“Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance.”
This paragraph from a recent news release gives an overview of OSHA’s role. In Nebraska, that role comes into focus when investigators look for safety violations, often after a workplace incident that causes injury, as was the case at Becton, Dickinson and Co. in Holdrege in 2015.
Earlier this month, the news release at the link describes how BD was cited for machine hazards in both April and September of 2015. However, in October, in two separate incidents, two different workers “suffered partial amputations of their index fingers” at the Holdrege manufacturing plant.
“The agency has proposed penalties of $112,700,” after finding one repeat and 12 serious safety violations when the amputations were investigated. Best wishes are being sent to the two workers whose lives were altered after their on-the-job injuries.
In this case, it is obvious that the workers’ injuries were related to these specific workplace incidents, because their amputations resulted in an OSHA investigation of the business. But sometimes there are questions when it comes to workers’ compensation in Nebraska. If a business or its insurance company questions or denies a workers’ compensation claim, then it’s time to get help from an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer. Our attorneys are licensed in both Nebraska and Iowa and have decades of experience helping injured workers in situations like the one above, so please contact us if you or a loved one have been hurt on the job.