Category Archives: Workplace Injury

Union-Backed Group Pushes for Better Security at Wal-Mart

Posted on December 19, 2016 by Jon Rehm

Recently, a Wal-Mart employee in Norfolk, Nebraska, was cut on the wrist by an intoxicated customer at 2:45 a.m. Unfortunately, these types of incidents are all too common at Wal-Marts, which is why one group is taking action.

The UFCW-backed group, Making Change at Wal-Mart, is pushing for increased security at Wal-Mart in the wake of an investigation by Businessweek that on average, one Wal-Mart a day is hit by a violent crime. The issue of crime at Wal-Mart is a safety issue for employees as well as shoppers.

Wal-Mart’s crime rate is six times higher than its nearest competitor, Target. Security experts attribute this in part to the fact that Wal-Mart stores have less staffing than Target stores, and that Target spends more on security. Experts also attribute Wal-Mart’s higher crime rate to the fact that it stays open 24 hours a day. The recent injury to the Wal-Mart employee in Norfolk, Nebraska, highlights the risk of overnight retail work.

Beech Grove, Indiana, Mayor Dennis Buckley became so fed up with police calls to the Wal-Mart in his town that he had Wal-Mart declared a public nuisance and fined Wal-Mart $2,500 for every police call. Mayor Buckley’s actions underscore the role that local government can play in ensuring the safety and security of retail employees. Convenience-store clerks are also vulnerable to violent crime on the job. Cities like Irving, Texas, and Milwaukee have passed city ordinances mandating security for convenience-store clerks. Both Omaha and Lincoln have city elections coming in a few months, so voters and groups supporting workers should press the candidates on the issue of retail-worker safety.

States, who traditionally oversee workers’ compensation, should consider using their 10^th -amendment police powers to protect retail workers. For example, the Indiana Department of Labor did a study documenting violence against convenience-store clerks. Finally, injuries to retail workers through violent crime are covered by workers’ compensation. State workers’ compensation systems need to remain viable so unscrupulous retailers are not able to shift the costs of violent crime against their employees onto taxpayers.

Workers Risk Injury During Holiday Shopping Season

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Jon Rehm

The day after Thanksgiving, or Black Friday as it is known, is anticipated by millions of Americans as a fun holiday shopping tradition that marks the beginning of the Christmas season. But crowded stores and the hunt for bargains can create hazards for shoppers and retail workers. For example, in 2008, a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death outside a store in New York City.

But leaving aside the extreme examples of hazards, the holiday shopping season poses many less-publicized risks to retail workers.

The first risk posed to holiday workers, especially on a day like Black Friday, is the additional risk of injuries on overnight shifts. The National Institutes of Health reported that the risk of injury on an overnight shift is 30 percent higher than during a day shift. That same report also quoted a British report that showed that work injuries increased exponentially for every hour worked in a shift after eight hours. This is a risk when employees work long hours over the Black Friday weekend and when employees, many who are working another job, come to their holiday jobs after they have already worked a full day. Finally, new and temporary employees, including many holiday workers, face a higher risk for injury.

Today marks the so-called Cyber Monday, when shoppers traditionally place online orders. Online shopping has increased the need for delivery drivers. Delivery driving can be a hazardous job, due to lifting and the risk of motor-vehicle accidents. The risk of delivery driving is compounded by the fact that many delivery drivers are misclassified as independent contractors, so they lack protections like workers’ compensation. One recent story from The Indpendent out of the U.K. revealed that contract delivery drivers for Amazon.com were paid less than the minimum wage and were forced to urinate and defecate in their vehicles to make their deliveries in a timely manner.

Holiday workers face all of these risks for pay that is generally low. Plus, if an injury from a temporary holiday job prevents a person from working their regular, full-time job, that employee faces difficult issues maintaining both employment and benefits with the main, full-time employer.

If there is anything positive about the coverage of Black Friday, it’s helpful that workplace violence among low-wage workers gets covered. Among the most vulnerable to violence are convenience store clerks working overnight shifts. The Indiana Department of Labor did a study that showed 32 convenience store clerks were killed on the job in 2010. Last summer, a clerk was shot at a northwest Lincoln Kwik Shop, here in Nebraska. That murder was covered as a crime story here in Lincoln. However, that murder and the murders like it all across the country should also be covered as workplace-safety stories.

