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According to the American Staffing Association, in any given week, more than 3 million temporary and contract employees are employed by U.S. staffing agencies. Over the course of a year, staffing agencies in the United States hire nearly 15 million workers. Temporary and contract work is an increasingly important share of the U.S. workforce, and […]
Want to take your safety and health program to the next level? OSHA might be the answer. Last year, the agency offered free consultation services to some 28,000 businesses. The On-Site Consultation Program has long been one of OSHA’s most recognized successes. Consultation, which provides free, confidential assistance to small businesses, is not associated with […]
Worker safety and health in countries that supply many American and European retailers and manufacturers is increasingly on the radar of businesses, consumers, and governments. Consumers are demanding that corporations pay more attention to fair labor practices and sustainable environmental practices. Human rights organizations and labor unions are trying to create a more level international […]
OSHA’s hazard communication standard, also known as HazCom, gives employees the right to know and understand the hazards of the chemicals they could be exposed to at work. It’s a simple concept, but many employers fall short when it comes to compliance, as evidenced by hazcom’s status as the most common OSHA violation in general […]
On July 3, a boiler explosion just outside Dhaka, Bangladesh put supply chains back in the news: the factory made clothing for seven European retailers. Like other clothing and footwear retailers before them—brands as recognizable as Nike, Walmart, and H&M—those retailers will answer in the court of public opinion for the preventable deaths and injuries […]
On the night of July 3, 2017, workers at the Multifabs Limited garment factory just outside Dhaka, Bangladesh were preparing to put the facility back into production. The factory, which supplies knitted apparel to firms in seven different European countries, had been shut down for the 10-day Eid holiday at the end of the Muslim […]
Every day, workers witness actions that they know are unsafe—potentially disastrous actions that could almost certainly be stopped—but they don’t voice their concerns. Why are people inhibited in these situations? Why do we so often stay silent?
What tools are you using to reduce work-related injuries and fatalities in your workplace? Do you collect and review your injury and illness data? Review safety bulletins from your industry trade group? Investigate near misses and incorporate lessons learned into your training? But have you ever considered … working cooperatively with your industry competitors? Or […]
Many industries have an adversarial relationship with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), in which OSHA makes rules and enforces them through inspections, fines, and penalties—often with vocal support from unions and other worker groups. The industry, for its part, fights new regulations during the rulemaking process, and then in the courts and in […]
In the communication tower industry, workers are at risk of falls and structural collapse—a risk that is increased by the chances that, at some point, safety will fall through a gap in the multiple layers of cellular service providers (carriers), tower owners, turf vendors, contractors, and subcontractors arrayed over them.