OSHA seeking new input on VPP

• OSHA is inviting the public and workplace safety stakeholders to share their comments on how it can best honor companies that make exceptional commitments to workplace safety.
• The agency’s Voluntary Protection Program recognizes workplaces that demonstrate best practices in safety and health management and serve as industry models.
• In the last 40 years, the program has attracted a wide variety of organizations in many industries.
• By opening the program to public comments, OSHA seeks input from all perspectives to assist the agency as it modernizes the VPP, and continues to promote safety and health management systems.
  Read more

Pilot program launched for whistleblower cases

• OSHA investigators have been inundated with workers making whistleblower complaints.
• Some of these firms have found that the agency has rejected pursuing their cases even without an investigative interview.
• To manage the workload, OSHA launched a pilot program with 10 regional offices to oversee whistleblower investigations to adopt the policy on a one-year trial basis.
• Investigators must contact each complainant even when a case has obvious flaws under the current requirements.
• That strategy has “put great strain on OSHA’s limited investigative resources,” OSHA said.
  Read more

Ohio tool manufacturer faces fines

• Wright Tool in Barberton, Ohio, faces $164,742 in proposed OSHA penalties after a worker suffered a thumb amputation.
• It was the third worker to become injured at the tool manufacturer in less than 2 years.
• Wright Tool was cited by OSHA for one willful violation of machine guarding standards, as well as two serious violations and one other-than-serious violation,
• Another worker suffered a left thumb amputation while hand-feeding parts into a drill press using air-activated clamps in October.
  Read more

States want more heat protection

• Attorneys general from six states led by New York’s  Letitia James petitioned OSHA to take decsive action to implement national heat standards for indoor and outdoor workers.
• OSHA in October issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking to start accepting comments from stakeholders about the pending rules.
• The notice followed President Joe Biden’s announcement that the federal workplace safety regulator would be implementing new heat standards for workers throughout the country.
• OSHA acknowledges that its existing efforts in addressing occupational heat exposure have proven inadequate for protecting workers.
  Read more