In a recent survey, workers ranked workplace safety regulations as the most important government standard to protect workers’ rights.

In the survey by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC), 85% said safety regs are very important to protect employees’ rights.

Also, 90% said they agree or strongly agree with the statement that the safety of workers is a high priority with management where I work.

Other opinions:

• 87% agree or strongly agree that there are no significant compromises or shortcuts taken when worker safety is at stake
• 88% agree or strongly agree that where they work, employees and management work together to ensure the safest possible working conditions, and
• 92% agree or strongly agree that safety and health conditions where they work are good.

However, NORC notes in its report that stress on the job may be having a significant impact on workplace safety.

In a Gallup poll, 30% of employees said they were dissatisfied with the amount of stress in their jobs and only 28% of employees said they were completely satisfied with workplace stress. Thirty percent said they were dissatisfied with workplace stress. That number is up from 20% in 2002.

Studies have shown that work-related stress contributes to injuries and illnesses.

You can read the entire NORC report here (PDF).

Do you think more stress in the workplace contributes to more injuries? Let us know what you think in the Comments Box below.

OSHA fines over one-million dollars have become more common. But here’s one with a twist: It’s not for workplace hazards — it’s for recordkeeping violations.

OSHA has issued Goodman Manufacturing Co. 83 willful citations for failing to record and improperly recording work-related injuries and illnesses at the company’s Houston air conditioning cooling facility.

The proposed fines total $1.215 million.

OSHA received a complaint that Goodman wasn’t properly recording injuries.

An investigation showed the company had either not recorded or failed to properly record the nature and/or duration of 72% of employee injuries and illnesses from January 2008 to March 15, 2010.

OSHA categorized the recordkeeping citations as willful because the company was extremely knowledgeable about OSHA’s requirements but made many unsupportable decisions.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to decide whether to contest the citations.

OSHA has implemented a National Emphasis Program (NEP) on Recordkeeping to assess the accuracy of injuries and illnesses recorded by employers. You can find out more about the NEP here (PDF).

Police say 68-year-old James Hagerty, a seasonal employee for the county, was preparing to cut the grass on a hill near a pond in a county park. The lawn tractor he was riding slid down a hill, went over an embankment and overturned. Hagerty was trapped in a creek bed underneath the mower.

Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says loss of stability is a hazard most often associated with riding mowers. There are 37,000 injuries related to riding mower incidents each year.

The CPSC says fatalities involving riding mowers have several common patterns: The machine tips over and the victim falls under or is run over by the machine.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has a voluntary safety standard for mowers, ANSI/OPEI B71.1-2003.

The CPSC says when using a riding mower, mow up and down slopes, not across them. CPSC tips on riding mower safety can be found here.

Metrolink in California and Connex Railroad are offering a $200 million settlement to victims and families in connection with the Sept. 12, 2008, crash between a commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train. The crash killed 25 and injured more than 100. There are 76 lawsuits filed against the railroad companies.

Paul Kiesel, the coordinating attorney for all the lawsuits in the case says the $200 million offer isn’t enough.

Kiesel says some victims already have medical bills that total six or seven figures.

Example: Construction worker Curtis Whitney suffered spinal injuries in the crash. He had no insurance and has undergone multiple surgeries. His medical bills already total $600,000.

The $200 million offered is the liability cap allowed under federal law in passenger rail incidents.

The cap was set in law by Congress.

U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA), in whose district many of the victims live, said he probably will introduce legislation that could adjust the liability cap.

Kiesel points to what BP has done regarding the Gulf oil disaster and claims the payouts can and should exceed the liability caps. BP could have stayed within a $75 million cap, but it put up $20 billion to pay for damages caused by the gusher.

The train crash was caused by a contract Metrolink engineer, employed by Connex, who ran a red light while text-messaging, according to an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Metrolink now employs Amtrak as its operating contractor.

Should the cap be raised in the Metrolink case? Let us know what you think in the Comments Box below.

