The use of advanced robotic systems is making OSHA’s 34-year-old lockout/tagout (LOTO) standard “impractical, even obsolete, in many workplaces,” according to one law firm. This new technology “is forcing change in a standard that appears among the top 10 cited by OSHA each year,” law firm Jackson Lewis states. What’s the problem? OSHA issued its […]
Maine is now one of seven states to have its own OSHA State Plan for protecting the safety and health of state and local government workers. Federal OSHA’s certification of the Maine State Plan took effect March 21 and verifies that the state has satisfactorily completed all requirements and has the structural components in place […]
OSHA inspectors may be accompanied by “outsiders” such as union representatives during inspections under a revived Obama-era rule. This rule would allow non-unionized workforces to designate representatives to participate in an inspection, subject to the OSHA inspector’s discretion. The agency proposed reviving this rule in January 2023, according to law firm Baker & Hostetler. This […]
OSHA’s proposed Prevention of Workplace Violence in Health Care and Social Assistance rule has been submitted to the Small Business Advocacy Review (SBAR) Panel. The SBAR Panel received the proposed rule on March 1, which marks yet another step OSHA has taken “in developing a programmatic approach for the prevention of workplace violence in the […]
OSHA needs to develop better methods and procedures to address worker complaints and referrals, according to a federal watchdog. The Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (OIG) commissioned a third-party audit of OSHA which found the agency didn’t “consistently ensure complaints and referrals were adequately addressed nor regularly enforce hazard abatement timelines.” Inspections from […]
An administrative law judge affirmed a $1.3 million OSHA fine against a U.S. manufacturer that makes automotive parts for Hyundai and Kia following the 2016 death of a 20-year-old machine operator. Joon LLC failed to protect the workers at its Alabama plant from crushing hazards associated with robotic machines used on its assembly lines, according […]
In a series of heat illness-related cases involving the United States Postal Service (USPS), OSHA successfully established extreme heat as a workplace hazard but failed to propose feasible abatement methods. The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) upheld an administrative law judge’s decisions to vacate citations in four of the five cases. The fifth […]
Officials with federal OSHA arrived at the clean-up site of the train derailment and toxic chemical spill in East Palestine, OH to investigate the safety concerns of Norfolk Southern workers. Workers with the railroad have complained of a lack of proper PPE and illnesses caused by the toxic chemicals. They’ve collected more than 2,000,000 gallons […]
Julie Su, deputy to U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, was nominated Feb. 28 by President Biden to be Walsh’s successor. Su is a former California Labor Secretary who served under Governor Gavin Newsom. She also headed the state’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency. She helped oversee the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) along with Walsh, […]
