Safe Workplace and Safety News

Business Insurance reports about an increasing concern among employers about increased OSHA regulation. The article reports:

"Fueling some concerns was a proposal last week by the Department of Labor and OSHA to require that employers report worker musculoskeletal disorders, known as MSDs, as part of their Form 300 injury logs.

Employer organizations said they fear that the increased MSD reporting could set the stage for mandatory workplace ergonomics standards."

Read the article here.

Labels: Industrial Health, safety politics, safety regulations, workplace injuries

An article on HealthCarePOV, an online blog of Advance News magazines, provides a overview of the "new" OSHA. The article opens with the statement:

The Obama administration's "new OSHA" has a simple message for U.S. industry. This message has been delivered loudly and clearly by both Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Acting Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Jordan Barab. Their message: "There is a new sheriff in town." And we all know what sheriffs do. They aggressively enforce the law. That is exactly what the new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) intends to do.

Written by James A. Lastowka, a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP, the article discusses the new OSHA's leadership team; the Top priorities for the new OSHA; and What companies must do to prepare for the new OSHA

You can read the entire article here: The New OSHA

Labels: OSHA, osha information, safety management, safety politics

The Las Vegas Sun reported yesterday that George Washington University professor David Michaels will be nominated to be the head of OSHA. The article reports that:

"Michaels, an epidemiologist, has been a notable advocate for workers to be compensated for health risks from chemicals and has also exposed attempts from businesses to block health regulations by making scientific research appear less certain than it is."

"Last year, he published the book 'Doubt is their Product' about industries' use of misleading public relations campaigns to create scientific doubt and block governmental efforts to regulate health risks."

You can read the complete Las Vegas Sun article here.

Labels: Department Of Labor, OSHA, politics, safety politics

If you have not heard about it, this is legislation you'll need to know about. The following is quoted directly from the House Committee on Education and Labor. Keep in mind this represents how your elected representatives describe this legislation:

The Protecting America's Workers Act will strengthen and modernize the Occupational Safety and Health Act, our nation's law that ensures the health and safety of American workers. Significant progress has been made on protecting the health and safety of American workers since the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration almost four decades ago. According to studies, nearly 400,000 workers' lives have been saved as a result.

However, too many workers are still dying, getting injured or become ill by working in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. The Protecting America’s Workers Act will provide additional tools to ensure that OSHA can fulfill its duty enforce safe and healthy workplaces for all American workers.

Protects More Workers

• Expands OSHA coverage to include state and local public employees and federal government workers.


• Expands coverage to millions of other workers inadequately covered such as airline and railroad employees, and Department of Energy contractors.

Strengthens Health and Safety Penalties

• Raises civil penalties and indexes those penalties to inflation.


• Establishes mandatory minimum penalties for violations involving worker deaths.


• Allows felony prosecutions against employers who commit willful violations that result in death or serious bodily injury, and extends such penalties to responsible corporate officers.


• Requires OSHA to investigate all cases of death and serious injuries (i.e. incidents that result in the hospitalization of 2 or more employees).
  

Improves Whistleblower Protections

• Codifies regulations that give workers the right to refuse to do hazardous work.


• Clarifies that employees cannot be discriminated against for reporting injuries, illnesses or unsafe conditions, and brings the procedures for investigating and adjudicating discrimination complaints into line with other safety and health and whistleblower laws.

Allows Workers and Their Families to Hold Dangerous Employers Accountable

• Provides workers and employee representatives the right to contest OSHA's failure to issue citations, classification of its citations, and proposed penalties.


• Gives injured workers, their families and families of workers who died in work-related incidents the right to meet with investigators, receive copies of citations, and to have an opportunity to make a statement before any settlement negotiations.


• Clarifies that the time spent by an employee accompanying an OSHA inspector during an investigation is considered time worked, for which a worker must be compensated.


• Prohibits OSHA from designating a citation as an "unclassified citation" where an employer can avoid the potential consequences of a "willful" violation, the most serious violation.


