Workers Want Better Psychological Safety

While workplace safety remains a top priority for employees, significant gaps persist between employee expectations and employer efforts, according to a new study by risk management provider AlertMedia.
The report surveyed more than 2,000 full-time U.S. employees to understand their perceptions of safety and to provide employers with data and insights into how they can better deliver against employees’ safety expectations.
Among the key findings, while nearly all employees (96%) believe physical safety at work is essential, more than half (56%) do not feel completely safe at work.
Nearly all (95%) consider mental health important, yet 15% believe their employer ignores it altogether.
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New Hampshire’s new law allowing employees to bring firearms to work in certain circumstances brings challenges and responsibilities for employers, lawyers at Foley & Lardner highlighted in a blog post this week.
Effective as of Jan, 1, 2025, the statute allows employees who have concealed carry permits to bring their firearms to work as long as the firearms are secured and stored out-of-sight in employees’ locked vehicles on company property.
The blog authors note that the law does not require employers to allow guns in the workplace itself; however, it does extend protections to employees who wish to keep their firearms in their personal cars during working hours.
They noted that the federal Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act’s general duty clause requires employers to protect employees from foreseeable hazards, including incidents of workplace violence.
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The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s new silica rule, finalized last April, will be reviewed in an webinar today, March 13 at 1 p.m. ET.
Lawyers from Conn Maciel Carey will outline the steps mine operators need to take to ensure compliance.
Among the topics will be the testing requirements associated with the new silica standard, suggestions on developing a compliant respiratory protection program, and the current status of legal challenges to the rule and MSHA’s guidance on compliance.
On April 18, 2024, MSHA issued its final rule, Lowering Miners’ Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica and Improving Respiratory Protection, to reduce miner exposures to respirable crystalline silica and improve respiratory protection for all airborne hazards.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission vacated an OSHA General Duty Clause citation of a security firm following an October 2021 mass shooting at a Boise, Idaho, shopping mall.
In the Feb. 5 decision, a review commission administrative law judge concluded that the Department of Labor didn’t establish the necessary evidence for a violation under the General Duty Clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
In the mass shooting, a mall patron shot and killed two people, including a mall security guard. An OSHA compliance safety and health officer (CSHO) began an investigation the next day.
OSHA cited the guard’s employer on April 25, 2022, alleging the contractor failed to protect its security guard from a recognized workplace hazard and proposing a $14,502 penalty.
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