OSHA ordered a Louisiana helicopter ambulance service to reinstate a pilot who was forced to resign or be fired for refusing to fly over safety concerns regarding hazardous conditions. Metro Aviation LLC also has to pay more than $171,000 in back wages and $17,000 in other damages. A whistleblower investigation found the Shreveport, Louisiana-based ambulance […]
OSHA is investigating three more Amazon warehouses near Albany, New York; Denver, Colorado; and Boise, Idaho, less than a month after opening investigations at three other facilities in New York, Chicago and Florida. These investigations are part of “an ongoing probe launched last month by OSHA and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District […]
With temperatures in the U.S. nearing or reaching triple digits in most states at this point in the summer, the White House issued a fact sheet July 20 including statistics on OSHA’s heat-related inspections for 2022. The agency has “already conducted 564 heat-related inspections, which are focused on over 70 high-risk industries across 43 states,” […]
OSHA, along with federal prosecutors in New York, have begun inspecting some Amazon warehouses as part of an investigation into working conditions at the company’s facilities. Inspections were started July 18 in Amazon warehouses around New York City, Chicago and Orlando based on referrals from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New […]
OSHA is launching an enhanced enforcement initiative to combat a 68% increase in trench-related deaths in the first half of 2022. The agency says that 22 workers have died in trenching and excavation work in the first six months of 2022, surpassing the 15 trench-related fatalities that occurred in all of 2021. Protective systems, pre-work […]
OSHA will be conducting weekend inspections in 18 Colorado, Montana and South Dakota counties through the fall of 2022 as part of an initiative targeting falls from heights in the construction industry. Area offices in Denver and Englewood, Colorado; Billings, Montana; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, will take part in the “Weekend Work” initiative to […]
Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Douglas Parker said the agency is still working to address COVID-19 in the healthcare industry while preparing rulemaking for a permanent infectious disease standard. Parker, speaking at the American Society of Safety Professionals 2022 Conference and Expo, said OSHA is focusing its efforts on COVID-19’s impact on health care […]
Massachusetts is on the cusp of being approved to have its own OSHA state plan covering state and local government employers. Federal OSHA published a proposed rulemaking June 29 to approve Massachusetts’ request to adopt its own plan covering the state’s public employers and workers. The plan would cover approximately 6,500 public sector employers and […]
OSHA has published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to revise its standards for lead exposure. The agency wants to make these changes since recent research on workplace lead exposure shows adverse health effects can occur in adults at lower blood lead levels than previously recognized in OSHA’s lead standards. Through the ANPRM, OSHA […]
