Labor Dept. takes steps to improve working conditions
- The U.S. Department of Labor today awarded a $2 million cooperative agreement to support the improvement of labor conditions and prevent forced labor and child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry.
- The funding will build the capacity of local cotton businesses to adhere to international labor standards and enact effective labor compliance systems.
- The world’s sixth-largest producer of cotton, Uzbekistan generates more than one million tons annually.
- Its annual cotton harvest employs about two million workers – the world’s largest seasonal labor mobilization – from which approximately half of these workers derive their entire annual income.
Brothers die in a refinery fire
- The BP Husky Toledo Refinery in Ohio was shut down after two brothers died in a fire at the facility.
- The two who were killed were brothers Ben and Max Morrissey.
- The Morrisseys were members of the United Steelworkers District One Local 346.
- OSHA compliance officers arrived at the facility, which could be shut down for months.
OSHA boosts fines in North Carolina
- North Carolina has increased penalties to match federal OSHA’s present levels effective Oct. 1.
- There is a $14,502 fine per violation for serious and other-than-serious violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
- Employers must pay $14,502 per day for failure to timely abate hazards.
- There is a $145,027 per violation for a repeated or willful violation of the OSH Act.
OSHA orders ExxonMobil to reinstate two employees
- OSHA ordered ExxonMobil Corp. to immediately reinstate two employees and pay them more than $800,000 in back wages, interest and compensatory damages.
- A federal whistleblower investigation found the company terminated them illegally after suspecting them of leaking information to the Wall Street Journal.
- In September 2020, the Wall Street Journal alleged the global oil-and-gas company may have inflated production estimates and the reported value of oil and gas wells in the Texas Permian Basin.
- The newspaper reported ExxonMobil’s assumption that drilling speed would increase substantially in the next five years may have been inaccurate.