California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health is investigating a series of workplace incidents in recent weeks, including two fatality and several major injury incidents. The fatalities were December 16 and 23. First, a temporary worker was killed at a Mira Loma worksite. The man was employed by Priority Workforce and assigned to Caliber Auto …
Reader Paul Burnett notes that a new law that took effect on Jan. 1, AB 326, requires employers to report fatalities and serious injuries or illness by phone or email. The law, which originally was an attempt to change Cal/OSHA’s reporting requirements to match those of Fed-OSHA, replaces a requirement that reports be made by …
The first of the year brought a change to the way Fed-OSHA is requiring employers to report fatalities and serious injuries. But will the change require Cal/OSHA to change its ways, too? A look at the new requirements shows that Fed-OSHA and Cal/OSHA appear very similar in the way employers must report. The Feds now …
Two Southern California employers are fighting Cal/OSHA allegations that their safety lapses lead to the fatality of a 59-year-old worker on May 18, 2014. Okesene Faasalele was torch-cutting a beam on a Riverside railroad bridge which crossed State Highway 91. It was being dismantled to make way for a widening project when the beam collapsed, …
Cal/OSHA regulations on turnout boots for firefighters are in need of an update, as a rural fire chief pointed out in a petition to the Standards Board. The board has published a response to the petition that makes such an update, but there’s a catch: It only applies to private fire brigades. That’s because the …
Refinery Reform In the continuing aftermath of the huge August 2012 fire at the Chevron Richmond refinery, California took its first steps toward an overhaul of its process safety management regulations. In January, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board finalized its report on the incident and recommendations for reform. While it rejected its …
SACRAMENTO – There were no comments at a December 18 public hearing on a proposal before the Cal/OSH Standards Board intended to complete Cal/OSHA’s transition to the Globally Harmonized System of Hazard Communication. The revisions to General Industry Safety Orders §§ 5530, 5568, 5572, 5574, 5575, 5621 and Low Voltage Electrical Safety Orders §§ 2540.7 …
Employers and the Division of Occupational Safety and Health have agreed to settlements in a number of major or significant worker safety cases, including two fatalities in which the employers agreed to pay all of the proposed penalties. In one case, it amounted to well over $200,000. That case involved two workers who were severely …