The jury awarded $30.4 million to Gerardo Solis who worked in plants that processed diacetyl, a butter flavoring, for about 20 years. The verdict was against diacetyl supplier BASF Corp.

The jurors assessed compensatory damages of $32 million but subtracted 5% ($1.6 million) for his portion of fault because he continued to work in butter flavoring plants after his first breathing symptoms appeared.

Doctors diagnosed Solis with bronchiolitis obliterans, an incurable lung disease. He currently has only 25% normal lung capacity and will probably need a lung transplant.

According to Lawyers USA Online, Solis filed suit against more than a dozen companies, including the factories where he worked and the suppliers of the chemicals used to make the butter flavoring.

He settled with all the companies except BASF. Solis’ lawyer says BASF offered a $350,000 settlement which was rejected.

Solis’ attorney said a key piece of evidence was a study conducted by BASF’s parent company back in 1993 that showed rats exposed to diacetyl developed severe lung disease.

BASF says it will appeal the verdict.

OSHA is developing regulations on diacetyl and other flood flavorings.

What do you think about the jury’s verdict? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

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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?

Here’s what happened:

Michael Wiehe was an employee of Kissick Construction Co. in Kansas. The company had been hired as part of a highway-widening project.

Wiehe was operating a roller which leveled and compacted dirt before asphalt was laid on top. He attempted to break apart a large pile of dirt when the roller tipped over. Wiehe was thrown from the machine. The roller had a seat belt, but Wiehe wasn’t wearing it.

He suffered numerous injuries, including severe ones to his pelvis.

A drug test was performed on Wiehe at the hospital. He had a level of marijuana which was more than four times the amount needed to establish a conclusive presumption of impairment under Kansas law.

Wiehe admitted that he had used both methamphetamine and marijuana the day before he was injured. However, he said he was clearheaded on the day of the incident.

The Workers’ Compensation Board awarded benefits to Wiehe. It said the impairment exception didn’t apply in this case because there wasn’t enough evidence to show that Wiehe had behaved erratically or unusually before the incident.  His employer appealed.

To show that Wiehe was impaired, a company foreman testified that he’d noticed Wiehe acting “a little goofy” before the incident, bobbing and weaving his head.

An experienced operating engineer also testified that Wiehe’s attempt to flatten a mound of dirt that was too large showed an extreme lack of judgment.

A toxicologist told the court that a person who is impaired by marijuana would function normally until something unexpected is placed in his or her path. The toxicologist said Wiehe might have carried out his job just fine that day if the large lump of dirt hadn’t been there.

The appeals court overturned the decision of the Workers’ Compensation Board. Wiehe would not get workers’ comp benefits. It said the company had proven that his impairment caused him to operate the roller in a manner that demonstrated extremely poor judgment.

What do you think about the ruling? Let us know in the Comments section below.

Wiehe v. Kissick Construction Co., Court of Appeals of Kansas, No. 102,669, 5/6/10.

Washington DC’s Metro public transit system is installing cameras on its entire fleet of 1,500 buses to monitor bus driver performance and improve safety.

The new cameras constantly record when the buses are running. When a driver makes any extreme movement — a sharp turn or a quick stop — the cameras capture the eight seconds before the incidents and the four seconds after. The video and audio are also automatically downloaded from the bus.

“Because the operator knows the camera will be watching him or her, they will try to minimize the times the system is triggered, and it will lead them to be more alert,” said Metro assistant manager Jack Requa.

The cameras will be very sensitive. Even driving over a pothole could trigger recording.

Metro has contracted with DriveCam which will analyze data from any incidents for Metro.

The system is also expected to help reduce damage to buses, workers’ compensation claims and injuries.

The head of the bus drivers’ union didn’t object to the cameras but said they too narrowly focused on driver skills.

Do you think the driver cams will help improve safety? You can leave a comment below.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has completed its investigation into the Oct. 2, 2007, explosion at Xcel Energy’s Cabin Creek plant in Georgetown, CO, that killed five workers and injured three others.

