New OSHA trends in construction 

• OSHA Directorate of Construction Director Scott Ketcham reviewed the agency’s focus on the construction industry at the recent American Bar Association’s 2023 Midwinter Meeting of the Workplace and Occupational Safety and Health Law Committee.
• Because of a bipartisan infrastructure law that will be injecting money into construction over the next seven years, OSHA is ramping up its capacity to conduct inspections.
• Some areas of focus will be the construction of roadways, bridges, airports, railways, ports, waterways, and power and water systems.
• Ketcham also noted that there are a few items on the regulatory agenda that affect the construction industry. He discussed a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) on the issue of personal-protective-equipment fit for women.
  Read more

Counties urged to respond to report for workplace injuries

• The Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet has been reaching out to county government officials with important information regarding workplace injuries.
• The cabinet’s Department of Workplace Standards, which oversees the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, has informed the Kentucky Association of Counties (KACo) that county governments have been identified as having higher-than-average injury rates.
• County governments were recently mailed a letter from the Kentucky Occupational Safety and Health Program about the Division of Education and Training’s KYSAFE 2023 outreach assistance program, S.T.O.P.
• Counties will receive written reports of all identified hazards after the surveys.
  Read more

Labor Dept. releases fatality data

• New data found construction and extraction occupations accounted for the second-highest number of occupational deaths out of the total 5,190 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in the 2021 calendar year.
• This marks an 8.9% increase from the 4,764 fatal work injuries reported in 2020.
• In 2021, construction and extraction occupations accounted for 951 occupational deaths.
• This was a 2.6% decrease in fatalities from 2020 for the construction and extraction occupations.
  Read more

Workers want standard on employee surveillance

• A group of 21 advocacy groups is calling for OSHA to establish a workplace standard for electronic surveillance and algorithmic management.
• OSHA has the authority to do so because it already regulates hazards to workers’ physical safety and mental health, which are affected by workplace monitoring, the organizations said.
• The group sent a letter to the Biden administration outlining its proposals for the OSHA standard, as well as calling for the agency to update existing guidance on workplace injury prevention to include workplace monitoring.
• The group also recommends the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health fund research on how employee surveillance affects workers’ physical and mental health.
  Read more