By Coby Turner, Patrick D. Joyce, Ilana Morady, Adam R. Young, and Elizabeth M. Levy
Seyfarth Synopsis: The California Occupational Safety & Health Standards Board (OSHSB) was supposed to consider changes to the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on May 20, 2021. But after the CDC published a May 13, 2021 guidance saying that
Continue Reading For Real Now: Cal/OSHA Board Considering Changes to COVID-19 ETS
By Bernard Olshansky, Ilana Morady, Elizabeth M. Levy, and Coby Turner
Seyfarth Synopsis: The California Department of Industrial Relations’ Office of Administrative Law (OAL) approved an Emergency Temporary Standard regarding COVID-19, effective November 30, 2020. After holding a stakeholders meeting in December, the Division released its second iteration of frequently asked questions, which included nearly 40 new
Continue Reading Cal/OSHA Finally Updates FAQs For Emergency Temporary COVID-19 Standard
By Matthew Graffigna and Robert E. Buch
Seyfarth Synopsis: Senate Bill 1159 was signed into law by Governor Newsom on September 17, 2020, and went into effect immediately. Under the new law, if employees test positive for COVID-19 under specific circumstances, there is a rebuttable presumption that their exposure occurred at the workplace. Unless rebutted, this presumption creates a compensable
Continue Reading Workers’ Compensation Liability Is Catching In California
By Brent I. Clark, James L. Curtis, Joshua M. Henderson, Patrick D. Joyce, and Daniel R. Birnbaum
Seyfarth Synopsis: Seyfarth Shaw’s OSHA/MSHA group is at the ABA’s Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee Midwinter Meeting this week. On our last day, we heard remarks from a panel of ALJs who discussed the discovery process and
Continue Reading Final Update from the 2019 ABA Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee Midwinter Meeting
By Brent I. Clark, James L. Curtis, Joshua M. Henderson, Patrick D. Joyce, and Daniel R. Birnbaum
Seyfarth Synopsis: Seyfarth Shaw’s OSHA/MSHA group is at the ABA’s Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee Midwinter Meeting this week. Today we heard remarks from a panel who discussed the general duty clause at length, a panel on
Continue Reading Another Update from the 2019 ABA Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee Midwinter Meeting
By Ofer Lion
If your company is a nonprofit or has a nonprofit foundation, are you covered if something happens to your volunteers while they’re engaged in service to your organization?
The concern is real. There were 287 fatal occupation injuries among volunteers from 2003-2007. Prudent nonprofits carry insurance, called “volunteer accident insurance,” to cover injuries to volunteers.
Workers
Continue Reading Nonprofit Volunteers: We’ll Work For Free … Unless We Get Hurt
Tuberculosis is once again raising its proverbial head — now this disease may require employer responses under several state and federal laws!
According to the Centers for Disease Control, over one third of the world’s population (nearly 2 billion people) have tuberculosis! New infections occur at the rate of one per second and approximately
Continue Reading Tuberculosis Liability Issues In The Workplace?
By Mark A. Lies II and Elizabeth Leifel Ash
In July 2010, OSHA began an inspection of Haasbach, LLC following the death of two teenage workers at a Mt. Carroll, Illinois grain elevator. The employees became entrapped in corn more than 30 feet deep in the elevator and suffocated. During the OSHA investigation, OSHA issued a document subpoena to Haasbach’s