Archive for the ‘OSHA’ Category

The Protecting America’s Workers Act (PAWA), which is simultaneously wending its way through both chambers of Congress, would put new fangs into enforcement of the laws and regulations overseen by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Now with health insurance legislation largely behind it, Congress is expected to move on several labor-related fronts, including [...]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has dispatched about 15,000 letters to companies to notify them that their rates of illness and injury are higher than average. These so-called DART (Days Away, Restricted and Transfer) reports generally are followed up by OSHA inspections, if the past be any guide. OSHA has made no official [...]

Good question, and the answer is probably that complying with the regulations of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) probably requires constant vigilance. An Office of Compliance inspection recently showed that 70 percent of all Congressional offices exhibit employee workplace safety violations. The good news is that most of the infractions are minor compared [...]

No word yet on what effect it will have on the popcorn you buy in the theater or microwave in a bag at home, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is set to regulate the use of diacetyl–the buttery-taste substance in commercial popcorn. Exposure to the chemical’s fumes can cause a horribly debilitating disease [...]

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued an Advance Notice of Proposed  Rulemaking (ANPR) on developing a standard on combustible dust. OSHA has identified the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and its standard NFPA 652 as the basis for the new OSHA standard. An electronic comment form and instructions are available at www.regulations.gov in Docket [...]

The Department of Labor (DOL) has released its agenda for the coming year, and it has a few surprises to spring on American business. First (for discussion’s sake), the DOL wants each paycheck to come with a stub or explanation of hours worked, overtime paid and everything else that went into the computation of the [...]

The Senate, without a committee confirmation hearing or discussion on the floor, has approved David Michaels as Deputy Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, in other words, the chief of OSHA. Michaels was confirmed along with a host of other nominees in a simple voice vote. Michaels from the beginning was a controversial [...]

In the wake of the workplace murder of Yale student Annie Le and other tales of co-worker-initiated mass violence such as that at Ft. Hood, one in every four Americans believes a co-worker he or she knows is capable of violence, according to a new Rasmussen poll. According to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone [...]

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report faulting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for its handling of the injury-illness reports it collects each year from the nation’s businesses. Each year OSHA audits about 250 of the injury-illness reports it receives from approximately 130,000 high-hazard work sites in the United States. The [...]

Wal-Mart has agreed to, and a judge approved, a plan to settle unpaid-wage lawsuits for up to $85 million. The lawsuits, 30 in all that were combined into one before U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro in Las Vegas, alleged time clock manipulation and denial of rest periods to workers in several states. Lawyers for [...]