Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Battle for Workplace Safety: Short Stuff
When it comes to attacks on workplace safety and workers’ rights, it’s always something. Read all about it here. You won’t be sorry.
Category: Enforcement
2018: The Workplace Safety and Health Year in Review
2018 is gone and buried. What happened in the world of workplace safety and health? What can we learn that we can put to good use in 2019?
Kentucky OSHA: NPR Story On State’s Failure to Enforce
Listen here to an NPR investigative story on serious investigation and enforcement problems at Kentucky OSHA. I wrote about this before here.
Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Battle for Workplace Safety: Short Stuff
OSHA: The Incredible Shrinking Agency: The number of OSHA inspectors has hit an all-time low according to data compiled by Bloomberg Environment Reporter Bruce Rolfsen. “The agency ended fiscal 2018 with 753 inspectors, compared to 860 at end of fiscal 2014, the personnel data, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, show.” And that…
Shot, Stabbed and Assaulted: Violence Against Nurses
Check out this excellent video on workplace violence against nurses by Newsy investigative reporter Patrick Terpstra. Aside from the jarring videos of nurses being attacked and the tragic interviews as they recount the attacks and try to recover — physically and emotionally — the video is…
Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Battle for Workplace Safety: Short Stuff
Poison Food, Poisoned Workers: Eyal Press of The Intercept writes about chronic health problems that have plagued Jessica Robertson since she began working as a part-time U.S. Department of Agriculture poultry inspector at a turkey processing plant, most likely from peracetic acid which is used to remove bacteria from the carcasses of chickens and turkeys. USDA had ignored…
Worker Not Crushed to Death in Trench Collapse
What does it take for some employers to get the message? OSHA announced yesterday that it had issued citations with penalties totaling $190,642 to El Paso Underground Construction for failing to protect its employees from trench collapse hazards. This was not the first time El Paso had been cited. Or the second. Or the third. Or…
OSHA Comings and Goings
Mostly goings. Tom Galassi, OSHA’s Director of Enforcement Programs retired as of last week. Tom is a certified industrial hygienist who began his career with OSHA in 1986 as a compliance officer in the Milwaukee, Wis., Area Office. Prior to heading the enforcement directorate, Tom was director of OSHA’s Directorate of Technical Support and Emergency Management…
OSHA Enforcement in Decline Data Shows
Words Words Words I’m so sick of words I get words all day through First from him, now from you Is that all you blighters can do? — Eliza Doolittle, My Fair Lady Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, under fire for weakening worker protections, has consistently emphasized the importance of strong enforcement of the laws…
Acosta Refuses To Commit to Preserving OSHA Recordkeeping Rule
In a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee today, Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta today refused to commit not to rescind OSHA’s electronic recordkeeping rule. The rule, issued in 2016, requires employers to send injury and illness information into OSHA and prohibits employers from retaliating against workers for reporting injuries. The electronic recordkeeping rule has…