The CSB identified 3 major causes of the incident:

1. a lack of planning and training for hazardous work by Xcel and its contractor, RPI Coating
2. Xcel’s selection of RPI despite its having the lowest possible safety rating (zero) among competing contractors, and
3. allowing volatile flammable liquids to be introduced into a permit-required confined space without necessary special precautions.

Painting contractors from RPI were recoating a 1,530-foot portion of a water tunnel when a flash fire suddenly erupted. Vapor from a flammable solvent ignited, most likely from a spark near the spraying machine. The solvent was used to clean spray-painting equipment.

The fire quickly spread as more solvent ignited. There were 10 workers in the tunnel at the time. Five were unable to get to the only available exit. Five workers made it out safely, although three were injured.

The closest confined space rescue unit was about 75 minutes away. The trapped workers died about an hour before the response unit arrived.

The CSB claims Xcel and RPI impeded the investigation. The agency had to seek assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Denver. Xcel went to federal court seeking to block release of the CSB report. The court sided with CSB in favor of the report’s release.

OSHA’s confined space regulation doesn’t prohibit entry or work in confined spaces where the concentration of flammable vapor exceeds 10% of the chemical’s lower explosive limit (LEL).

The CSB recommends OSHA establish a fixed maximum percentage of the LEL for entry so that work in potentially flammable atmospheres would be prohibited.

The total fine is $75,000.

On Feb. 24, the whale, Tilikum, dragged trainer Dawn Brancheau under the water by grabbing her ponytail in front of about 50 spectators.

The autopsy report said Brancheau’s death was due to drowning and traumatic injuries.

OSHA says its investigation showed SeaWorld trainers had an extensive history of unexpected and potentially dangerous incidents involving killer whales at its various locations, including the one in Orlando.

The agency proposes that trainers not have physical contact with Tilikum unless they’re protected by a physical barrier.

OSHA issued:

• one willful citation for exposing employees to struck-by and drowning hazards when interacting with killer whales ($70,000)
• one serious citation for exposing employees to a fall hazard by failing to install a stairway railing system on a stage ($5,000), and
• one other-than-serious violation for failing to equip outdoor electrical receptacles in the stadium with weatherproof enclosures (no monetary penalty).

SeaWorld is contesting the citations and fines. In a statement, SeaWorld said it “disagrees with the unfounded allegations made by OSHA. OSHA’s allegations in this citation are unsupported by any evidence or precedent and reflect a fundamental lack of understanding of the safety requirements associated with marine mammal care.”

SeaWorld says it has conducted its own investigation into the fatality and has made changes to its safety program for the trainers who work with the whales.

What do you think? Should SeaWorld face an OSHA fine for the death of the trainer? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Two workers at Birdsong Peanuts in Suffolk, VA, were checking on the level of peanuts when one fell into the 50-foot tall storage tank.

A co-worker got a line to the fallen worker. When local firefighters arrived, the employee was submerged 15 feet under the nuts.

The firefighters got a self-contained breathing apparatus to the man. They were concerned he would suffocate because vibrations from passing trucks threatened to shake the contents of the tank.

The unidentified worker was connected to another line and lifted out of the silo. He was able to climb down a ladder on his own and refused further treatment.

No word on whether OSHA will investigate this incident.

OSHA recently fined a Wisconsin grain cooperative $721,000 after a worker was engulfed in frozen soybeans. The employee survived after being trapped for four hours.

In a letter to grain storage operators, OSHA said companies must follow the regulations in the Grain Handling Facilities standard, 1910.272.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has agreed to look into the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

However, it has told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that it will have to end some investigations early and delay others as a result.

Among the investigations that will close early:

• the explosion at the Kleen Energy power plant that killed six people in Middletown, CT, in February, and
• the explosion at the ConAgra Slim Jim facility that killed four people in Garner, NC, in June 2009.

The CSB will delay its investigation of the failure of a 10-inch pipe in a reactor at Silver Eagle Refining in Woods Cross, Utah. The explosion and its blast wave damaged more than 100 homes.

