Finding Asphalt Specialists Inc. violated the Surface Transportation Assistance Act by terminating a foreman and two truck drivers who had expressed hours of service compliance concerns, Occupational Safety and Health Administration has ordered the Pontiac, Mich., paving contractor to pay $954,000 in back wages plus compensatory and punitive damages.
Read MoreTag: Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Agency chief justifies incident-reporting rule revision, Wire Mesh case in point
Sources: Occupational Safety and Health Administration; CP staff
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels sees a final rule on employer reporting of severe injuries or fatalities significantly enhancing the agency’s ability to steer accident prevention.
Read MoreOSHA tightens timelines for reporting severe injuries, fatalities
Source: Occupational Safety and Health Administration
A revised rule, effective January 2015, details new deadlines for employers to notify OSHA when an employee is killed on the job or suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye, and updates the list of employers partially exempt from agency record-keeping requirements.
Read MoreOSHA and NLRB Update Referral Agreement
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Labor Relations Board have implemented a joint referral agreement to redirect to the NLRB OSHA complainants whose claims of discrimination under the OSH Act are time barred, but may form the basis of timely unfair labor practice charges under the National Labor Relations Act. NLRB Associate General Counsel Anne Purcell disclosed the accord in a May memorandum.
Read MoreOSHA Outlines Ambitious Agenda Through Year’s End
From the Associated Builders & Contractors … In its latest semiannual regulatory agenda, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration lists a host of Obama administration priorities plus rulemakings agency officials will address this year or in early 2015.
Read MoreOSHA programs interactive training tool identifying site, workplace hazards
Timed with the American Society of Safety Engineers conference last month in Orlando, Fla., the Occupational Safety and Health Administration released an interactive training tool to help small businesses effectively identify hazards in the workplace. Employers and workers can virtually explore how to identify common workplace hazards in the construction and manufacturing industries. Users will learn hazard identification skills, plus hazard abatement and control.
Read MoreIndustry tackles incendiary silica rule
In a unified front, concrete, cement and aggregate interests question the scientific basis, worker benefit claims, enforcement feasibility and compliance costs at the heart of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking On Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica.
Read MoreIndustry representatives step to podium at OSHA silica rule hearings
Sources: Occupational Safety and Health Administration; CP staff
Officers of major concrete, cement and aggregate producer associations are prepared to challenge the technical and economic merits of measures at the heart of OSHA’s public hearings for Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica.
Read MoreContractor coalition, Chamber: OSHA silica rule unworkable, economically infeasible
Sources: Construction Industry Safety Coalition, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C.
Two weeks after closing the public comment period for its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is continuing to process documents from individuals, companies and organizations challenging the agency’s math and embrace of air-monitoring technology for workplaces and job sites.
Read MoreCement and aggregate interests read OSHA rule writing on MSHA wall
Sources: Occupational Safety & Health Administration; CP staff
One of the most thorough cases challenging OSHA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica is from a group representing producers not immediately affected by a change in the permissible exposure limit (PEL) threshold: National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association.
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