An employer who failed in using the unpreventable employee misconduct defense to prevent an OSHA citation has petitioned the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to review the requirements of that defense. The employer wants the appeals court to broadly apply that defense because it claims an administrative law judge with the Occupational Safety and […]
An injured worker who fell down stairs while moving a machine won his New York Labor Law case because his employer failed to provide a safety device for moving the equipment. The New York Appellate Division, First Department found that the employer violated the Labor Law when it failed to provide a safe means of […]
A Texas luxury car dealership was ordered to pay $15,000 to a whistleblower who was fired in 2020 after raising COVID-19 safety concerns. The whistleblower was fired when they warned co-workers that another employee had tested positive for COVID-19. OSHA obtained a consent judgment on March 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Western […]
A Tennessee McDonald’s franchisee is in trouble with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for a burn injury suffered by a teen worker. The 15-year-old employee was removing food from a manual deep fryer when they suffered burns from the hot oil. Wage and Hour Division investigators found that the teen was illegally allowed to […]
South Carolina is suing the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) over a requirement that would force the state’s State OSHA Plan to increase its maximum civil penalties for workplace safety violations. The state filed a lawsuit March 14 challenging the requirement, which has State Plan states increase their civil penalties to be in line with […]
Can a New York Labor Law claim stemming from an employee’s fall from a wet ladder succeed despite some inconsistencies between what he wrote on an incident report and his testimony in court? New York’s Appellate Division, First Department found that the employee was entitled to partial summary judgment since his supervisor witnessed the fall […]
New York’s Warehouse Worker Protection Act (WWPA) has seen some significant amendments to several of its provisions and has had its official effective date pushed back. The WWPA, which was signed into law Dec. 21, 2022, will now go into effect on June 19, 2023, rather than the previous date of Feb. 19, 2023. Several […]
Three warehouse employees who survived a workplace mass shooting can’t pursue a lawsuit against their employer despite an appeals court’s finding that workers’ compensation exclusivity didn’t apply to the case. The Appellate Court of Maryland found that the employer wasn’t protected by the exclusivity provisions of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act and the lawsuit couldn’t […]
The owner of a large San Francisco-based janitorial company was sentenced to jail and ordered to pay more than $8 million in restitution for a workers’ compensation fraud scheme. Gina Gregori, owner of GMG Firenze and Billings DBA Apex, was sentenced to six years in jail and ordered to repay $8,382,788 in premiums owed to […]
