Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health is moving ahead with the non-emergency version of its COVID-19 regulation. Under the DOSH plan, it would be adopted this December and take effect in January 2023, sunsetting two years later. The latest development is the release by the California Department of Finance of a Standard Regulatory Impact …
Robert Peterson, the first chief counsel of the Cal/OSHA Appeals Board, who subsequently spent decades defending employers in citation cases, has died. He was 81. Peterson was a seminal figure in the development of Cal/OSHA’s legal underpinnings. “If you look back through the case law, it’s just peppered with Bob Peterson’s name,” says David Donnell, …
On May 17th, the House Intelligence Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee held a public hearing in Washington, D.C., on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). Most of us know them as UFOs …
A delivery driver’s quest to make sure material handling carts are safe for employees like him is laudable but unnecessary, the Cal/OSHA Standards Board says in denying his petition. It explains that employers already have plenty of regulatory requirements to address potential hazards. Matthew Cross, a driver for a Stockton distribution center, was injured in …
There are three new workplace fatalities. In Los Angeles, an employee of Evergreen Recycling was crushed by a chipper while attempting to clear a jam. In North Hills, an employee of CR Security was attempting to fix a metal gate, tripped over his own feet, and hit his head on the concrete, causing fatal injuries. …
Two of the employers cited in last week’s mega enforcement action by Cal/OSHA following a fatality at the Valero Benicia refinery speak up about the largest group of citations in recent memory. Total Safety U.S., a provider of safety services headquartered in Texas, says it plans to challenge the action by the Division of Occupational …
The City of San Diego incurred more than $40 million in direct costs from injuries and illnesses in 2021. Coupled with indirect costs, the total – some $224 million – exceeds the budgets of two city departments, the city’s independent auditor says in a recent report. San Diego is permissively self-insured, and all occupational injury …
In the latest batch of Cal/OSHA Appeals settlements is the case of Segundo Collazos, doing business as Amazon’s Landscaping. In March 2018, employee Manuel Peralta, 66, was killed when he became entangled in the stump grinder. Peralta had worked for Collazos off and on for 17 years. Cal/OSHA subsequently cited Collazos and his company for …