There are five new California workplace fatalities from mid-April. In Ontario, the owner operator of Superstar Trucking arrived at a job site. The semi he had been operating rolled toward the gate he was opening and ran over him. Public records indicate the Chino-based company had one truck and one driver. In Santa Fe Springs, …
Anticipating the state Office of Administrative Law’s rejection of the indoor heat illness rule, Cal/OSHA intends to quickly create a carveout for correctional facilities so that the California Department of Finance will sign off on the financial impact statement. The plan is to have the regulation in place in time for summer for all other …
Two employers face significant, and in one case, heavy, penalties after employees died in trench collapses. Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health cited San Francisco’s D’Arcy & Harty Construction for six serious violations, including two willfuls, in the September 28th, 2023, death of Javier Romero, 24. The Division seeks more than $371,000 in penalties. …
California’s residential construction industry says it wants to compromise with Fed-OSHA on its insistence that the state adopt a uniform six-foot fall protection trigger for this industry. The Cal/OSHA Standards Board is edging toward an adopting vote on the controversial change, which the industry has vehemently opposed. “The bottom line is, we’ll compromise,” according to …
There are five new workplace fatalities in California from recent days. In Soledad, a tractor operator for Foothill Packing was cleaning a harvester when his clothes were caught in the chain drive of the machine, “causing strangulation,” according to Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The agricultural employer has an experience modification rating of …
Two challenges from very different perspectives seek to upend Cal/OSHA’s semi-permanent COVID-19 regulation: one challenges the reg for the abuses the petitioner says it creates, the other on legal grounds. Ricardo Beas, a San Diego-area safety manager, has petitioned the Standards Board to “convene an emergency meeting to rescind” in its entirely the regulation, General …
The following companies have qualified or re-qualified under Cal/OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program, which is the highest level of recognition by the Cal/OSHA Consultation Service. The new entrants include: Blue Diamond Growers, an almond cooperative in Salida; Brand Scaffolding Services in Wilmington. The company provides scaffolding and other services to the petroleum industry. Orange County Sanitation …
On May 31st, Fed-OSHA’s rules regarding employee representation during OSHA inspections will go into effect for most of the country. The so-called “walkaround” rule will ultimately come to California. Fed-OSHA says a regulatory change is to ensure “necessary information about worksite conditions and hazards.” But one attorney representing employers calls it a “thank you” to …