There are about 200 serious workplace chemical incidents each year in the U.S. The CSB usually investigates 12 to 15 of them with a staff of 40 and a $10.6 million budget.

By comparison, the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates plane, train and subway incidents, has 400 employees and an $80 million budget.

The CSB has asked for $2 million to hire more investigators and open a new Houston office.

It has no authority to issue citations or create new regulations, but chemical industry officials say the CSB has been instrumental in uncovering hazards that put workers and communities at risk.

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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.”

The statement comes in a document distributed to OSHA employees, OSHA at 40: New Challenges and New Directions.

Michaels says OSHA will focus on nine key areas. You can read those in Michaels’ letter (PDF).

Instead of restating those here, we looked through the document to find the top 10 ways these new directions for OSHA will affect U.S. businesses:

1. More inspections. OSHA has received a larger budget and has hired more inspectors. And the hiring of new inspectors isn’t over. Also, the agency is shifting personnel away from its cooperative programs and toward enforcement.
2. Larger fines. Even though Congress hasn’t passed legislation to increase the maximums for OSHA fines, the agency believes it can raise fines itself by changing the way it calculates them. Example: Now companies face a more expensive repeat fine if the same or similar violation is found within a three-year period. OSHA is looking into extending that to five years.
3. Regulation by shaming. OSHA hopes public condemnation of business activities that result in serious injury or death will act as a deterrent. The agency will issue more hard-hitting press releases that explain clearly why an employer faced a large fine.
4. Inspectors will interview employees. In every inspection, OSHA compliance officers will talk to workers privately and confidentially to find out if companies are recording injuries as required.
5. More checks on employee training. OSHA says its inspectors will check whether required training is conducted in a language that workers can understand.
6. Injury and Illness Prevention Programs required. OSHA says American workplaces need to undergo a paradigm shift, with employers going beyond simply meeting OSHA standards. OSHA wants companies to implement risk-based workplace prevention programs that uncover hazards before they lead to an injury or death.
7. Closer looks at safety incentive programs. OSHA says some employers, particularly those in high-hazard industries, have implemented programs, inadvertently or by design, that discourage injury reporting. Example: Everyone will get a steak dinner or a bonus if we have no recordable injuries this year. OSHA inspectors will look into whether such programs have caused injuries to go unrecorded.
8. New regulations will be developed more quickly. OSHA is looking into several ways to speed up development of new standards, which, the way things stand now, is a lengthy process. On the agency’s to-do list is the exploration of alternatives to creating new regulations hazard-by-hazard. In the meantime, OSHA wants to increase collaboration with other worker protection agencies, such as the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, and EPA.
9. Electronic workplace records to be required. OSHA wants to complete its transition to electronic data collection. That will force companies to follow certain OSHA standards to report workplace injuries and illnesses electronically.
10. State OSHA programs will be strengthened. Currently, 22 states have their own OSHAs for private and public employees, and another five have safety agencies for public employees only. OSHA says it wants to ensure penalties assessed by state OSHAs are as stringent as those issued by the federal agency.

Where do you think OSHA should focus its efforts? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Preliminary numbers show 4,340 fatal work injuries in 2009 (12 per day), down from 5,214 in 2008.

That’s an almost 17% decline, however, final numbers are always somewhat higher than the first preliminary report.

The rate of fatal work injury in 2009 was 3.3 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, down from 3.7 in 2008.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics explains that much of the decline is because total hours worked fell by 6% in 2009. Also, some industries that have historically accounted for a large share of fatal work injuries, such as construction, had even larger declines in employment.

Some other statistics from the report:

• The number of fatalities in building and ground maintenance rose 6%, one of the few major occupation groups to have an increase.
• The most frequent cause of fatalities was transportation incidents, accounting for 39%, followed by assaults and violent acts (18%), contact with objects and equipment (17%), falls (14%), exposure to harmful substances or environments (9%), and fires and explosions (3%).
• The service sector accounted for 49% of fatalities, while 41% were in goods-producing industries and 10% involved government workers.
• Commercial fishing was the deadliest occupation, with a fatality rate about 60 times higher than the average for all workers.

