SACRAMENTO — With one board member dissenting, the Cal/OSH Standards Board sent a clear message to employers Feb. 17 that it believes – and expects – them to ensure that their crane operators are certified by June 1. The 5-1 vote ended any discussion of an extension to the compliance date for operator certification. Standards …
SACRAMENTO — The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide between conflicting rulings on whether employers should be required to reimburse workers for the time they must take to don protective clothing. One of the cases the high court accepted is a ruling from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco. …
SACRAMENTO — The Cal/OSH Standards Board approved a petition Feb. 17 to address a potentially serious safety hazard on older-model elevators. In granting the petition by Lou Bialy, director of worldwide codes and standards for Otis Elevator Co., the board has requested that the Division of Occupational Safety and Health draft revisions to Elevator Safety …
It’s hard to imagine an oil refinery as a workers’ paradise. In fact, one of the most vivid California safety images in recent years was the 1999 explosion and fire at the former Tosco refinery in Martinez, a vision of hell that claimed four lives and forever changed – for the worst – another. But …
In our Jan. 28 article on the controversy over a possible extension of the deadline for crane operator certification, we stated that, “The standard applies to mobile and tower cranes 15,000 pounds or heavier, or with a boom length of at least 25 feet.” That of course, is incorrect. The regulation applies to all tower …
The Bakersfield chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) holds its 6th Annual Safety, HR and Workers’ Compensation Symposium and Exposition March 30 at the Holiday Inn Select in Bakersfield. The symposium consists of three tracks – safety, human resources and workers’ comp. The safety track includes three topics: “Dead Men Do Tell …
PLACERVILLE — The Cal/OSH Standards Board has granted five more variances, two involving cranes, two related to access to elevator governors and the last on the installation of a vertical wheelchair lift. Wyle Laboratories, El Segundo: Permanent variances for two sets of overhead cranes, one pair of five-ton gantry cranes and a pair of 10-ton …
PLACERVILLE — Fed-OSHA has published a new pocket-size card designed to help employers and workers understand the ins and outs of safe trenching and regulatory requirements. The card is bilingual – English on one side, Spanish on the flip side. Trenches five feet deep or greater require a protective system, including safe sloping, benched grading, …