On Friday, OSHA issued enforcement guidance regarding employers’ obligations to record COVID-19 cases. According to its previous statements, OSHA’s position is that COVID-19 is a recordable illness under OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements and employers are responsible for recording cases of COVID-19 if:
(1) the case is a confirmed case of COVID-19, as defined by Centers for
On March 9, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) issued new guidance for employers to aid in the prevention of employee exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace, which can be found here.
After first briefly summarizing the symptoms of COVID-19 (including but not limited to fever, cough, headache, and shortness of breath) and transmission
In what should be viewed as a victory for employers, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently issued a decision limiting the scope of OSHA inspections. United States v. Mar-Jac Poultry, Inc., No. 16-17745 (11th Cir. 2018).
In February 2016, an employee at Mar-Jac’s poultry processing facility was
On October 11, 2018, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) issued a memorandum clarifying its position regarding safety incentive programs and post-incident drug testing.
Two years ago, in October 2016, OSHA issued a memorandum that prohibited drug testing employees who reported injuries or illness unless there was an “objectively reasonable basis” for doing so.
Thanks to a recent federal appellate court decision, OSHA now has even more leeway to issue costly repeat citations to employers. As many employers know, there are different classifications for civil violations of OSHA regulations, including other-than-serious, serious, repeat, and willful. Penalties, both monetary and non-monetary, increase with higher classification levels. OSHA recently increased the
At this year’s National Safety Council (NSC) Congress & Expo in Indianapolis, OSHA’s Deputy Director of Enforcement Programs announced its preliminary list of the top ten citations issued for fiscal year 2017. OSHA’s top 10 violations for 2017 are as follows:
On January 13, 2017, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued Recommended Practices for Anti-Retaliation Programs, which are intended to allow employees to raise safety issues arising in the workplace without fear of retaliation. The 12-page document sets forth recommendations that apply to private and public employees protected by the more than twenty (20)
On November 28, 2016, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas denied industry employers’ efforts to enjoin OSHA from beginning to enforce portions of OSHA’s May 2016 final rule that purports to prohibit, among other things: 1)
Rule Also Has Potential Ramifications for Employers’ Post-Accident Drug-Testing Policies
OSHA recently released its Final Rule on the electronic recording and submission of injury and illness records. The Rule has several important provisions of which employers need to be aware, as well as some potential ramifications to long-standing employer practices.
Here are the basic requirements
On November 2, 2015, President Obama signed the Bipartisan Budget Act (the “Act”) of 2015 into law. P.L. 114-74. The Act changes the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, enacted at 28 U.S.C. §2461. These little-noticed changes have huge ramifications because they specifically remove OSHA from the list of agencies that are exempt