By James L. Curtis, Brent I. Clark, Meagan Newman, and Craig B. Simonsen
Holiday shopping is increasingly becoming associated with violence and hazards. At one large national chain store last year “crowds who came looking for holiday deals came face-to-face with riots, shootings, and pepper-spray attacks”. CNN notes that “violence marred Black Friday shopping in at least seven…
Continue Reading Holiday Shopping and Crowd Management Safety Guidelines for Retailers
By James L. Curtis, Meagan Newman, Patrick J. Bannon, Barry J. Miller
In a recent Client Alert, Jim Curtis and Meagan Newman discuss workplace safety issues in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Employers need to keep in mind that storm cleanup poses significant hazards that must be addressed. Employees may be asked to perform tasks, or volunteer…
Continue Reading After the Storm: Workplace Safety and Wage & Hour Considerations
By James L. Curtis and Craig B. Simonsen
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BOL) has just released preliminary findings in its 2011 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary.
Key preliminary findings of the 2011 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries data indicate that fatal work injuries in private truck transportation rose fourteen percent in 2011, the second consecutive year…
Continue Reading BLS Releases Preliminary Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries
By Brent I. Clark and Meagan Newman
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that more than 2.5 million temporary workers were on U.S. payrolls last month. This figure does not include farm workers. While employers see advantages to using temp workers they must also be cognizant of the potential liability for workplace safety and health of those workers.
With very…
Continue Reading Temp Employees Bring OSHA Liability
By Brent I. Clark and Craig B. Simonsen
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently issued a hazard alert on hydraulic fracturing operations intended to protect workers from silica exposure. According to the OSHA press release the action was taken after consultation with stakeholders and that it also …
Continue Reading Occupational Hazard Alert for Fracking Operations
On March 12, 2012 OSHA issued yet another six figure citation to a large retailer. This time OSHA cited the Dollar Tree, Inc. for $121,000 in penalties, including two “Repeat” citations. This comes on the heals of six figure OSHA citations to Wal-Mart, Inc., Sears, Walgreens, Lowe’s, DeMoulas Super Market and Publix. Given the number of…
Continue Reading OSHA Issues Six Figure Citation To Another Large Retail Store
By Ilana R. Morady and Elizabeth Leifel Ash
OSHA has issued a more than 800-page Final Rule revising the Hazard Communication Standard, 29 C.F.R. 1910.1200. The primary purpose of the revised rule is to improve employees’ understanding of health and physical hazards associated with chemical substances and to align requirements for communicating those standards with the United Nations’ Globally…
By Mark A. Lies, II and James L. Curtis
In this recent case the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) found that the Secretary had not established employee exposure because, although the cited standard applied to the electrical adaptor at issue, “grounding is not necessarily required for all equipment that could be plugged into it.” The Occupational Safety and…
By Meagan Newman
Beginning on January 27, 2012 mining companies will have to disclose a broad range of safety violations and other related issues to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC issued the final rule on December 21, 2011, implementing the Mine Safety section of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Section 1503(a) of
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Continue Reading SEC Mandates Broad Safety Disclosures for Mines
By Brent I. Clark and Craig B. Simonsen
The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) recently reviewed an employment relationship between a company and the workers allegedly exposed to cited conditions, in Secretary v. Southern Scrap Materials Co., Inc., OSHRC Docket No. 94-3393 (September 28, 2011), and reaffirmed a long line of cases concerning a host employer’s responsibilities…
