OSHA found that the Fairburn, Ga.-based utility contractor was installing pipe through a trench that was 50 feet in length and 6 feet in depth without a means of employee egress and without having a protective system in place.
"Falls are the number one killer in construction work, and employees working without fall protection are just one step away from death or disabling injury," said C. William Freeman III, OSHA's area director in Hartford, Conn.
"A fall into water carries dual dangers--impact and drowning--which must be addressed through proper fall protection and effective worker training," said Brenda Gordon, OSHA's area director in Braintree, Mass.
A federal court has granted final approval for a $6.2 million partial settlement for black and Hispanic sheet metal workers who suffered discrimination by their union, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced yesterday.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards has released its criminal enforcement data for December 2007. During that month, OLMS obtained eight convictions, eight indictments, and court orders of restitution totaling $202,228.
"An unprotected trench can collapse in seconds, burying employees beneath tons of soil and debris before they can react or escape," said Robert Kowalski, OSHA's area director in Bridgeport, Conn.
The tire plant in Social Circle, Ga., had been cited for similar failures after an inspection in 2006, OSHA said yesterday.
Agency work sites that have recorded a high number of lost-time cases are due for a visit.
Not gone from the agency as reported recently, he told a West Virginia coal group this week that MINER Act implementation is going well.
Its chief proponent, Rep. George Miller, co-wrote a letter Jan. 10 prodding OSHA’s Ed Foulke to update the Process Safety Management standard.
"This case is a graphic example of what can and unfortunately does happen when basic, required, and commonsense employee safeguards are ignored," said Francis Pagliuca, OSHA's acting area director in Concord.
The partial collapse of a concrete floor injured 13 employees and instigated the investigation.
Port and longshore workers, truckers, and others at the Port of New Orleans are now able to enroll in the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Worker Identification Credential program. The program's goal is to ensure that any individual who has unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities and vessels has received a thorough background check and is not a security threat.
Bradford P. Campbell, assistant secretary of labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, recently announced that the agency achieved monetary results of $1.5 billion and 115 criminal indictments in Fiscal Year 2007.
The two cited companies allegedly were removing underground concrete pipe containing asbestos from a military housing site without using appropriate protective clothing or a protective enclosure to contain the airborne asbestos.
The agency assessed a flagrant violation against Perry County Coal Corp. in connection with a February 2007 electrical incident.
CPSC alleged that from September 2001 through about October 2004, HSN received at least 25 reports from consumers indicating that the pressure cookers contained a defect that could create a substantial product hazard or that the pressure cookers created an unreasonable risk of serious injury.
In FY2007, OSHA conducted 39,324 total inspections, a 4.3 percent increase above its goal of 37,700.
The Small Business Administration's ombudsman honored six agencies for regulatory and enforcement fairness.
By misclassifying the drivers, the company deprived its drivers of health care benefits, access to unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation benefits, and in some cases, overtime pay, while also depriving the Commonwealth of tax revenue by not deducting and withholding taxes from employee paychecks. says the attorney general.