Navigating ERC mills
- Employee retention “credit mills” are aggressively targeting business owners through email marketing, cold calling, and even TV and radio ad campaigns.
- Almost all cases of aggressive ERC eligibility positions pushed by ERC mills rely on at least one of two concepts — supply-chain disruption or impact or restriction or modification observed by a business solely under CDC/OSHA.
- While not all supplier-based partial suspension and OSHA positions are baseless, it’s often these two concepts that are commonly used to stretch eligibility well into 2021, often well after the respective state or local restrictions have lapsed.
- With inflation rising across the nation, government funding from the CARES Act continues to save businesses from closing.
Report: Amazon workers have a higher rate of injuries
- Amazon warehouse workers suffer double the on-the-job injury rates of their non-Amazon colleagues, an OSHA expert told Congress.
- The warehouse/retail reportedly had more on-the-job injuries (24,945) in Amazon’s 308 warehouses than the nation’s 4,184 non-Amazon warehouses (24,338).
- The overall injury rate for U.S. workers in all occupations was 3.3 injuries per 100,000 workers in 2021, according to OSHA.
- The rate for all warehouses was 4 per 100,000. Amazon’s rate was 7.7 per 100,000.
Federal investigation opens after worker killed
- Federal workplace safety investigators are reviewing the death of a worker at a worksite in Spring Hill, Kansas.
- A worker performing work on soil bearings was struck by equipment at a worksite near W. 201st Street and Baker Street, according to OSHA
- The incident killed the worker and OSHA agents have opened an inspection of the worker’s employer, Geotechnology, Inc.
- OSHA now has six months to complete its investigation, issue citations and proposed monetary penalties.
Ailments still rising for miners
- Deadly black lung disease has surged among miners in central Appalachia in recent years.
- It’s been decades since toxic dust rules for mines have improved, lawmakers claim.
- The epidemic to silica dust, which can burrow deep into miners’ lungs, according to recent research.
- Miners are increasingly exposed to the dust as mining companies go after thinner and thinner coal seams.