Archive for the ‘OSHA’ Category

In June 2011, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) the agency’s plan to update requirements under its recordkeeping rule, including removing some partial exemptions for certain employers in order to increase the number of employers who will be covered under the rule. More recently, at [...]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has submitted its final rule to incorporate the Globally Harmonized System for Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) into its Hazard Communication Standard (HAZCOM) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval. Approval—or back to the drawing board—will come within 90 days. Developed by the United [...]

From a list of 14,600 worksites designated for inspection in April, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has winnowed the group to 3,700 work places to be inspected under the just-announced Site-Specific Targeting Program (SST). The final list was culled using data from what OSHA calls the DART (Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred) and [...]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published and made available two free booklets, one for employees called Workers' Rights, and one for employers called Employer Rights and Responsibilities. The latter focuses on what employers can and must do following an OSHA inspection and citation. Workers' Rights replaces an earlier OSHA publication entitled Employee [...]

At the request of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is extending by 30 days the public commentary period on its proposed new injury and illness reporting requirement. The proposed rule would shrink the number of industries exempt from OSHA's injury and illness reporting requirements and would also [...]

The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has released a new edition of its Whistleblower Investigations Manual, one of a series of measures to improve OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program that were announced in August. The new edition of the manual contains updates to case handling procedures, information on the new laws enacted [...]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a new directive for its field agents entitled Enforcement Procedures for Inspecting Incidents of Workplace Violence. Specifically, the directive “highlights the steps that should be taken in reviewing incidents of workplace violence when considering whether to initiate an inspection in industries that OSHA has identified as [...]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is set to issue a revised hazard communication (HAZCOM) standard soon to incorporate the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). The GHS was developed from a United Nations initiative that seeks to set worldwide standards for how chemicals are classified (according to their danger, [...]

After critical audits by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2009 and 2010, the Department of Labor (DOL) is implementing several measures to enhance its Whistleblower Protection Program. The federal whistleblower provisions consist of 21 statutes protecting employees who report violations of various workplace safety, airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food [...]

In filing a notice in the Federal Register to switch from using the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is thus freeing many businesses from injury and illness reporting while adding even more businesses to the required list. OSHA uses Days [...]