Insight & Commentary on Occupational Safety & Health Issues
OSHA’s Cranes and Derricks in Construction final rule has just cleared the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), setting the stage for this important rule to be published within the next few weeks.
As previously discussed in this space, this final rule has been several years in the making. The proposal contained over 40 separate…
In a recently issued letter of interpretation, OSHA has confirmed its policy that employees working in an aerial lift over water may unhook their lanyard from the boom or basket of the lift. The letter was in response to an employee inquiry regarding a company policy of allowing employees to unhook their lanyards when performing…
Check out this interesting blog post from Frank Alvarez, head of Jackson Lewis’s Disability, Leave, and Health Management practice group: Time to Revisit ADA Medical Inquiry Rules at "Loggerheads" with OSHA Policy. The post describes the EEOC’s narrow interpretation of the ADA rule that employee medical inquiries be "job-related and consistent with business necessity" and questions whether such a…
OSHA has just announced that its Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) is effective June 18th. The SVEP “concentrates resources on inspecting employers who have demonstrated indifference to their OSH Act obligations by willful, repeated, or failure-to-abate violations.” Under the program, an inspection of an employer meeting the criteria of an SVEP case may result in enhanced follow-up inspections…
OSHA has published a proposed rule that would revise requirements governing the prevention of slips, trips, and falls in general industry workplaces. OSHA’s "Walking-Working Surfaces and Personal Protective Equipment (Fall Protection Systems)" proposed rule impacts virtually every general industry workplace in the country. Slips, trips, and falls are one of the leading causes of OSHA recordable…