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said, “A single worker hurt or killed on the job is one too many. We cannot and will not relent from our continued strong enforcement of workplace safety laws.”

Modern Oil Co. of Shawnee, OK, which operates about 30 Kwik Stop Convenience Stores, faces a federal lawsuit for firing an employee who complained about workplace safety.

An employee complained to her manager that beverage boxes stacked too high posed a safety hazard. Then the employee took the complaint to OSHA.

OSHA claims a month after receiving the complaint, the store manager figured out which employee filed the complaint and fired the worker.

In addition to back pay and reinstatement, the lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for the employee.

“Employees should be free to exercise their rights under the law without fear of termination or retaliation by their employers,” said William Burke, OSHA regional administrator in Dallas. “This lawsuit underscores the Labor Department’s commitment to vigorously take action to protect those rights.”

The first federal lawsuit has been filed in the case, and a lawyer says he waited for OSHA to act before going to court.

A February explosion at the Kleen Energy site in Middletown, CT, killed six workers and injured 50 others. OSHA hit 17 construction companies with a total of $16.6 million in fines for 371 safety violations.

Now an injured worker has filed a $6 million lawsuit in federal court alleging proper safety precautions weren’t taken at the site.

Nicholas Novik is suing the plant’s owner and three contractors, claiming they failed to properly ensure that gas at the plant wouldn’t ignite.

Novik’s injuries are reported to be “life-altering,” including trauma to his head and hearing loss.

Many other civil lawsuits have also been filed in state courts.

More than 35 residents whose homes were affected by the explosion have also filed lawsuits.

How does the OSHA fine connect to the lawsuits?

William Bloss, a lawyer for Novik, told The Record, “We were interested in seeing what OSHA’s conclusions were before filing. They obviously were very thorough with their investigation.”

An explosion that killed two welders was caused by flammable fumes inside an aboveground storage tank.

On July 23, an explosion at a natural gas well near Pittsburgh, PA, owned by Huntley & Huntley, killed two workers who were hired to repair pinhole leaks in the oil tank. The two welders worked for Northeast Energy Management of Indiana, PA.

The 8,400 gallon-capacity tank had only about 200 gallons of oil in it at the time.

The Allegheny County Fire Marshal says on the day of the explosion, temperatures were in the 90s with a heat index near 100. The metal tank heated up, causing oil vapor to fill it. The welders were killed when a spark ignited that vapor, causing the five-ton tank to rocket above 100-foot-tall trees and land about 220 feet away.

OSHA is also investigating the explosion.

Huntley & Huntley has no previous OSHA violations. Northeast Energy Management paid $5,965 to settle seven violations after a September 2007 explosion and fire at another well in Pennsylvania. OSHA said workers at that well “were exposed to an unsafe air mixture environment resulting in an explosion and fire causing injuries.”

OSHA’s web page on welding hazards is here.

The California Chamber of Commerce says Proposition 19 would lead to more workplace injuries by forcing employers to let workers smoke pot on the job.

A five-page legal analysis released by the CalChamber (PDF) also claims an employer’s hands would be tied to take any action based on the perception that an employee’s marijuana use is a potential threat in the workplace.

Employers would have to show that pot use actually impairs job performance, according to the analysis.

The CalChamber gives this example: If a forklift driver showed up smelling of pot smoke, an employer could not take disciplinary action until it could be shown that the employee’s job performance was “actually impaired” by the marijuana use.

Proposition proponents say that’s not the case. They cite a determination by the state Legislative Analyst’s Office that employers would “retain existing rights to address consumption of marijuana that impairs an employee’s job performance.”

David Rosenfeld, a union lawyer with ties to the Proposition 19 campaign, told The Los Angeles Times that employers are upset because they wouldn’t be able to simply fire employees who test positive for pot, which can stay in the body for days. Instead, they’d have to show that their work was impaired. “There are lots of people out there who use marijuana responsibly and it doesn’t impact their work,” Rosenfeld said.

