OSHA should maintain power with safety
- A meat plant worker wanted the courts to get involved over a COVID dispute with his employer.
- However, a U.S. Department of Labor attorney said workers facing any type of danger should contact OSHA and possibly file a complaint and not get the courts involved.
- An appeals court is considering when judges are empowered to intervene in workplace safety issues.
- OSHA had ruled that the six-month citation limit canceled this particular case.
Regulators provide more info on confined space entry requirements
- OSHA Training Services Inc. has created a “Confined Space Entry Blog,” which helps people better understand the requirements of the agency’s permit-required confined space entry standards for construction and general industry.
- There are too many workers suffering fatalities and serious injuries while conducting confined space entry work, OSHA contends.
- More than 1,000 workers involved in confined space entry work died in the U.S. between 2011 to 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2020 National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.
- This new blog is written by Curtis Chambers, a confined space expert with 35 years of experience working as an occupational safety and health manager and consultant, and safety officer in Texas.
Trucking company faces more than $300K in fines
- A 48-year-old worker entered a tanker trailer in Lemont, Ill., to inspect it as part of an annual U.S. Department of Transportation requirement and was overcome from exposure to bleach and chlorine gas.
- The worker was found unconscious in the tanker trailer, he later died of his injuries.
- OSHA also found B & R Repair Inc. failed to equip the worker rescuing the unconscious employee with a retrieval system, and implement its own procedures for summoning rescue and emergency services.
- OSHA cited two willful and 10 serious violations and proposed penalties of $326,306.
Production company denies wrongdoing
- Rust Movie Productions LLC is battling the ruling of the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau, which fined the company $136,793 for its “willful and serious” violation of workplace safety procedures.
- The fine is the maximum allowable by law.
- An investigation was opened after the accidental shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.
- The company was “cited for the plain indifference to the recognized hazards associated with the use of firearms on set that resulted in a fatality, severe injury, and unsafe working conditions.”