A federal judge has ruled that a trucking company illegally used a strength test for women returning to work from an injury or applying to be a truck driver. The judge ruled the test issued by Stan Koch & Sons Trucking of Minneapolis and developed by Cost Reduction Technologies (CRT) discriminated against women truck drivers. The […]
Environmental health and safety should never take a back seat to making a profit! The former president of an oil waste reclamation plant learned that lesson the hard way. Peter Margiotta just started an 18-month sentence in a federal prison after being found guilty of multiple criminal violations of the Clean Air Act (CAA). Profits […]
OSHA ordered a Florida-based transportation company to pay almost $222,000 in back wages and damages to a worker who was allegedly fired for reporting safety concerns. The agency says CSX Transportation violated the Federal Railroad Safety Act after it allegedly fired the worker in December 2019 for reporting safety issues. CSX was ordered to pay […]
The Department of Labor (DOL) is suing a Pennsylvania manufacturer and its owner after they allegedly fired a worker who brought up safety concerns and asked several times for PPE to safely operate equipment. Before the employee was injured while operating the equipment, a supervisor denied the worker’s multiple requests for safety gloves. The lawsuit […]
Despite having already received workers’ compensation, a teacher with diabetes can pursue a lawsuit against her employer for failing to accommodate her condition following a hypoglycemic episode that resulted in life-altering injuries. The New Jersey Supreme Court found the teacher’s workers’ compensation claim was not related to the failure-to-accommodate lawsuit so did not fall under […]
A Texas jury handed down a $222 million verdict to the widow of a worker killed in a 2018 steam accident at Evergy’s Jeffrey Energy Center power plant. Team Industrial Services, a subcontractor for Evergy, was found 90% responsible for the incident, which resulted in the scalding death of Evergy employee Jesse Henson and a […]
OSHA filed a lawsuit against a Texas hotel operator after an employee was allegedly fired for going to the hospital for treatment of carbon monoxide exposure that occurred on the job. The employee reported they were feeling ill from exposure to carbon monoxide, but the employer refused the request and then allegedly threatened to terminate […]
The former maintenance manager at a Williston, North Dakota, oilfield pleaded guilty March 8 to a felony charge of obstructing an OSHA investigation into a 2014 fatal explosion. Stephan Todd Reisinger, 50, the former maintenance manager with Nabors Completion and Production Services Company (NCPS), admitted he made false statements to OSHA regarding the contents of […]
Does control over safety at a worksite determine whether workers are employees or independent contractors? One of the last-minute labor regulations enacted by the Trump administration sets rules for determining whether workers are employees of a company or independent contractors. Published in the Federal Register on Jan. 7, 2021, Independent Contractor Status under the Fair […]