In addition to the CalChamber, the Association of California School Administrators and the League of California Cities have opposed the measure for similar reasons.

Proposition 19 would make it legal for adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of pot for personal use. Polls show slightly more than 50% of those asked support the measure to approve Proposition 19.

Do you think workplace safety would be harmed by the passage of Proposition 19? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

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Wisconsin Polishing and Plating of West Allis, WI, faces $75,400 in OSHA fines for 53 health violations associated with allowing workers to be overexposed to chromium and chromic acid.

A willful citation against the company is for allowing an employee to be exposed to hexavalent chromium above the permissible exposure limit (PEL).

The 50 serious violations include failure to:

• provide proper protective equipment for employees working with lead and other extremely dangerous dust and chemicals, and
• maintain material safety data information.

The company also received two other-than-serious violations. One of them was for not informing employees about their right to access medical or exposure information and records.

As usual, the company has 15 days to decide whether to contest the fines.

An employee engaged in unsafe horseplay at work. He got warnings, including a final one, but was caught once again on videotape. He was fired, and the case eventually went to court.

Thomas Ayres worked at Wal-Mart. The company has a policy prohibiting “practices that may be inconsistent with ordinary and reasonable common sense safety rules,” such as “horseplay.”

Ayres engaged in an activity he called “surfing” — riding on pieces of cardboard on gravity roller conveyors.

A manager warned Ayres this was against policy. Ayres acknowledged this type of conduct was an “unsafe procedure.”

He was issued warnings several times for rules violations, and eventually received a final warning. A worker at Wal-Mart who violates any policy after a final warning is automatically terminated.

Sometime after receiving that warning, Ayres reported that he had dropped a wooden pallet and injured his toe.

While investigating, Wal-Mart managers viewed a videotape of Ayres’ work area on the day he was injured. On the video, Ayres and several of his co-workers can be seen trying to jump over two stacks of wooden pallets.

Ayres started running toward the pallets from about 20 feet away and then tried to jump over them. He attempted this three or four times and then did a cartwheel off the side of the stack of pallets. This happened about an hour after Ayres injured his foot.

Wal-Mart fired Ayres for engaging in horseplay.

The state determined he was ineligible for unemployment benefits because he was fired for misconduct.

Ayres appealed, with the case eventually going to a state court. He argued that his actions didn’t amount to employment misconduct.

The court rejected Ayres’ argument. It ruled the horseplay he engaged in did amount to employment misconduct — unemployment benefits denied.

Ayres v. Wal-Mart Associates Inc., Court of Appeals of Minnesota, No. A09-2125, 8/3/10.

The fines are in connection to the 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas City, TX, refinery that killed 15 workers and injured 170.

BP had already paid $21 million in fines for that explosion. In the original settlement, BP also agreed to identify and correct certain safety deficiencies.

In a 2009 follow-up inspection, OSHA found the company made many changes but “failed to live up to several extremely important terms of that agreement,” according to OSHA.

As a result, OSHA issued $87.4 million in penalties against BP. Originally, $56.7 million was levied for BP’s failure to abate hazards it said it would fix in the original agreement. Another approximately $30 million was for new violations. OSHA found it had assessed 29 duplicate violations totaling $6.1 million. That brought the failure-to-abate fines down to $50.6 million.

So BP has agreed to pay the entire $50.6 million for the failure-to-abate fines. It is still contesting the $30 million in new violations.

On top of the fine, BP has agreed to allocate a minimum of $500 million to take immediate steps to protect those now working at the refinery.

BP has also agreed to:

• perform safety reviews of the refinery equipment according to set schedules
• hire independent experts to monitor its efforts, and
• submit quarterly reports for OSHA’s review.

China doesn’t lack workplace safety regulations. The problem for workers is that they’re not enforced.

It’s often up to local authorities in China to enforce the country’s safety laws, according to the article in The Washington Times. Local officials are often paid off by factory owners to ignore serious injuries and even deaths.

