Fed-OSHA fines Nebraska retail store $540K
Fed-OSHA has fined a Nebraska discount retail store nearly $540,00 for alleged willful, serious and repeat violations including failure to provide proper safety equipment and training to handle helium gas, improperly stored compressed gas and allowed for haphazard placement of merchandise and other items in a way that obstructed fire exits and threatened worker safety. Omaha World-Herald
Union asks Fed-OSHA to investigate Nevada hospitals for lack of PPE
Nevada’s largest healthcare employees’ union late last week formally requested Fed-OSHA to begin investigations of Nevada hospitals on the grounds of insufficient personal protection equipment and unsafe protocols and procedures, including that hospital employees are being exposed to patients with coronavirus symptoms but are never informed if the patients tested positive for the virus. Las Vegas Review-Journal
Fed-OSHA probing healthcare employee deaths but urges inspectors to spare the penalties
As healthcare employees have reported a lack of personal protective equipment, pressure to work while sick, and retaliation for voicing safety concerns, Fed-OSHA in recent weeks has launched investigations into deaths of workers at 34 health care employers across the country Former agency officials are warning however that the agency likely only will cite and fine the most flagrant violators. Norwalk Reflector
New Jersey nurses’ union filed Fed-OSHA complaint over defective PPE
New Jersey’s largest union of nurses and health care professionals last week filed a complaint with Fed-OSHA against a healthcare company for allegedly providing frontline workers defective, inadequate and non-approved personal protective equipment. NJBiz
Fed-OSHA, Michigan OSHA probing hospital deaths
Fed-OSHA and MIOSHA have launched investigations into workplace fatalities at four hospitals in Michigan and one nursing home whose employees died of complications from the coronavirus. Eight health professionals in Michigan have died from complications of the coronavirus, and there are as many, or more, suspected cases. Employees in many other industries filed complaints, too, from warehousing, real estate, and financial and insurance services, to hotel and restaurant workers and those in arts and entertainment. Detroit Free Press
Additional construction safety measures urged during outbreak
A study commissioned the mayor of Austin, Texas found that keeping the city’s jobsites open without special safety precautions could triple the number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations in the general population and increase construction workers’ risk of hospitalization by eight times by August. Construction Dive/Archinect