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An administrative law judge with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) took the middle ground in a dispute between OSHA and a small grain seed-handling business in North Dakota over the amount of a monetary penalty OSHA assessed for multiple violations of worker safety standards. The case can serve to illustrate the […]
In August 2018, OSHA issued a “working paper” that comprised the Agency’s first assessment of the “societal benefits” of its On-Site Consultation (OSC) program. The benefits come in multiple forms—workplace hazards identified, injuries avoided, and monetary benefits, including worker income not lost and costs avoided for employers and workers’ compensation.
On October 16, 2018, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and its State Plan partners began implementing OSHA’s national Site-Specific Targeting Inspection Plan (SST Plan) for general industry (nonconstruction) workplaces that have 20 or more employees.
At the 2018 National Safety Council Congress & Expo in Houston, Texas, Patrick Kapust, deputy director of OSHA’s Directorate of Enforcement Programs, presented the agency’s top 10 violations for fiscal year (FY) 2018 to a standing-room-only crowd of safety professionals. While the list—particularly its top half—is largely familiar from previous years, one standard made an […]
The General Duty Clause (Clause) of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act has been in effect since the Act was passed in 1970 and, therefore, should be an important consideration in employer worker safety and hazard reduction plans. But while most employers that are familiar with the OSH Act and federal and state worker-protection […]
OSHA has ordered Springfield Terminal Railway Inc. to compensate an employee who faced an investigative hearing with possible disciplinary action or termination for reporting an on-the-job injury at its facility in Andover, Massachusetts. OSHA ordered the company to pay the employee $10,000 in compensatory damages, $75,000 in punitive damages, and attorney’s fees.
Can an employer be cited for committing a willful violation of a worker protection standard even if the employer professed ignorance of the standard?
Does evidence of a hazard in a workplace or even evidence of an injury provide a reasonable suspicion that an inspection of the workplace would reveal violations of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act?
On Monday, three news releases from OSHA covered recent enforcement actions. Two of them were taken against construction companies that failed to protect employees from trenching hazards, and one of the enforcement actions was unfortunately taken only after two employees were killed.
OSHA has cited five contractors for safety and health violations after three employees were fatally injured and two others critically injured following an explosion onboard a towboat in Calvert City, Kentucky. These five companies have collectively received 55 of violations with proposed penalties totaling $795,254.