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 …
California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed four bills affecting occupational safety and health. Once is controversial legislation establishing new “egregious violations,” and a bill aimed at curbing quota abuse at warehouse operations such as Amazon. The governor signed bills addressing household domestic work and wildfire smoke respirators for agricultural employees. The most ambitious and controversial …
Two defendants – a Cal/OSHA District Manager and an Attorney – have pleaded guilty and been sentenced in Orange County Superior Court in a bribery and conspiracy case involving Cal/OSHA citations. The California Department of Justice prosecuted the case, Richard Fazlollahi, a former Santa Ana district manager for Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, …
Should the time an employee spent in the emergency room after an accident count toward the “inpatient hospitalization” clock for reporting serious injuries? A Cal/OSHA Appeals Board Decision After Reconsideration says it does count. The case involves Target Corp. and an injury that occurred in August 2017 at a Rosemead Target store. An employee relocating …