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, …
The first test case for applying the principle of “equitable tolling” to Cal/OSHA citation cases saw a trial court reject an employer’s arguments, upholding a serious machine-guarding violation. But attorneys representing employers say the principle could prove a lifeline to cases – both to employers and to Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. That …
The Cal/OSHA Appeals Board is instituting a new procedure for conducting appeal status conferences. Beginning May 2nd, no longer will administrative law judges call each party to initiate the conference call. Instead, parties will be given conference line access for the appointed time. The Notice of Status Conference sent to each party in advance of …
California employers find a changed landscape for 2021. Two bills signed last year are effective and require key industries to pay close attention to safety programs. SB 606 and AB 701 are the two most significant pieces of legislation from 2021. SB 606 is the most far-reaching – and potentially scary – new law. The …
Lawsuits, injunctions, variants, and regulatory turmoil. It seemed like a COVID year in 2021, or did it just seem like it because of the general media coverage? The rapidly evolving virus dominated the news and kept occupational safety and health professionals scrambling. Or was it Cal/OSHA that kept them scrambling? There were other significant developments …
49 COR 40-8501 [¶23,158R] OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH APPEALS BOARD – HEARING, POST-SUBMISSION AMENDMENTS Board reg. § 386 (2021) – The Appeals Board granted the Division’s motion to correct the legal name of Employer, which did not show it would suffer prejudice if the correction were allowed. OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH APPEALS BOARD – HEARING …
Here are settlements stemming from fatalities that occurred in 2016, 2017 2018 and 2019. Employers settled in ranges from zero to 75% of the proposed penalties. The Appeals Board approved these settlements in October. Here are the cases: Sully-Miller Contracting Co.: The employee was working in a 7-1/2-foot-deep trench on a highway project when a …
In the leadup to Cal/OSHA’s COVID emergency temporary standard (ETS), many stakeholders touted the Injury and Illness Prevention Program standard as the model for regulating during a pandemic, instead of an ETS. In fact, before the COVID standard went into effect, DOSH cited more than three dozen employers under the IIPP standard for violations related …