Pam Parramore as Managing Partner. After
Dan retired in 2010, Pam’s name was added to the business.
She has now been with the funeral home for 26 years.
The Baker-Stevens heritage of success solidified Carriage
Services’ decision to build a second location. The main fo-
cus was to provide convenience for the family members and
friends who would be coming in from out of town. So this
new location was built with easy access to the freeway, ho-
tels and restaurants. The new funeral home on Roosevelt
Avenue provides spacious chapels, gathering areas and a re-
ception room for serving food, holding meetings or celebra-
tions. An open house was held for the community in April.
“In our new building the foyer houses a spacious seating
area and truly welcomes as you enter the front door,” said
Pam. The Roosevelt Avenue location was beautifully de-
signed to be a comfortable, open space for families. The
firm was the honored recipient of the first Interior Design
Award for Best Conversation Area. MaryAnne Scheuble,
designer with Cressy Memorial, said “We applaud the
relaxed seating which allows for paired or group conver-
sations. The versatility of design won our votes!”
The new location has the ability to live stream a funeral
service to friends or family that might be living out of the
area and cannot attend the service. There are televisions
in every room to show memorial picture DVD’s, or to
show the service in several different rooms. The funeral
home can run two services at the same time on different
sides of the building.
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