In the wake of the Ebola outbreak, OSHA has stated it has jurisdiction over hospitals that fail to meet safety standards for infection control.
OSHA’s new recordkeeping rules on fatalities and serious injuries and illnesses are fairly clear, but they leave unresolved the confusion that many employers feel about the overall recordkeeping process.
OSHA has tightened the rules on reporting in-patient hospitalizations resulting from work-related injuries.
For the last few years, OSHA has been seeking to expand its powers as the enforcer of safety regulations. Now it appears interested in becoming a human resources enforcer as well.
OSHA’s proposed Injury and Illness Protection Program, known as I2P2, apparently won’t be seeing the light of day anytime soon, if ever, and that is a good thing for workers and employers.
The SEIU is taking advantage of an OSHA ruling allowing union representatives to go along on OSHA inspections even if the union doesn’t represent company workers.
OSHA is concerned about an alarming increase in deaths during work on cellphone towers and is pointing to fall protection problems as a major contributor.
OSHA said it would do better when the GAO took the agency to task for failing to adequately supervise states with state plans. The fallout is being felt.
An ongoing concern about OSHA’s protection of workers is its slow pace in creating or updating needed standards. A prime example is combustible dust.
A key principle governing use of PPE was reaffirmed recently in a Washington state case involving a bank guard who was stabbed while not wearing body armor.