Original Articles

  • CalHHS Secretary Extends Mask Mandate to Mid-February

    January 7, 2022

    Mark Ghaly, M.D., MPH, California Health & Human Services Agency (CalHHS) secretary, has extended California’s indoor mask mandate by another full month. The masking requirement intended to combat the coronavirus pandemic now runs through February 15. While citing a recent surge in the state’s positivity rate to over 21 percent, Ghaly also noted data on […]

  • Fed-OSHA seeks suggestions for strengthening VPP

    June 27, 2017

    Fed-OSHA is holding a stakeholder meeting July 17, in Washington, D.C., to discuss the future direction of its Voluntary Protection Programs. The agency’s aim is to “reshape VPP so that it continues to represent safety and health excellence, leverages partner resources, further recognizes the successes of long-term participants, and supports smart program growth.” Fed-OSHA is […]

Curated Content Articles of Interest from Around the Web

    CSX Rebuked on Whistleblower Firings

     

    CSX Ordered to Rehire, Pay Whistleblowers More Than $450,000

    • CSX Transportation Inc. has been ordered to pay a total of $453,510 to a pair of railroad workers who were wrongfully terminated for exercising their federally protected rights to report workplace safety concerns.
    • The total includes $248,856 in back wages plus compound daily interest, $100,000 for emotional distress and $100,000 for punitive damages for the two workers. CSX must also pay one of the workers $4,654 for the health insurance premiums paid after their termination.   
    • The company must also reinstate the workers.
    • A US Labor Department Administrative Law judge’s decision follows an OSHA whistleblower investigation of CSX Transportation’s November 2017 actions after the workers reported a blue flag on the tracks at a Waycross, Georgia, railyard, signaling they could not move their train safely. 
    • In response, the company removed them from the assignment and later fired them. 
    • OSHA determined CSX’s response violated federal protections for workers raising safety issues.
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    Wisconsin TV Recycler Faces $200,000 Penalties in Repeat of Year-Earlier Violations 

    • Universal Recycling Technologies was found in April to have failed to implement adequate engineering controls and didn’t keep surfaces as free as practicable from lead and cadmium accumulations, despite being cited for the same violations in April 2023.
    • OSHA cited the Janesville, Wisconsin company with two repeat and six serious violations and one other-than-serious violation and proposed $202,820 in penalties, for continuing to expose employees to unsafe levels of lead and cadmium while they dismantled cathode ray tubes from older TVs.
    • “Chronic overexposures to these toxic metals may cause severe damage to blood-forming, nervous, urinary and reproductive systems,” said OSHA Area Director Chad Greenwood in Madison, Wisconsin. 
    • Based in Janesville, Universal Recycling Technologies LLC also operates facilities in Dover, New Hampshire; Clackamas, Oregon; and Fort Worth, Texas.
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