BURBANK – Failing to plan for loads during construction has been a source of concern in many accidents. The issue of stability often arises when there is a fatal jobsite collapse, as happened following a partial collapse of a precast concrete garage last June. In December, OSHA’s Charleston area office penalized the West Virginia building …
BURBANK – On April 29 a judge in US District Court in Brooklyn, asked to review three jury verdicts against Digital Equipment Corp., threw out the $3.5 million case, dismissed a $302,000 award and let a third case for $274,000 stand. All three women bringing suit were represented by some of the same attorneys. They …
BURBANK – Recently, COR posed a question about how an employer in an office setting should respond if an employee has an unexpected exposure to blood (other than his own). The answer attorney Robert Peterson gave at one of his Cal-OSHA seminars was to offer the janitor sympathy and hepatitis B vaccine. That answer set …
BURBANK – The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) on May 6 cited Tutor-Saliba-Perini for 14 alleged violations of state workplace safety regulations as a result of its investigation of the February 15, 1997, fatal accident at the company’s Los Angeles Metro Rail subway project. A criminal investigation is still under way. Jaime …
BURBANK – Obayashi Corp. was cited on May 13 for willfully failing to properly record Metro Rail workers’ injuries on its Log 200 and refusing to provide Cal-OSHA with supplementary information until served with a subpoena duces tecum. The penalty proposed for the willful/regulatory violation of Title 8 14301(b) was $5,000. There may be more …
BURBANK – Lloyd Aubry, who has spent the last six years as director of the Department of Industrial Relations, has resigned. He will return to a law practice. In a memo to all DIR employees, he spoke of his “appreciation and respect for the work you have done for the Department and for the people …
BURBANK – Disabled employees who want their jobs back may appeal under California law (the Fair Employment and Housing Act, or FEHA) or federal law (the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA). The results may differ, as the court cases that follow illustrate. To resolve differences between appeal courts, the California Supreme Court will consider …
BURBANK – Is a stressed-out, ill-tempered grocery store manager disabled within the meaning of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? One section of the act defines disability to include “being regarded as having” a substantially limiting impairment. Richard D. Holihan will be allowed to go to jury trial on the question. Holihan began working for …