Insight & Commentary on Occupational Safety & Health Issues
In October 2016, Governor Brown signed and approved Senate Bill 1167 which went into effect on January 1, 2017. The law directs Cal/OSHA to draft and propose heat illness and injury prevention standards for indoor workplaces by January 1, 2019. Specifically, the legislation adds Labor Code Section 6720, which states in relevant part:
By January
…
There are new developments related to OSHA’s Electronic Recordkeeping Rule and the Volks Rule. As a reminder, the Electronic Recordkeeping Rule requires certain employers to electronically file their OSHA recordkeeping data with OSHA as well as heightens scrutiny related to both drug testing and safety incentive programs. The Volks Rule essentially reversed the decision held…
Lawmakers have introduced identical legislation in both chambers of Congress to overturn a landmark decision by the National Labor Relations Board intended to broaden joint employer liability. To read the full article, written by Roger Kaplan, click here.
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 contains a few surprises for employers covered by the OSH Act. To date, OSHA’s monetary penalties have not been subject to inflationary increases and, in fact, have been static since 1990. The proposed “Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvement Act of 2015” which applies specifically to the OSH…
Federal OSHA’s Occupational Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting Requirements (effective January 1, 2015) require employers to report in-patient hospitalizations, amputations and loss of an eye within 24 hours. The Virginia Occupational Safety and Health (VOSH) regulation was intended to mirror the federal requirements but a legislative drafting error resulted in the reporting period for…
OSHA’s changes to recordkeeping and reporting requirements became effective January 1, 2015.
The new changes require employers who are regulated by OSHA to report all work-related fatalities within 8 hours and all work-related inpatient hospitalizations, amputations, and losses of an eye within 24 hours of the incident. States with their own OSHA approved State Plans …
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) requested a 7 percent budget increase for fiscal year 2016, for a total budget of $592.1 million.
OSHA’s priorities for next year points decidedly towards increased enforcement. The proposed budget requested a 9 percent increase for federal enforcement and a 3 percent increase for state plan enforcement. …
California Governor Jerry Brown signed A.B. 1634 into law on September 20, 2014, a new bill that significantly changes an employer’s obligations to abate alleged workplace safety and health hazards in California and reduces the ability of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) to make modifications to civil penalties.
When the new …
President Obama recently issued the Department of Labor’s budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2015. As part of the budget request to Congress, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is seeking a total budget of $565 million, which is an increase of $12.7 million from the enacted FY 2014 budget.
OSHA is also requesting…
Representative George Miller (D-CA) recently reintroduced a bill (H.R. 1649) that would provide whistleblower protections to certain workers in the offshore oil and gas industry. The bill was first introduced in 2010 and again in 2011. Continue Reading Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act of 2013 Introduced Into the House
