New OSHA rules; the mouse droppings case; marijuana and workers’ comp. Those are the topics of just 3 of the top 10 posts, by your clicks, in 2013 on Safety News Alert. Here are the top 10 posts:
- Injured at work, positive test for pot: Does he get workers’ comp? Is testing positive for pot enough to disqualify an injured employee from receiving workers’ comp benefits?
- Employee knocked over, killed in shoplifter chase: Is employer liable? A Wal-Mart loss prevention employee chased a shoplifter, and in the process, a co-worker was knocked over and killed. Is Wal-Mart liable for the employee’s death?
- Worker uses medical marijuana: Can he be fired for it? One reason for a drug-free workplace policy is employee safety. But how do the growing number of state medical marijuana laws factor into this?
- Manager going to prison for hiding injuries to get safety bonus. What will some people do to get their safety bonus? One safety manager hid more than 80 injuries to get a $2.5 million payout.
- Employee crashes go-cart at work event: Can he get workers’ comp? If an employee gets hurt at a company team-building event, can he get workers’ comp benefits?
- The mouse droppings case or, can they walk out on light duty? What happens when an injured worker refuses light duty? Does the company have to keep the light-duty job open forever?
- 2 strange comp cases: Caught on Facebook and Height of Hypocrisy. What happens in Arizona doesn’t stay in Arizona when you post it on your Facebook page. And it’s apparently “do as I say, not as I do,” when it comes to workers comp for a housing authority executive.
- Employee fired for 3rd violation: How will that affect his workers’ comp benefits? An employee had been warned twice about safety violations. Then he’s injured because of a third violation. Do you have to pay him workers’ comp benefits?
- Are we about to see a flood of new OSHA rules? What’s on OSHA’s regulatory agenda?
- Bizarre accidents: Injured by cow; Gunslinger shot with a blank. In the “wild wild west” version of Safety News Alert, we looked at a couple of cases involving strange situations that still had valuable real-life safety lessons.
Watch this space for more safety 2013 Top-10 lists. Have a safe 2014 from the editors at Safety News Alert.
