OSHA and Temporary Workers
For a variety of reasons, both economic and non-economic, employers have relied more and more heavily on independent contractors and temporary workers. Temporary workers being employees of temporary...
View ArticleOSHA Issues New Guidance for Consumer Credit Whistleblowers
On April 3, 2014, the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued an interim final rule that establishes procedures and time frames for handling retaliation complaints...
View ArticleNew Recordkeeping Rule from OSHA is a Game Changer
On September 11, 2014, the US Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a new rule that will go into effect on January 1, 2015. Whereas in the past, OSHA only...
View ArticleThree OSHA Rule Changes all Employers Need to Be Aware of Heading Into 2015
Effective January 1, 2015, two new rules will go into effect by the U.S. Department of Labor – Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that will impact most all employers. One rule relates...
View ArticleOSHA’s Recordkeeping Rules Now Apply to Real Estate Industry Sectors
For the past 40 years, OSHA has required the majority of employers with ten (10) or more employees to maintain records of workplace illness, injury, or death. Those same employers are also required to...
View ArticleU.S. Supreme Court Issues Landmark Ruling that Could Radically Change...
In a slip opinion released on Monday, March 9, 2015, styled Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n, No. 13-1041, slip op. (U.S. Mar. 9, 2015), the United States Supreme Court effectively gave federal agencies...
View ArticleOSHA Issues New Definition for Whistleblower Activity
In the past several months, we circulated several client alerts relative to a change in the definition of “whistleblower” and what constitutes a protected whistleblowing activity under Section 11(C) of...
View ArticleOSHA Announces New Rules for Confined Spaces (Effective August 3, 2015)
On May 4, 2015, the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a new final rule in the Federal Register intended to increase protection for construction workers in...
View ArticleOSHA Issues Temporary Enforcement Policy for Confined Spaces in Construction
On July 9, 2015, the United States Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a 60-day temporary enforcement policy of its Confined Spaces in Construction...
View ArticleOSHA Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in Response to Court Ruling
On July 29, 2015, the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking clarifying its position on an employer’s obligation to make and maintain...
View ArticleNew Texas Law Lists Requirements for Condominium Defect Litigation
The Texas Legislature recently passed House Bill 1455 which addresses defect and design claims relative to condominiums and condominium associations. Among the key issues are a series of new steps that...
View ArticleWill “Host Employers” Face Increased Scrutiny from OSHA? Recent NLRB ruling...
For the past several years, the U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA has put in place initiatives, formal and informal, relative to temporary employees in the workplace. The upshot of those initiatives is...
View ArticleOSHA Violations: Managers and Others May Have Personal Civil and/or Criminal...
Historically, there are few criminal convictions for violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, and the majority of those violations were related to dishonesty during OSHA...
View ArticleRecordkeeping and Reporting Post-BFI
In a prior OSHA Bulletin, we wrote about the National Labor Relations Board’s decision in the case of Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc., d/b/a BFI Newby Island Recyclery, and FPR-II, LLC,...
View ArticleOSHA’s New Reporting Rules: How rather basic concepts morphed into incredibly...
Effective January 1, 2015, the rules related to the reporting of certain incidents to OSHA changed. The old rules required that employers report the hospitalization of three or more employees and the...
View ArticleOSHA Fines to Increase by Nearly 52%: This marks the first time penalties...
OSHA critics often complain that the maximum allowed penalties have not changed since 1990 when the penalties were set at $7,000 (other than serious and serious) and $70,000 (repeat or willful). The...
View ArticleOSHA Delays Enforcement of New Confined Spaces in Construction Standard
This is a follow-up to our July 24, 2015 bulletin regarding OSHA’s new Confined Spaces in Construction Standard. OSHA has announced that it will, again, delay the enforcement of this new standard –...
View ArticleCriminal Prosecutions and Workplace Safety
On September 15, 2015, we wrote an OSHA Bulletin that summarized a memorandum issued by Deputy Attorney General Yates. You can read the Bulletin here. On December 17, 2015, Yates issued another...
View ArticleOSHA Bulletin: OSHA Extends Comment Period for Updated Safety and Health...
On February 1, 2016, the United States Department of Labor – OSHA announced it is extending the public comment period on an updated version of its voluntary Safety and Health Management Guidelines. The...
View ArticleHow to Prepare Management and Employees for an OSHA Interview
Employers frequently ask what they should do when an OSHA Certified Safety and Health Officer (CSHO) seeks to interview a company witness. While counsel is always recommended in preparing employees for...
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