Small employers may not realize that they may be exempt from “programmed” OSHA inspections if they employ 10 or fewer employees and operate in a low-hazard industry.
If you are like me, when you first heard that Congress and the President had agreed upon a bipartisan budget bill that would fund the government for the next two years, you said to yourself, “It’s about time.” But as proof that nothing comes free, buried deep in the bill is a provision that will raise the maximum OSHA fines by over 50 percent in 2016.
General contractors at construction sites are being held to a higher level of responsibility for coordinating the safety activities of contractors when it comes to confined spaces in what may be a little-noticed provision of a new OSHA standard.
Safety professionals should have the concepts of “acceptable risk” and “feasibility” top of mind, especially when it comes to lockout/tagout or guarding.
New OSHA recordkeeping rules that went into effect this year are creating confusion among employers about the definition of an amputation and how to quickly determine if an incident that occurred after work hours is actually work-related, according to an article in Business Insurance magazine.
A federal appeals court has ruled against OSHA in a case stemming from a fatal accident involving a lathe at a manufacturing plant, saying that the agency’s interpretation of its regulations on machine guards “strains a common sense reading.”
Many companies find they are not always sure how to apply OSHA standards to everyday work situations. One solution: Ask OSHA for clarification.
Living out here in California, we have many parts of our state that can get very hot and stay that way all summer long. One of the best things I have seen CAL/OSHA do in the past few years is address the hazards of working in hot environments through an updated Heat Illness Prevention law.
In a significant ruling, the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has tossed out a machine guarding citation issued by OSHA to an energy company.
The OSH Review Commission recently opened a new chapter in the dispute over how the OSHA statute of limitations should be interpreted.