A jury in Chicago has awarded the largest individual verdict in a popcorn lung disease case.
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Tags: BASF Corp., bronchiolitis obliterans, diacetyl, jury award, popcorn lung
OSHA shows it’s serious about stepping up action against companies accused of firing workers for making complaints about safety.
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Sure, a $16.6 million OSHA fine sounds like a lot of money. But that might be only the tip of the iceberg in the case involving an explosion at a Kleen Energy construction site.
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Tags: explosion, federal lawsuit, Kleen Energy
How far should the “exclusive remedy” provision of workers’ comp go?
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Tags: court, criminal charges, Workers' comp
At Safety News Alert, we comb the Internet daily to find news stories of interest to safety pros. So, you can’t blame us for wanting to find out what this story was about after reading the headline:
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Tags: Australia, forklift, missing step
A police dispatcher in the Chicago area told her supervisor that she had narcolepsy which causes people to fall asleep unexpectedly. However, medication was keeping the condition under control.
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Tags: fall asleep, narcolepsy, police dispatcher
The owner of a tree removal company faces three to seven years in a state prison for creating workplace conditions that led to a worker fatality.
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Tags: employee death, prison, tree removal
Imagine a workplace safety and health lawsuit involving more than 9,000 plaintiffs, 90 government agencies and private companies, tons of pages of court documents, and several hundred lawyers. It’s the 9/11 Ground Zero case.
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Tags: 9/11, Ground Zero, safety and health lawsuit
Workers’ comp laws usually prohibit lawsuits against companies when a worker is seriously injured or killed on the job. But a lawyer in Texas found a way to skirt the law and win a huge jury award.
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Tags: crane, jury award, worker killed, Workers' comp
A company that processes radioactive waste in Memphis, TN, has agreed to pay 23 former African American employees to settle claims that they were discriminated against, including being exposed to higher levels of radiation than white employees.
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Tags: discrimination, EEOC, radiation exposure
BP must pay more than $100 million in damages for exposing contract workers to toxic chemicals, even though none of the 10 employees in the case suffered major long-term health effects.
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Tags: BP, chemical leak, jury verdict, permissible limits, toxic chemicals
Has the cell phone industry done enough to warn customers that it’s dangerous to use the devices and drive at the same time? One woman is taking her opinion to court.
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Tags: cellphone, distracted driving, lawsuit
They didn’t even give the most minimal safety training to a temp who was just supposed to sweep the floor.
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Tags: Fatality, litigation, Safety training
Following a worker’s death and millions in OSHA fines, some shareholders filed a lawsuit against Cintas Corp. alleging the board has failed to ensure the company complied with safety regulations. Now the company has settled the lawsuit.
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Tags: Cintas, lock out, shareholder lawsuit, unguarded machines, worker's death
As states pass non-smoking laws, fewer service employees are exposed to customers’ second-hand smoke. But should companies be liable for their workers who still encounter it on the job? Some businesses are facing lawsuits.
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Tags: lawsuit, non-smoking laws, second-hand smoke
Several business groups, including the National Association of Manufacturers, have filed a lawsuit challenging OSHA’s per-employee penalty policy for safety gear violations.
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Tags: lawsuit, National Association of Manufacturers, per-employee violation, PPE, safety gear
What do you do with employees who have a history of injuries? Fire them and they may sue, but leave them on the job and they might harm themselves or others.
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Tags: fitness for duty, history of injuries, safety-sensitive jobs
Have you ever fired someone for violating a company safety rule? In this case, a company did just that and then found itself in court on a charge of racial discrimination.
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Tags: fired for safety violation, Georgia-Pacific, racial discrimination
Have you ever been suspicious of a workers’ comp claim? Be careful. A recent ruling appears to draw an important — and, in this case, extremely expensive — distinction between “reasonable” and what you might call “reflexive” suspicion.
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It’s been a little over a year since the feds announced the third-largest penalty in OSHA history.
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Tags: combustible dust, fines, Imperial Sugar, OSHA, settlements
You hear it all the time: Sedentary, overweight and out-of-shape employees can be a huge drain when it comes to health insurance, workers’ comp and other costs. Whip ‘em into shape and you’ll save, save, save!
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Tags: court, decision, employee, exercise class, injury
An employee says she was harassed at work, and that caused her “mental injury.” She applied for workers’ comp payments.
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Tags: anxiety and stress, doctors' opinions, harassed, mental injury, Workers' comp
A federal investigation appears to show that Imperial Sugar Co. didn’t train many workers at its Port Wentworth plant about how to escape during an emergency.
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Tags: federal investigation, Imperial Sugar explosion, OSHA investigation Imperial Sugar
A story that vividly illustrates at least three points:
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Tags: exclusive remedy, eye injury, jury, worker, Workers' comp
A Texas drilling company will pay $16 million to the family of a woman who was killed when equipment fell off its tractor trailer and onto the victim’s SUV.
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Tags: big settlement, fatal truck crash, Pioneer Drilling Co.
UCLA has dropped its appeal of safety citations in connection with a lab fire that claimed the life of an employee. But that may not be the end of trouble for the university in this case as another investigation has started.
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Tags: Cal/OSHA, Sheri Sangji, UCLA lab fire
In the last two weeks, three undocumented workers have reached settlements totaling $3.85 million for workplace accidents in New York.
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Tags: employer financially responsible, illegal immigrants, injuries to undocumented workers
UCLA has paid $31,875 in fines and taken corrective steps after a lab fire that claimed the life of an employee. But now, the university wants to appeal the citation for a technical reason.
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Tags: Cal-OSHA fine, Sheri Sangji, UCLA fatal fire
Blanket policies barring employees on light or limited duty from working overtime violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
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Tags: Americans with Disabilities Act, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, light duty, overtime, United Airlines
Imagine this: Your company faces a lawsuit because an employee caused an off-work car accident. The injured people claim the employee’s long work hours helped cause the accident.
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Who has more work during the down economy? A lawyer who represents people injured on the job expects he may be getting more work.
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Tags: cutting corners with safety, Workers' comp, workplace injuries
In this age of Facebook and MySpace, some employers are requiring workers to sign agreements that they won’t speak out against the company in public. Does that stifle employee concerns about workplace safety?
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Tags: Facebook, MySpace, nuclear power plant
Employees who complain about workplace safety and then are fired can successfully sue to get their jobs back, along with back pay and benefits. But is an unlanded punch from a co-worker enough to make a workplace unsafe?
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Tags: assault, violent co-workers, workplace violence, wrongful discharge
Here we go again: Four groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court asking that hours-of-service rules for commercial motor vehicle drivers be thrown out.
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Tags: commercial motor vehicle drivers, FMCSA, hours of service
Just how tricky is it to use tests to weed out injury-prone workers without getting dragged into court for alleged discrimination? Statistics from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission spell it out.
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Tags: best practices, disparate impact, EEOC, injury-prone workers, pre-employment tests
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