This gives Chinese manufacturing a short-term advantage over the U.S., but the cost is life and limb.

Example: The China Labor Bulletin (CLB) recently reported on a worker who got a finger caught in some equipment and was sent to a hospital. It was cheaper for the company to compensate the unconscious worker for a lost hand than to surgically repair his finger.

When the worker woke up, his hand was gone.

The CLB also reports, “It is much more cost-effective for coal mine owners to buy off the families … than risk closure by reporting an accident,” leaving many deaths overlooked. Local governments often pressure bereaved families into signing compensation agreements.

The owners’ priority: Keep production moving.

And here’s another interesting factoid from the article: Some labor laws put into effect in China in 2008 used input from U.S. laws.

A Shelby, NY, farm worker was lying on his back underneath a flatbed truck – apparently taking a late-afternoon nap. This proved to be the absolute worst place he could have caught some Z’s, when his co-worker, Armando Luna-Castillo, hopped into the truck’s cab.

It didn’t occur to him to check underneath the truck for sleeping employees before pulling out, and Luna-Castillo drove the truck away – running over his co-worker.

The coroner pronounced the run-over worker dead at the scene, however identifying him has been difficult, due to his questionable immigration status.

Both the coroner’s office and the sheriff’s department are investigating the incident.

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An employee injures her knee just by walking up stairs at work and applies for workers’ comp benefits.

Maureen Shay was a teacher in North Carolina. She normally used the school’s elevator to reach the second floor where her classroom was because it was difficult for her to walk up the stairs.

Then the elevator broke and she had to use the stairs.  A month later, her knee gave out while walking up the stairs.

Another month later, her knee pain hadn’t improved. An MRI revealed a medial meniscus tear in her knee.

Shay had surgery and filed a claim for workers’ comp benefits.

The insurance company denied coverage, saying the injury wasn’t work-related.

On appeal, the workers’ comp commission ruled in Shay’s favor and awarded her benefits.

The company appealed to a state court.

Was it an ‘accident?’

In court, both sides agreed that the injury arose out of and in the course of Shay’s employment. However, there was another issue to settle.

Under the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act, an employee is entitled to compensation for an injury only if it is caused by an “accident.”

North Carolina courts have defined accident as “the direct result of a specific traumatic incident” and not part of the employee’s normal work routine.

The court said in Shay’s case, since she didn’t stumble, fall, trip, slip or twist her knee, she didn’t suffer an accident.

Shay tried to argue that, because the elevator broke, walking up stairs to her classroom wasn’t part of her normal work routine.

But the court didn’t buy that argument either. It noted that she’d been walking up the stairs for four weeks before she injured her knee. It said that climbing the stairs for a month became part of her normal work routine.

The court’s final word: Comp benefits denied.

(Shay v. Rowan Salisbury Schools, Court of Appeals of NC, No. COA-09-1587, 7/20/10.)

What do you think about the court’s decision? You can leave a reply below.

It’s part of a trend we first told you about last month.

Now, Christina Gamble faces a trial for workers’ comp fraud.

Gamble told management at a Red Robin restaurant that she injured her back after slipping while on the job. She quit. The company’s insurer originally denied Gamble’s comp claim, but a workers’ compensation judge granted her $360/week in benefits.

Now, Gamble is charged with two counts of workers’ comp fraud and one count of theft after an insurance company investigator videotaped her performing as a stripper at C.R. Fanny’s in Wilson, PA.

Gamble is accused of telling her doctor that she was unable to work because standing and changing positions were a problem.

Eight days later, investigators observed her performing at C.R. Fanny’s.

Prosecutors say Gamble collected $26,845 in disability and medical benefits.

Each charge carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

OSHA has cited three construction companies and 14 subcontractors for 371 safety violations, totaling $16.6 million in penalties.

The Feb. 7, 2010, explosion at the Kleen Energy plant construction site was felt as far as 40 miles away.

