Happy Holidays from the Health and Safety Law Report! Join Abbie White and Doug Jenks as they report on that status of OSHA's proposed heat injury and illness prevention standard. Will it ever go live? And while they are at it, what does OSHA what employers to do regarding cold stress? Yes kids, it's that age old dispute between the Heat Miser and the Cold Miser. But this time the employer may be caught in the middle. In other news. Construction contr...

Every person you pay for some service is either your employee or a contractor. And guess what? The factors that determine the nature of the relationship are not as clear as most people think. And worse, the factors change from time to time depending on your jurisdiction. For example, the federal government's analysis has recently changed under the Biden administration. This could be critical because you could be responsible safety and injuries if that independent...

It is here. OSHA has published its proposed standard on heat illness prevention. Join Abbie and Doug as they review the proposed standard, including its surprises and mysteries. But wait! There's more. Its early August. Summer is almost over, but it's never too late for a new summer playlist. Tune in as Abbie and Doug review their own proposed standard summer playlist for 2024. Click here, put the top down, turn up the volume. To 11.&nbs...

Who knew that employers and even employees can go to jail for OSHA violations? It's both true and terrifying. Tune in to this edition of the Health and Safety Law Report to learn how to stay out of OSHA jail. Abbie also provides a brief update on the criminal case involving Alex .... make that ALEC Baldwin following the work-related death on set for the film Rust.

OSHA is inching closer to adopting a standard for heat illness prevention. In this smokin' hot episode of the Health and Safety Law Report, your intrepid hosts discuss the likely contents of the new standard, and also talk about what OSHA expects employers to do right now to protect employees from heat hazards. For more information, please see OSHA's heat stress web page. See also the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health's agenda and notes fro...

Alert! OSHA has released injury and illness data collected under the 2023 “Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses” regulation. This data dump doesn’t just include 300A summary data - it includes individual illness and injury data submitted by employers with 100 or more employees, in “high hazard” industries. Join Doug and Abbie as they discuss the data has been released, where to find it, and what’s still to come. For questions and comments, feel free to ...

The Eclipse is coming! Are you having a watch party at work? What will you listen to? Every party has to have a music playlist, right? Who better to create and curate that playlist than the Health and Safety Law Report? We've got all the songs, listed in order, to rock out to as the event unfolds. Click here for the playlist on Spotify. Oh, and if the party gets too nutty, you might want a workers comp liability waiver. Yes, its true. In some state...

Alert! The sun will go dark mid-afternoon on April 8 for millions of Americans from Texas to Maine, and every place in between. That means your outdoor worksite will be plunged into total and complete darkness. And your employees working indoors will all simultaneously run outdoors to stare at the sun! What's an employer to do? In this exciting and timely and ever entertaining episode of the Health & Safety Law Report, your hosts Abbie and Doug will talk abou...

The OSHA standards require employers to contact OSHA when an employee is admitted to the hospital for treatment due to a work injury. Thats like calling the police on yourself. So employers should be sure to do so only when required. In this episode of the Health & Safety Law Report, Abbie and Doug discuss OSHA's definition of "treatment." Do diagnostics count? How about an overnight stay in the hospital for observation? And what happens if the em...

Happy Holidays from the Health & Safety Law Report! In this year's Christmas Special, Abbie and Doug discuss OSHA's new electronic reporting requirement. Better get ready. Electronic reports are due by March 2, 2024 for many employers. But wait! There's more. Because its Christmas, Abbie and Doug talk about whether OSHA would consider mayhem at office Christmas parties to be work hazards. Can OSHA cite the employer if the office crock pot has a f...

Dude.... Don't get high at work! Recently, Ohio joined many other states by legalizing recreational marijuana. In this episode of the Health & Safety Law Report, Abbie, Doug, and their guest Amy Mitchell discuss the employment implications of legalized marijuana. What does this mean for the workplace and workplace safety? OSHA has not directly addressed this issue, but still has tools to direct employer policies regarding employee intoxication. &n...

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, violence is the third leading cause of workplace death in the United States. As you might expect, OSHA is paying attention. In this episode of the Health & Safety Law Report, Abbie and Doug talk about a hypothetical road-rage incident and whether OSHA requires employers to record and report injuries resulting from violence.

When and how should an employer work with an attorney? Not all legal issues require lawyers, but many do. And when such an issue arises, what is the best way to make the most of that partnership? Tune in to this exciting episode of the Health and Safety Law Report as Abbie and Doug, veritable plumbers and cab drivers, will discuss some best practices to make the most out of legal representation.

It's an invitation across the nation, a chance for folks to meet. Following a brief hiatus, Abbie and Doug return to the airwaves to tell you about early summer important developments in health and safety law: OSHA recently began using the new "instance-by-instance" penalty scheme which could dramatically increase OSHA fines. OSHA has proposed allowing unions to accompany OSHA compliance officers on OSHA inspections, even when the employer is a merit shop (non-union) employer.&nbs...

Prepare to be amazed! In this installment of the H&SLR, Abbie and Doug discuss challenges and risks employers face when recording work injuries. The trick is to document the employee's reported work injury, but don't make statements suggesting compensability until it is clear there actually was a compensable work injury. Tune in as Abbie and Doug discuss timeless questions such as, who fills out the incident report? What information is recorded? And what cir...

Happy New Year! Join Abbie and Doug in this action packed and exciting episode of the Health & Safety Law Report to ring in the new year. Abbie and Doug cover a variety of important and interesting topics for employers including higher OSHA penalties and the approaching deadline to upload the OSHA 300A log. Doug leads us through a discussion regarding renewed interest in OSHA regulating the NFL in light of Damar Hamlin's recent cardiac arrest. But wait! ...

On the 1st Day of Christmas, OSHA cited me......'Tis the season to review OSHA's top 10 most cited standards for 2022. Join Abbie and Doug on this exciting and festive holiday romp through the OSHA top 10. Learn what standards OSHA cited more than any others this year. Some are obvious and others... not so much.

In this Episode, Abbie and Doug turn their attention to OSHA inspections at constructions sites. In the prior episode, 21, Abbie and Doug discussed OSHA inspections for general industry. But those inspections can be very different than at a construction site where there may be multiple employers inspected at once. How might a construction contractor approach an OSHA inspection, and how is that different than general industry? Tune in to learn the fascinating answ...

In this exciting and captivating episode of the Health and Safety Law Report, Abbie and Doug talk about OSHA inspections. What happens during an inspection? What do the OSHA compliance officers do and what are they looking for? What kinds of things should an employer keep in mind during the inspection? And how might employers want to conduct themselves during the inspection? To find out the answers to these and other critical questions, tune in to Episode 21 of the Hea...

Alec Baldwin recently accidentally shot and killed a crew member while on set for a film, Rust. How could that happen? In this episode Abbie and Doug explore the safety hazards found on the sets of television and film productions like Rust and others. They discuss the helicopter tragedy that killed three actors and injured six others during the filming of The Twilight Zone: The Movie, back in 1982. And finally, stick around for the end of the episode to hear "Th...