• Allows any worker or their representative to object to a modification or withdrawal of a citation, and entitles them to a hearing before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Labels: politics, safety management, safety politics, safety regulations

The following is from the April 8th Wall Street Journal. It discusses how concerns about changes in workplace laws will impact the workplace from a legal perspective. Here is the opening paragraph:

"U.S. businesses, fearful of rising union influence and a crackdown by the Obama adminstration on workplace practices, are scrambling for legal advice and training, creating a windfall for labor consultants and law firms."

You can read the complete article here.

While most of the article focuses on the "Employee Free Choice Act," it does note that increased safety inspections may also be coming. While we all are working to have the safest possible workplace, in these changing times we'll need to be aware of what the government is doing in the areas such as new regulations and inspections, as well as changes in what they are looking for during inspections.

Labels: safety management, safety politics, safety regulations

Workday Minnesota reports that former MNOSHA inspectors testified yesterday that the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry alters OSHA reports and citations. The article reports that:

"...two former Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors testified that the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry has engaged in a number of fraudulent activities. Among the charges brought by the whistle-blowers are:

• Changes have been made to final OSHA inspection reports even after the OSHA inspector has signed the report;

• Documents have been removed from inspection files:

• Inspectors have been pressured to not find violations against MNSTAR companies or issue citations to them."

You can read the complete article here.

Labels: safety management, safety politics, safety statistics

Several sources are reporting on President Obama's proposes $27 million increase in the OSHA budget. You can read about it in a report from the McClatchy Washington Bureau.

The article states that "Obama's budget blueprint, released on Thursday, seeks to increase funding to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. More precise funding details for the job safety agency and other federal programs won't be released until April."

The article goes on to state:

"The extra money also would be used to increase enforcement of wage and hour rules, and enforce equal opportunity in federal contracting."

"Though both houses of Congress will be able to write their own appropriations bills in coming months, lawmakers have shown signs that they will make OSHA a bigger priority. A 2009 appropriations bill now before Congress boosts spending and requires the agency to do a better job tracking injuries and illnesses."

Labels: OSHA, safety politics

In their Winter 2009 newsletter The New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) asks the question: Can OSHA BE Fixed?

I'm mentioning this newsletter because it provides a variety of articles that give a good summary of one viewpoint on OSHA. You can read the newsletter here.

Articles by the following people are included:

• Richard Trumka - Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO


• Denis Hughes - President, New York State AFL-CIO


• Ed Ott - Executive Director, New York City Central Labor Council


• Randi Weingarten - President, American Federation of Teachers


• Roger Toussaint - President, Transport Workers Union Local 100


• Stuart Appelbaum - President, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union


• Richard C. Iannuzzi - President, New York State United Teachers, AFT


• Eric Frumin - Director of Occupational Safety and Health, UNITE HERE


• Tammy Miser - President / Executive Director, United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities


• James Melius - Administrator, NYS Laborers’ Health and Safety Trust Fund


• Bill Borwegen - Director, Occupational Safety and Health Department, Service Employees International Union


• U.S. Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, NY-D, 14th district


• Joel Shufro - Executive Director, New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health

...and others

Labels: safety politics

The Kiplinger Letter reports that:

"The Obama administration will move swiftly on establishing a new regulatory environment by making new regulations and reversing existing rules that affect business and commerce. Among the first acts of the new administration was putting a 180-day hold on all regulatory actions near completion, but not finalized, to allow the new regulatory staff time to review and halt or change them."

You can read the entire article here.

It is expected that under the new administration OSHA will put a heavier hand on enforcement, blunt warnings and penalties. In addition, rules that have not been strictly enforced in the past, will now be enforced, and changes to rules put through by the Bush administration are targeted for revision or removal.

Labels: OSHA, safety politics

Laws, codes, rules and requirements sometimes conflict such that to obey one you most likely will break another. You can end up in a situation in which there is a potential for a lawsuit no matter what you do. Finding the middle ground can be difficult, or impossible.

Last Wednesday's Houston Chronicle has a good example. An employee of an Animal Health Clinic became pregnant. When her employer became aware of the pregnancy they took actions to protect the employee's health. The article states:

"Lisa Davila [the clinic manager] said she went through all the chemicals to identify which ones were dangerous, changed the employee's work duties to eliminate exposure to radiation or cat litter, and checked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Web site to make sure the clinic in College Station was taking the necessary precautions to keep its employee safe."

