Asphalt contractor’s tab for firing hours of service-wise staff nears $1M

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 More

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 More

OSHA 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 More

OSHA 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 More

OSHA programs interactive training tool identifying site, workplace hazards

OSHA

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 More

Industry 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 More

Industry 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 More

Contractor 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 More

Cement 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.

Read More