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On February 24, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued corrections to its August 31, 2020, amendments to the construction and shipyard beryllium standards (86 FR 11119).
Are you about to be hit with a wave of employee complaints or concerns about protections from workplace COVID-19 exposures?
Whistleblower charges alleging workplace safety retaliation have surged dramatically during COVID-19. Approximately 30 percent more charges have been filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) over the same period last year, according to a recent audit from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Inspector General.
The Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released an audit report of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) handling of whistleblower complaints during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The OIG recommended that OSHA fill staff vacancies in the Whistleblower Protection Program (WPP), continue a pilot triage program in its Region […]
As state stay-at-home orders begin to lift and workplaces reopen, are you ready for employee concerns about their safety and health in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic? How will you respond if an employee files a complaint with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or a state workplace safety and health agency? Employers must […]
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) expanded guidance regarding shortages of N95 filtering facepiece respirators due to the COVID-19 pandemic. OSHA instructed field offices to exercise discretion when enforcing annual fit-testing requirements, as long as employers have made good-faith efforts to comply with requirements of the respiratory protection standard.
A Pennsylvania manufacturer must pay $1,047,399 in lost wages and punitive damages to two former employees fired in retaliation for cooperating in a federal safety investigation.
OSHA has updated its policies and procedures for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to resolve whistleblower retaliation complaints. The OSHA directive, CPL 02-03-008, amends an earlier ADR directive, replacing CPL 02-03-006, issued August 18, 2015, and makes changes to terminology and confidentiality procedures for the ADR process.
OSHA has ordered Springfield Terminal Railway Inc. to compensate an employee who faced an investigative hearing with possible disciplinary action or termination for reporting an on-the-job injury at its facility in Andover, Massachusetts. OSHA ordered the company to pay the employee $10,000 in compensatory damages, $75,000 in punitive damages, and attorney’s fees.
In a recently published fact sheet, OSHA reminds contractors, subcontractors, and licensees of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and contractors and subcontractors of the Department of Energy (DOE) that their employees are protected from retaliation for reporting potential violations of the Energy Reorganization Act (ERA) or the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) to their employers or […]