The result of Ms. Davila's actions was a lawsuit and a settlement to the employee of $15,000.

What went wrong? The manager may have violated the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which states that you can not treat a pregnant woman any different than anyone else... even if you are trying to protect the health of that person or the baby.

You can read the article at: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/sixel/5956708.html#none

I suggest also reading the comments at the end of the article. Hare2share has a reasonable suggestion for how this situation might have been handled better. Although I still think the door would have been open for a lawsuit or OSHA fine.

Labels: Industrial Health, safety management, safety politics, safety regulations

Here are some brief stories that caught my eye today...

Which OSHA Requirement Would You Toss? - This is an article in Occupational Hazards by David K. Ermer in which he proposes eliminating the requirement that MSDS's be retained for 30 years.

Occupational Health & Safety reports today that the International Labour Organization calls the declaration that came out of a meeting that preceded the 18 World Congress on Safety and Health at Work as a "'Major New Blueprint' for Global Safety". "The declaration says governments should consider ratifying the ILO Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006, as a priority, and should ensure workers are protected by an adequate system of enforced safety and health standards."

Is A Handgun Considered PPE? - The police union at Princeton University filed a complaint with OSHA because the University did not provide them with handguns they felt they needed to protect themselves. Read this Daily Princetonian article to find out how OSHA ruled. (OSHA said "no".)

New ASTM Task Group Works on Standard for Safe Handling of Annealed Glass - "Recent accidents involving annealed glass along with requests from OSHA have led ASTM International to form a new task group that will work on the development of a proposed standard guide for the safe handling of annealed glass."

Labels: OSHA, osha information, safety politics, safety regulations

Yesterday's Las Vegas Sun newspaper had a substantial article about construction accidents in Las Vegas and the plans of a U.S. House of Representatives panel to "hold a hearing to review construction safety standards and the conduct of government agencies responsible for overseeing workplace safety."

The article reports that "California Democratic Rep. Lynn Woolsey said the workforce protections subcommittee she leads plans to hold a hearing this summer to investigate the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s regulations of the construction industry."

The article also reports on what the U.S. Senate committee led by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) has been doing. It then goes on to describe a bill that has been introduced in both the House and the Senate: "Kennedy and Woolsey have introduced identical bills to increase penalties on employers for workplace safety violations. The bills have been introduced in past congressional sessions but had little traction until Democrats rose to power in 2007."

In covering the other side of this issue the article reports that "Construction industry groups and key Republican lawmakers think any legislation to bolster fines moves the agency in a wrong direction, toward penalizing violators rather than working with contractors to prevent accidents from happening."

Overall this article provides a good summary of what has been happening in congress. You can read the entire article at: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/may/11/keeping-heat-osha/

Labels: Construction Safety, safety politics

Last week the U.S. House of Representatives voted 247-165 to require OSHA to adopt rules to control explosive dust in factories (HR 5522). There was also a vote that would have delay the requirement for new OSHA rules until the investigation into an explosion at a Georgia sugar refiner is finished, That was defeated by a vote of 178-237.

If passed into law the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), based on information provided by OSHA and other safety analysts, estimates that implementing H.R. 5522 would cost $1 million in fiscal year 2009 and $41 million over the 2009-2013 period. These costs consist of $1 million in 2009 for economic and feasibility studies to support the development of the final standard, and $10 million a year—about a five percent increase in OSHA's enforcement workload—beginning in 2010 for enforcement of the final standard. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues or direct spending.

This estimate does not includes state or private industry costs.

The bill will now go to the Senate. U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-WY, Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP Committee), last week urged Members of the Committee to "think outside the box" to establish effective, innovative strategies to enhance workplace safety and prevent on-the-job injuries and fatalities. "No penalty can make up for the loss of a loved one," Enzi said.

Enzi noted several workplace safety programs that have been proven to be effective, including the Voluntary Protection Programs, workplace drug-testing, and Workplace Compensation Insurance strategies, which vary from state to state.

"These programs have been able to make workplaces safer and even save money," Enzi said. "Let's take a look at the best practices out there and determine how these programs can be translated to the federal level."

Labels: osha information, safety politics