It’s Complicated: Volunteer First Responders Generally Covered for Workers’ Compensation, with Exceptions

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Jon Rehm

On a recent Monday, an anhydrous ammonia pipeline leaked near Tekamah in rural northeast Nebraska, leading to one fatality. When such accidents in happen in rural Nebraska, the first responders are usually volunteers.

Nebraska has extended workers’ compensation protections to volunteer firefighters and EMTs by statute. Volunteer first responders also have the same coverage for mental-mental injuries that other first responders have. Even though volunteer firefighters are not usually paid a wage, they can collect disability benefits based on the higher amount of two-thirds their regular wage or the state maximum benefit rate. In 2016, the maximum workers’ compensation rate was $785 per week.

Unfortunately, Nebraska’s volunteer first responders also share the same exclusions from workers’ compensation as professional first responders. Foremost among these exclusions is the exclusion for occupational diseases that Brody Ockander wrote about here last month. In short, if an occupational disease manifests itself after a volunteer first responder retires for reasons not related to the occupational disease, the worker or the worker’s survivors could be excluded from receiving workers’ compensation indemnity benefits.

This exclusion is troublesome because of the regularity that volunteer first responders have to respond to chemical explosions and leaks. These chemicals cause symptoms that might not manifest for years. Last week, in addition to the chemical leak in Tekamah, Nebraska, there was a chemical spill at a grain processing plant in rural Atchison, Kansas, that led to 125 people being treated for chemical inhalation. Nebraska has had fertilizer plant explosions in 2012 and in 2014.

Fertilizer plant explosions are not uncommon in rural America. In 2013, a fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, killed 12 first responders and wounded 200 in a town of 2,800. In addition to physical injuries, such devastation can also lead to mental injuries, which is in part why Nebraska expanded so-called “mental-mental” benefits to first responders. However, mental injuries like chemical exposure injuries may have delayed symptoms. I would encourage the Nebraska Legislature to amend court decisions on occupational diseases that would exclude the injuries of volunteer first responders.

Top 10 OSHA Citations of 2016: A Starting Point for Workplace Safety

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Rod Rehm

Today’s blog post comes from the U.S. Labor Department’s blog at blog.dol.gov and was written by the director of enforcement programs at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The article below is a good big-picture reminder of workplace hazards that are documented “safety and health violations” through OSHA. There are some important quotes in the blog post, but instead of choosing a couple, you are encouraged to read and think about the entire relatively short article. A special focus should be to consider the top 10 citations list and see if you are exposed to any of these hazards at your job. Or if you’re in a position to influence others within the workplace, I would encourage you to make sure your co-workers know about whatever safety efforts you have in place to avoid and prevent at-work injuries so you don’t have your business’s citation on the list in the future.

If you have concerns about workplace safety at your job, OSHA’s website has a lot of informative resources. If you or a loved one have been hurt on the job, please contact an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer for advice and help.

a worker climbs a piece of scaffolding wearing proper fall protection

Every October, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration releases a preliminary list of the 10 most frequently cited safety and health violations for the fiscal year, compiled from nearly 32,000 inspections of workplaces by federal OSHA staff.

One remarkable thing about the list is that it rarely changes. Year after year, our inspectors see thousands of the same on-the-job hazards, any one of which could result in a fatality or severe injury.

More than 4,500 workers are killed on the job every year, and approximately 3 million are injured, despite the fact that by law, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their workers. If all employers simply corrected the top 10 hazards, we are confident the number of deaths, amputations and hospitalizations would drastically decline.

Consider this list a starting point for workplace safety:

Fall protection
Hazard communication
Scaffolds
Respiratory protection
Lockout/tagout
Powered industrial trucks
Ladders
Machine guarding
Electrical wiring
Electrical, general requirements

It’s no coincidence that falls are among the leading causes of worker deaths, particularly in construction, and our top 10 list features lack of fall protection as well as ladder and scaffold safety issues. We know how to protect workers from falls, and have an ongoing campaign to inform employers and workers about…

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What Happens If I Get Hurt at My Second Job?

