Florida facility faces fines after assaults
- Wekiva Springs Hospital, a Jacksonville-based behavioral health and substance disorder facility, failed to improve worker safety procedures despite nearly 200 violent incidents in 2022.
- OSHA said workers were assaulted, confined by patients, and suffering broken bones and concussions, and wounds from being scratched, bitten, punched, and kicked at the facility.
- Employees at the UHS of Delaware Inc.-Wekiva Springs Center LLC – operating as Wekiva Springs – had reports of 182 alleged incidents in 2022, nearly 70% of which required police response in a six-month period, and 10 alleged violent incidents in less than two months in late 2022.
- OSHA issued Wekiva Springs Center, LLC a citation for a severe violation for its failure to provide a workplace free from recognized health and safety hazards that caused, or were likely to cause, serious physical harm or death. The agency has proposed $15,625 in penalties.
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Pizza operator violated safety guidelines
- Miracapo Pizza Company, a specialty frozen pizza manufacturing plant in Illinois, could have prevented the death of a 29-year-old sanitation worker by following proper machine safety procedures.
- OSHA learned the sanitation worker suffered fatal injuries while working on the overnight shift under the supervision of Miracapo Pizza Company at its Gurnee sheeting facility in December 2022.
- OSHA inspectors determined the woman — a temporary worker provided by XCEL Staffing Solutions LLC in Waukegan — was using compressed air to clean a spiral conveyer as it moved to cool pizza when her head became caught in the machinery.
- The agency found that temporary workers had not been trained or given the authority to stop equipment from moving before cleaning and issued $2,812,658 in penalties.
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EASE Council of MHI announce an OSHA Alliance
- Ergonomic Assist Systems and Equipment Council (EASE), an MHI Industry Group allied with the OSHA to share information on occupational safety standards.
- This agreement will also address ergonomic safety and health concerns, as well as the rights and responsibilities of workers and employers.
- MHI member companies can join any of MHI’s Industry Groups or the Solutions Community. Industry Groups share information and research to stay at the forefront of their industry.
- Typical Industry Group activities include industry statistics collection, standards development, technical publications, public relations, promotion of safety, and member and user education.
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Call for protection from heat
- The heat is becoming more extreme each year, but most changes to working conditions seem for the benefit of the fruit, not for the use of farm workers, some workers claim.
- Agricultural workers are among those most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses, and they’re dying of heatstroke at a rate nearly 20 times greater than all U.S. civilian workers., according to the CDC.
- According to the Washington Department of Labor and Industries, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting workers filed the most workers’ compensation claims for heat-related illnesses in 2021.
- Of those 27 claims filed statewide, just 12 were accepted. For a claim to be accepted, the agency said it must be “timely filed, meet the legal definition of an injury and have a causal relationship.”
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