PALO ALTO – On May 27, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Stuart Pollak granted As You Sow (AYS) a preliminary injunction based on his finding “a probability that plaintiff will prevail in showing at trial that (Shell Oil Co.’s) current material safety data sheet (MSDS) is not clear.” The MSDS that was challenged was for …
PALO ALTO – New U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman has announced a sweeping settlement of OSHA citations by agreement with Austin DeCoster of DeCoster Egg Farms of Turner, ME. DeCoster also settled claims with migrant workers for wage and hour law violations. Last year, following a lengthy investigation of the site, then-Secretary of Labor Reich …
PALO ALTO – The Cal-OSH Standards Board, by majority vote, has adopted the following additions, revisions or deletions to the California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Chapter 4, as follows: CONSTRUCTION Article 29, Appendix C. Plate C-25 – Protective Troughs for Protruding Reinforcing Steel (Rebar). The appendix was amended to illustrate two additional protective trough …
PALO ALTO – “Living with Cal/OSHA’s Repetitive Motion Injury Standard,” by George Chuckrow, CSP, CPE, clearly describes the requirements of 5110, its likely effect on California employers and how employers might proceed. Chuckrow is with CareAmerica Corporation. His presentation begins on page 128 of the Proceedings. On page 169, two experts from Kemper Insurance present …
PALO ALTO – Lewis C. Bowman, a compliance safety engineer in Cal-OSHA’s Oakland district office, died in March. Not yet 50, he came to state service from Fed-OSHA in 1990. Co-workers held him in high esteem; so did Fred Walter, an attorney who represents employers. “He was unfailingly polite, seemed to be objective and willing …
PALO ALTO – The hearing announced for May 21 by the House Committee on Small Business had to be rescheduled because of the chairman’s illness. (A new date had not been set by June 2.) The committee holding the hearing dubbed it, “Legal Bounty Hunters Holding Small Businesses Hostage.” Those originally scheduled to testify in …
PALO ALTO – Peralta Community College District invites applications for the position of risk manager at the district administrative center in Oakland, CA. There are four two-year colleges in this Alameda County district and over 25,000 students are enrolled. Minimum qualifications for the job are a B.A. in business administration, occupational safety, risk management or …
BURBANK – Soft-spoken OSHA Region IX director Connie Hunt coordinated a recently-completed series of investigations of labor barracks on Saipan that resulted in citations for hundreds of violations for serious hazards. While the focus was on employee housing, OSHA also conducted follow-up inspections of several garment factories to verify abatement of violations cited during previous …