A commuter rail system and its former operating contractor want to use federal law to limit their liability in a deadly train crash caused by a texting employee.
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Tags: Connex, Metrolink crash, settlement
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
A worker uses questionable judgment while using heavy equipment. He’s seriously injured, and a test shows he used illegal drugs. The employee applies for workers’ comp. Does he get benefits?
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Tags: heavy equipment, impaired, marijuana, workers' compensation
What if you could capture on video the seconds immediately before and after an injury-causing incident in the workplace? One employer hopes to do just that.
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Tags: DriveCam, improve safety, Washington Metro, worker cameras
OSHA has cited SeaWorld of Florida for three safety violations following the death of an animal trainer who was pulled under the water by a six-ton killer whale in Orlando.
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Tags: Dawn Brancheau, drowning, killer whale, SeaWorld, Tilikum
The head of OSHA says after 40 years, the agency needs a fundamental transformation in the way it addresses workplace hazards, and its relationship to employers and workers. David Michaels says it’s time for OSHA to “take a different road.”
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Tags: David Michaels, future of OSHA, OSHA at 40
Business groups are lining up against a measure that would legalize marijuana in California.
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Tags: California pot law, California Proposition 19, Chamber of Commerce, impair job performance, marijuana
An employee injures her knee just by walking up stairs at work and applies for workers’ comp benefits.
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Tags: accident, knee injury, walking up stairs, work-related injury, Workers' comp
No one can blame an employer for trying to reduce workers’ comp costs through a return-to-work program. But an employer might run into trouble if the state workers’ comp board finds the policy to be illegal.
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Tags: cut workers' comp costs, permanent disability, return to work
While BP still works on cutting off the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico for good, another safety matter waits in the wings for the company: settling citations issued by OSHA for two of its refineries.
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Tags: BP, OSHA, Sen. Al Franken, Sen. Patty Murray, Texas City refinery
Even though workers’ compensation is supposed to be the exclusive remedy for workplace injuries and death, lawyers will find a way to make someone pay even more, especially in the case of a fatality.
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Tags: gross negligence, hot oil heater, National Fire Protection Association, Workers' comp, workplace death lawsuit
You can’t blame any company for being proud of its safety program — perhaps so proud that it wants to put photos about its safety program on its company website. But, as a safety pro, would you allow those photos to be altered? And what if the company we’re talking about is BP?
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Tags: BP, company website, Gulf oil spill, Photoshop, safety program
As Wal-Mart fights an OSHA general duty clause (GDC) fine about retail crowds, the agency has issued another citation under the catch-all regulation involving workplace violence.
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Tags: General Duty Clause, health care, hospital, workplace violence
A worker slipped and fell, and sustained multiple injuries including one to her back. While the worker was still healing, she lost her job in a mass layoff. Does she still get comp payments?
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Tags: back injury, laid off, temporary partial disability, Workers' comp
An employee who suffered from an eye disease had a corneal transplant that improved his vision from 20/200 to 20/50. Then, a workplace incident damaged the transplant, and his vision returned to 20/200.
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The New York Times reports that Wal-Mart has spent $2 million so far fighting a $7,000 OSHA fine in connection with the trampling death of a worker. Equally interesting is that OSHA has also devoted lots of resources to make sure this fine sticks. Why? Because the outcome of this case could have wide reaching effects on all sorts of companies.
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Recently, we received a comment from a reader who was tired of reading so much negativity about OSHA. So that led us to wonder: What do people in charge of safety at their companies really think about OSHA, especially given its new focus on enforcement?
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You’ve probably heard lots of “rules of thumb” about workplace safety. But are they really true? This article will look at three of them.
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Tags: indirect costs, noise, rules of thumb, truisms, unsafe human acts
When workers don’t report injuries right away and then apply for workers’ comp benefits, it often raises a red flag. With conflicting testimony, these cases often come down to which side the court finds more believable.
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Tags: back injury, delayed injury report, injured back when lifting, workers' comp benefits
The cries for less government have become more frequent these days, including in reader comments on this website when OSHA ramps up enforcement or rulemaking. One frequent argument is that OSHA’s regulations hurt the U.S. economy.
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Tags: less government, OSHA hurts U.S. economy, OSHA ramps up enforcement
A South Dakota company now faces $1.61 million in citations.
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Tags: confined spaces, engulfed and smothered, Fatality, million-dollar fine, South Dakota Wheat Growers
A worker at a bear park smoked pot before coming to work where he fed grizzlies. The worker was seriously injured by one of the bears. A workers’ compensation judge called that “mind-bogglingly stupid.” But did the judge rule the worker was entitled to workers’ comp?
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Tags: marijuana, mauled by grizzly, pot smoking, Workers' comp
West Virginia has announced a step its governor hopes will improve workplace safety for miners and employees in all industries.
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Tags: safety hotline, Upper Big Branch mine, West Virginia, workers killed
Marijuana is now legal as a prescription painkiller in 14 states. But what if you have a drug-free-workplace policy?
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Tags: drug-free workplace, medical marijuana, prescription painkiller
It’s a fact: Dust, temperature and humidity factor into asthma attacks. But how can you tell if asthma is an ongoing disability?
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Tags: asthma, dust, permanent disability, temperature and humidity
Do antibacterial soaps do more harm than good? A government agency is looking into that.
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Tags: antibacterial soap, FDA, triclosan
A company required a female employee to take a physical strength test before returning to work after an injury. Was it a valid test of the employee’s ability to perform her job safely, or was it gender discrimination?
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Tags: ankle injury, gender discrimination, physical ability test, return to work, truck driver
Prosecutors asked for prison time for the owner of a tree cutting company after he was found guilty of negligent homicide in connection with a worker fatality. But the judge disagreed and sentenced him to a suspended jail term.
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It happened after the Sago mine disaster in 2006, and it will most likely happen again, after 29 miner fatalities in an explosion in the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia: Lawmakers will seek new mine safety regulations.
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A worker reports an injury. An investigation shows the injury was caused because the worker ignored a safety rule. Under company policy, the employee is disciplined. Now, other workers aren’t reporting injuries because they don’t want to be disciplined. What do you do?
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Tags: disciplining workers, OSHA cracking down, reporting workplace injuries
Safety videos without blood: Will they work?
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Tags: Before it's an injury, blood, safety videos
An employee who said a co-worker’s perfume made her throat “close a little” will receive $100,000 from her employer in a settlement. The company will also have to enact a new policy on personal scents.
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Tags: Americans with Disabilities Act, Crystal deodorant, perfume allergy, scents
Another state will soon allow workers to keep guns in their vehicles’ locked trunks and glove compartments in companies’ parking lots.
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Ranking right up there with poor restroom etiquette and people not showing up for meetings, it turns out some workers find safety … annoying.
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Tags: annoyances, too much safety, Top-10 list, vending machine, wellness program
On March 23, 2005, a series of explosions at BP’s Texas City, TX, refinery resulted in 15 fatalities and 170 injuries.
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Tags: BP refinery explosion, change, prevention, settle lawsuits, U.S. Chemical Safety Board
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