Continuing a pattern of misrepresentation by omission, the Division of Industrial Relations office of public information is frequently quick to issue news releases about huge fines levied upon employers for Cal/OSHA and other violations. What they leave out – the omission – is that nearly all of the penalties levied by DIR end up substantially …
In 2018, the Cal/OSH Standards Board has held the fewest public hearings in memory – only two so far this year. The meetings in January, February, May, July and August had no public hearings on regulatory proposals and September’s meeting schedule is no different. What’s going on? Not enough staffers? Workload to great? Just a …
Cal/OSHA will seek to prevent secondhand smoke exposure among employees of cannabis shops in the newly legalized marijuana industry by amending California’s 15-year-old regulation prohibiting smoking in the workplace to include marijuana smoke. In a recently released draft memorandum, Cal/OSHA Chief Juliann Sum informed the Cal/OSH Standards Board that it will not seek other regulations …
Truebeck Construction builds headquarters for the some of the biggest names in high-tech in the Bay Area. It was one of three contractors who built Apple’s “spaceship” campus in Cupertino. It also is building a new corporate office for Facebook in Menlo Park. One of its latest projects is the corporate headquarters for Uber, the …
Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed Barbara J. Burgel, an occupational health nurse and consultant, to the Cal/OSH Standards Board. She will likely fill the vacant occupational health representative position, but the Governor’s office could not confirm that is the case at press time. The board also has an open public member position. The occupational health …
Based on five sets of citations issued since 2013 that is says were not corrected, Cal/OSHA has hit Petersen-Dean, Inc., with willful citations for fall protection violations. The proposed penalties in the case are more than $146,000, including a whopping $127,254 for a willful-repeat-serious violation of the Title 8 roofing fall protection standard. Cal/OSHA cited …
Cal/OSHA is sending a message to employers with employees who work around overhead power lines. It has cited a Los Angeles company with two workers who were exposed to high voltage earlier this year. One of the employees suffered third-degree burns in the incident. The incident in question was on February 6, when two sign …
Cal/OSHA is investigating the death of a 19-year-old consultant who fell from a high-rise tower in San Jose. The circumstances surrounding the death of Gavin Lam are unclear at present, but Lam’s employer, Swinerton Builders, says the fatality “was not related to construction activities.” Swinerton spokesman Meggie Hollywood requested that Cal-OSHA Reporter withhold possible reasons …