In June, the Cal/OSHA Appeals Board approved hundreds of settlements in citation cases. Here are some of the most significant, including two fatalities and other serious incidents. Roofing Wholesale Co.: Also known as RWC Building Products, this San Marcos employer will pay $34,685 of a proposed $68,435 (51%) in a case involving a February 2017 …
There are seven new workplace fatalities from the last weeks of June and the first weeks of July. Many of them are struck-by incidents. For instance, in Auburn, an employee of Newcastle Fire Department was in a vehicle and was struck by a tree. In Paso Robles, an employee of Paso Robles Truck Center was …
While California continues to await a long-delayed revision to its standards on lead protection in construction and general industry, Fed-OSHA is moving to make its own changes. Observers say the move by the Fed-OSHA has former Cal/OSHA Chief Doug Parker’s fingerprints all over it. State plans are required to adopt standards at least as effective …
Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health has cited four employers following investigations into workplace fatalities in late 2021 and early 2022. The most prominent of the latest completed fatality investigations is Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, following the November 11th, 2021, electrocution death of an employee in an underground vault. The employee …
July seems an incongruous time to discuss avalanche protection on California’s ski resorts, but the ski industry insists it’s past time. Time, they say, is running out on the traditional system of using howitzer cannons to clear snow masses. The howitzers are commissioned by the U.S. Army, but the Army wants to end the program. …
There is one new confirmed workplace fatality. The incident was in Sun Valley, near Burbank, involving 28-year-old Misael Montoya of Panorama City. Montoya was working at a construction site when he fell in a trench and was buried up to his chest in debris. He was declared dead at the scene. Another incident in Sonoma …
The California Department of Finance says Cal/OSHA’s economic assessment of the impending non-emergency COVID regulation not only could underestimate the costs of the rule but might deliver only about half the benefits envisioned by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Further, stakeholders allege multiple systematic failures in the preparation of regulations, public comments, and …
Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health envisions a slimmed-down version of its current COVID regulation for the “non-emergency” version, deferring in some cases to California Department of Public Health guidance. The draft appears more performance-oriented than the current emergency standard. DOSH released the much-anticipated draft on June 9th, a day after CDPH revised its …