February 1 marks the deadline for covered employers to post a new summary of work-related injuries and illnesses.

The summary—the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Form 300A—is required to be posted in the workplace every year from February 1 to April 30. The summary form must be completed and posted even if no work-related injuries or illnesses occurred during the year.

Employers with 10 or more employees whose workplaces aren’t classified as a partially exempt industry must record work-related injuries and illnesses using OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301. (Partially exempt industries include those in specific low-hazard retail, service, finance, insurance, or real estate industries.) Information on which employers are required to keep them and links to the forms are available on OSHA’s website.

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by Tammy Binford

The September 28 shootings that killed six at a Minneapolis business put employers on notice that workplace violence can occur with no warning.

Other times, though, there are signs that employers should heed. The October issue of Minnesota Employment Law Letter contains an article titled “Employers look anew at preventing violence in the workplace.” It reminds employers that indications of potential workplace violence can include violent or aggressive behavior, threats, employees carrying weapons, and drug or alcohol abuse.

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is seeking comments on interim final rules that revise the regulations on whistleblower complaints filed under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX).

The whistleblower protection provisions of SOX were amended by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 to clarify that subsidiaries of publicly traded companies are covered employers under the statute and to add nationally recognized statistical rating organizations as covered employers. The Dodd-Frank Act also extended the statute of limitations for filing a complaint from 90 to 180 days.

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The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is going high-tech with its efforts to prevent heat-related illnesses. The agency announced on August 11 that it has released a free application for mobile devices that is aimed at helping workers and supervisors monitor the heat index at their work sites.

Available in English and Spanish, the app combines heat index data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with the user’s location to determine when outdoor workers should take protective measures. Such measures include reminders about drinking enough fluids, scheduling rest breaks, planning for and knowing what to do in an emergency, adjusting work operations, gradually building up the workload for new workers, training on heat illness signs and symptoms, and monitoring each other for heat-related illness. Also, users can contact OSHA directly through the app.

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced changes aimed at strengthening its protection of employees who report suspected unlawful activity on the part of their employers.

The plan to correct problems with the Whistleblower Protection Program comes after OSHA conducted a top-to-bottom review prompted by audits of the program by the Government Accountability Office in 2009 and 2010. A statement from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) said problems with the program were related to its transparency and accountability, training for investigators and managers, and internal communications and audit program.

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On Wednesday, January 5, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hosted a live Q&A Web chat to answer questions about its Fall 2010 Regulatory Agenda. The assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, Dr. David Michaels, started the session by listing some of OSHA’s 2010 achievements. He noted that the agency:

• published final rules/interim final rules for cranes and derricks;
• issued two whistleblower regulations;
• finished the final rule remand on hexavalent chromium and its review of the methylene chloride standard; and
• published proposed rules for walking and working surfaces, its Standards Improvement Project — Phase III, and a Request for Information (RFI) on infectious diseases.

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) agenda to increase enforcement, which includes items such as ergonomics, noise standards, and an injury and illness prevention program, seems destined to run into resistance from the new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

It’s fairly clear that changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) proposed last year are done for. In their place, OSHA seems likely to move towards implementing its agenda through regulation, enforcement policy, and reinterpretation of existing standards, among other techniques.

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By Jim Stanley, President, FDRsafety

Big fines make big news as was evident when OSHA recently proposed $16.6 million in penalties in a deadly explosion at a Kleen Energy Systems construction site in Connecticut. But day-in, day-out announcements of OSHA fines may be just as significant because they illustrate the depth of the agency’s enforcement push.

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A proposal to increase Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) penalties now being considered by Congress will not result in any actual improvements in workplace safety and health, a representative of a coalition of employer groups testified on Tuesday, July 13, before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and Labor.

Jonathan Snare was speaking for the Coalition of Workplace Safety, which includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He was testifying before the House Education and Labor Committee, which is likely to vote soon on a bill containing the proposals. The bill, which also makes changes to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, could go to the House floor by the end of July.

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“Prison terms of up to 10 years could be imposed on officers and directors of companies that knowingly violate OSHA rules under a proposed revision to the Occupational Safety and Health Act now advancing through Congress,” reported Jim Stanley, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor, on his Workplace Safety blog.

He said that the 10-year term would apply in situations where a violation contributed to the death of an employee. The current maximum sentence under the OSHA act is six months and the law does not specify that officers and directors can be held criminally responsible.

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