Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
As today’s workplace becomes more complex, regulation of that workplace increases. In this section, you’ll find the practical advice you need to understand exactly what OSHA, other federal agencies, and their state counterparts, require of you, and to comply in the ways that best satisfy both your and their needs. Look also for important court decisions, advice on how to handle enforcement actions, and news of upcoming changes in workplace health and safety law.
Free Special Report: What to Expect from an OSHA Inspection
In a data brief, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) reports that under the Trump administration, OSHA’s enforcement totals have steadily fallen. According to the NELP, the decrease in OSHA inspectors during the same period “has clearly led” to the enforcement decline.
Since it was signed into law in 1970 by President Richard Nixon, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) has been amended many times. But in key areas, the OSH Act has remained unchanged since enactment. Recently, legislation has been introduced in Congress to update the OSH Act to extend coverage workers who currently […]
Enforcement actions OSHA took against a New England roofing company in 2011 and 2015 appear to have had no impact on the company’s willingness to improve safety conditions for its employees and pay approximately $400,000 in penalties for alleged violations of OSHA’s regulations.
Occasionally, when OSHA issues new or revised standards, there are two dates of importance for employers subject to those standards. The first is the date OSHA will make compliance mandatory. The second is the date OSHA states it will begin enforcing noncompliance. In some cases, the two dates may be the same. But with standards […]
We have a dozen new cases to touch on this month, covering violations discovered across 7 regions. Penalties and fines ranged from just under $3,000 to $400,000; learn from these examples of water woes, air violations, and permit slip-ups so that your facility doesn’t become the next organization on our monthly list.
Consistent with the opinion issued in September 2016 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for DC Circuit (Agricultural Retailers Association and the Fertilizer Institute v. U.S. Department of Labor), OSHA has announced that it will not issue citations under its Process Safety Management (PSM) standard for certain wholesalers of agricultural products.
OSHA has cited C & D Technologies Inc. for exposing employees to lead and failing to implement an effective lead management program. The Milwaukee battery manufacturer faces proposed penalties of $147,822 for two repeated and six serious violations.
This week’s reported environmental enforcement actions cost companies some big bucks. Added to the fines are compliance action and supplemental environmental project (SEP) costs that the companies must complete as a result of their violation. For its violations of Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) regulations, a structural steel and platework fabricator will pay upwards of $147,000 […]
One day before it was scheduled to begin enforcing its 2017 standard to protect workers from exposure to beryllium, OSHA announced that it will delay enforcing many of the standard’s provisions.
OSHA has cited All Power Construction Corp. and staffing agency Labor Finders of Tennessee Inc. after a temporary employee installing sewer lines at an Alabama work site suffered a fatal injury in a trench collapse. All Power Construction Corp. faces $139,684 in proposed penalties and Labor Finders of Tennessee Inc. faces the maximum allowed $12,934 […]