OSHA officials say the construction companies cut corners to gain a $19 million incentive if they finished construction early on the plant. Published reports say in the weeks and months leading up to the explosion, employees were working seven-day, 84-hour weeks.

In late June, a U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigation revealed the explosion was most likely caused when natural gas was used during a routine gas purging procedure. The gas found an ignition source. Welding and other work was being performed nearby.

O&G Industries, the project’s general contractor, has been issued 119 willful and 17 serious citations with penalties totaling $8.3 million. Keystone Construction and Maintenance was issued 94 willful and 16 serious citations with fines of $6.6 million. Bluewater Energy Services, the commissioning and startup contractor for the plant, was issued 12 willful citations and 8 serious citations totaling $896,000. In addition, 14 subcontractors were also cited and fined.

O&G says it plans to contest the fines.

As a result of the explosion, OSHA will be issuing a warning letter to natural gas power plant operators regarding the dangerous practice of cleaning fuel gas piping using natural gas.

Erie County, NY, wanted to cut its $11 million annual outlay for workers’ comp payments.

So the County Executive, Chris Collins, announced a new policy: Injured employees would have to come to work and get their workers’ comp checks from their supervisors.

New York’s Workers’ Compensation Board ruled the policy was illegal. Specifically, the board said the Erie County policy violated the law that workers’ comp payments must be “periodic, prompt, in like manner as wages and direct.”

The Buffalo News reports Collins’ administration has backtracked a bit, but has refused to entirely end the policy. A spokesman says only workers who aren’t permanently disabled and might be fit for light duty would have to collect their checks from their supervisors.

The workers’ comp board had been deciding a challenge filed by an Erie County correctional facility officer who was injured when she broke up a fight between inmates. The worker had been awarded permanent partial disability. She had received notice that she would have to personally pick up her biweekly checks at sheriff’s headquarters.

The workers’ comp board said requiring employees in that situation to pick up their checks “overly burdens an injured worker by adding unnecessary traveling costs and potentially places an injured worker at risk of further injury.”

The injured officer had been receiving $390 a week — slightly more than $20,000 a year.

What do you think of the county’s policy and the state workers’ comp board’s ruling? You can leave a reply below.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) have called on OSHA to demand stricter safety requirements in its negotiations with BP regarding $90 million in fines.

In a letter to OSHA, the senators ask the agency to require BP to:

• report any process safety incident that occurs at a site under its control, regardless of the number of workers injured or killed. Currently, companies must report incidents to OSHA only if one or more workers are killed or three or more are sent to hospitals.
• record all injuries and illnesses of workers at sites under its control, regardless of whether they are employed by BP or by a contractor. Companies don’t have to report contractor injuries or deaths unless they directly control the employee’s work.

All 15 workers who died in an explosion at BP’s Texas City, TX, refinery in 2005 were contractors.

BP faces $90 million in fines for 862 safety violations after a follow-up inspection at the Texas City refinery and another inspection at a BP refinery near Toledo, Ohio.

When a safety incident causes deaths or serious injuries, should OSHA be able to impose tough new requirements on the company? Let us know what you think by leaving a reply below.

OSHA has issued $257,500 in fines to Worthen Industries, a manufacturer of adhesives in Nashua, NH, and S.L. Chasse Welding and Fabrication, a contractor in Hudson, NH.

The bulk of the fines, $225,400, went to Worthen, including a single willful citation of $63,000.

The explosion occurred when flammable vapors ignited while Chasse workers were installing a new motor on a vessel used in the plant’s manufacturing process.

OSHA says Worthen hadn’t cleaned or vented the vessel thoroughly enough to make sure there were no flammable vapors inside before welding took place.

The explosion injured four workers. Two received serious burns and had to be flown to a regional burn center for treatment. Company officials say all four workers will or have recovered.

Worthen says it will contest the fines. Chasse says it will meet with OSHA officials and hasn’t decided how to respond.

Chasse was issued fines totaling $32,100 for inadequately training its employees to recognize possible chemical, fire, explosion or toxic release hazards and for allowing welding to be performed in a flammable atmosphere.