An over-pressurized gas cylinder and a pressure-relief valve not suited for the operation in question led to the death of an employee of Membrane Technology & Research last September. California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) has cited the Menlo Park employer for a number of alleged serious violations in the wake of the …
Citing “perceptions of impropriety,” a Cal/OSHA Appeals Board administrative law judge (ALJ) has barred former presiding ALJ Manuel Melgoza and his new employer, Peterson Law Corp., from representing Merced Farm Labor, the employer in a seminal 2008 heat illness fatality. ALJ James A. Ware disqualified Melgoza from representing Merced and its owner, Maria De Los …
California has suffered four workplace fatalities in recent days, but the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) will investigate only one of the incidents. That incident was April 9, when the DOSH West Covina district office was notified of a fatality involving a possible independent contractor occurring on a private roadway in Chino in …
The Southern California Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (SoCalCOSH) is planning an unusual commemoration of Workers’ Memorial Day: a collective effort to write a song and a theater piece. The workshops are slated for later this month in advance of the annual observance of fallen workers, and the effort seems to be in part …
A long list of money-wasting reports that state agencies have to file with the California Legislature is expected to shrink after Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order requiring agencies to comb through their mandated reports and eliminate those “that are not of significant value.” The list — more than 700 titles long — includes …
A state legislator who knows the perils of California’s “snake pits” has authored and sponsored a bill that would provide protection for nurses and psychiatric technicians working in state hospitals. AB 2399, authored by Assemblyman Michael Allen (D-Santa Rosa), would require state hospitals under the jurisdiction of the Department of Mental Health (DMH) to update …
The Cal/OSH Standards Board staff has made official what an advisory committee made obvious at a March 22 meeting: The board’s proposal to codify employers’ duty to pay for required personal protective equipment (PPE) is dead. The board published a formal rulemaking proposal in 2011 that would have added a new section to Title 8, …
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