Oregon OSHA looking to collect funds in Oregon

• Oregon OSHA recently ended workplace restrictions related to COVID, but several dozen citations linger and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines remain unpaid in Beaver State.
• Since March 2020, Oregon OSHA has issued more than 250 COVID-related citations to employers.
• The citations were based largely on about 32,000 complaints, 16 times more than the agency typically receives in a year. Some citations involved more than one violation, with the total fines close to $1 million.
• Oregon OSHA has only collected $100,000, according to the latest agency data. Most of that money stems from violations that weren’t appealed, which accounted for more than two-thirds of the total.
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OSHA seeks information

• Fed-OSHA is holding a virtual meeting about its whistleblower program on May 10, 2023.
• This meeting is meant to gather information and comments on OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program. Specifically, the agency is looking to enhance outreach and training under the program.
• The free meeting is open to the public from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. EDT. It will take place via Zoom and be available in English and Spanish. Register by May 3, 2023, online in English or Spanish.
• OSHA is seeking input on what can the agency do to improve whistleblowers.gov; what additional materials would be beneficial for the agency to make publicly available on its website and what types of whistleblower training videos or presentations would be useful for the public to better understand the whistleblower laws enforced by the agency?
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OSHA investigating workers’ death in Oklahoma

• The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating a workplace death after a Holdenville contractor was buried and killed in a collapsed trench in that city.
• Jose Valenzuela was trapped in the 12-foot-deep trench for nine hours after the walls caved in while he was replacing a sewer line.
• Valenzuela was hired by a homeowner to replace the damaged line.
• First responders, rescue teams, and excavator specialists from surrounding areas responded to the scene quickly, but the complicated trenching operation took hours to navigate.
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OSHA reporting mandate under review

• Fed-OSHA’s revised rule to require more injury and illness data.
• The review is typically among the final steps before OSHA issues a regulation.
• The agency hasn’t publicly released the text of the final rule, but an earlier proposed version issued wanted to broaden filing requirements with the intention of posting the data on its website.
• If enacted, the rule would be the third version of OSHA’s electronic reporting regulation.
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