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Jon Rehm

An estimated 7 million Americans work at least two jobs. As the holidays approach, many people will take on holiday jobs as well. Getting hurt at a second job or a holiday job can also create problems at your full-time or regular job. This post will help you navigate some of those issues:

What benefits are you entitled to when you are hurt at a second or holiday job?Your benefits are limited by the wages you are receiving at your second job. You might be able to increase this amount with tips or other perks, but you cannot be paid for wage loss from your first job. If you do have permanent disability, that will be paid based off of a 40-hour week even if you worked part time.
Receipt of workers’ compensation benefits assumes that you are an actual employee and not an independent contractor. For most relatively low-wage part-time work, this is a fair assumption. But since I wrote my holiday job post back in 2013, there has been the emergence of ride-hailing companies like Uber and other sharing-economy companies that have blurred the lines between employee and independent contractor. If you get hurt working for one of these companies, you should contact an attorney, as the distinction between an employee and independent contractor is very fact specific.
How does a work injury at a second job affect your benefits at your regular job?

Health insurance

Assuming your other job’s workers’ compensation insurance company picks up your medical benefits, your health insurance from your regular job would not be affected. But in a disputed case, you may have to use health insurance from your regular job to pay for your workers’ compensation injury at your second job. In that case, you should list workers’ compensation from the company where you were hurt as the primary insurance and your private health insurance as your secondary insurance. Also be aware that if you settle your workers’ compensation claim, you may have to pay back your private health insurance. If you go to trial and win an award of medical benefits, your medical providers should refund the private health insurance and reimburse you for out-of-pocket expenses. In a disputed case, you should contact an attorney not only to get benefits but also to health navigate reimbursement.

Short-term and long-term disability

Larger employers will often have short-term and long-term disability policies to help employees make up for lost income. These are a mixed bag. Some won’t let you collect benefits for work injuries, some may allow you to double collect workers’ compensation and disability, while others may require you reduce benefits. These policies often have repayment policies if a workers’ compensation case is settled as well. It is helpful to have a lawyer to help you with this process as well.
How does a work injury at a second job affect your employment at your regular job?

Assuming your injury requires you to miss time from work, you can claim the Family and Medical Leave Act, assuming your employer has 50 employees, you have worked there for a year, and you have worked there for at least 1,250 hours over the last year. Assuming your employer has 15 employees, your employer would be required to make some reasonable accommodations for your injury under the Americans with Disabilities Act. You should reach out to a lawyer if either employer requires you to return to work without restrictions. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has stated in final regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008 that policies that force employee to return to work without restrictions are unlawful. Ironically, if you are hurt at your second job, that employer is probably more likely to return you to work at light duty so that they can avoid or reduce what you are owed in temporary benefits. The new ADA regulations were intended in part to end how work-caused and non-work-caused disabilities are treated.

How to File a Safety and Health Complaint

Posted on September 29, 2016 by Rod Rehm

Today’s post was shared by the U.S. Department of Labor and comes from www.osha.gov

If you suspect an OSHA violation has happened at work, it’s important to report it by following the steps listed at the website below. If you have questions about reporting a violation, please contact us, and we can help point you in the right direction. In addition, many of OSHA’s inspections occur because of injuries, so if you or a loved one is injured at work, please contact an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer who can make sure the appropriate OSHA reports, as applicable, are considered in your case.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 gives employees and their representatives the right to file a complaint and request an OSHA inspection of their workplace if they believe there is a serious hazard or their employer is not following OSHA standards. Workers do not have to know whether a specific OSHA standard has been violated in order to file a complaint.

Complaints from workers or their representatives are taken seriously by OSHA. OSHA will keep your information confidential.

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Keep Ag Worker Safety in Mind this Harvest Season

Posted on September 22, 2016 by Rod Rehm

As harvest kicks off on the Great Plains, please take the time to be safe and make sure you understand the safety policies of your business, whether you’re a worker, a supervisor, or the employer.

The information and resources below are a sometimes-stark reminder of the need for safety all year when it comes to agricultural jobs, especially at harvest, when long hours and the urgency of the time available all affect a person’s decision-making abilities.

First, here’s a summary of a news release from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation that was the result of an elevator supervisor’s death in a soybean bin in March of this year. Sympathies go to the “41-year-old elevator superintendent’s” loved ones. This person’s death is especially tragic because Cooperative Producers Inc. has been cited seven times since 2011 for grain handling safety violations. This most recent violation resulted in a proposed fine of $411,540 and also earned the Hastings, Nebraska-based company a spot in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program.

In this most recent incident, the worker was with two others in a soybean bin, and he “suffocated when his lifeline tangled in an unguarded and rotating auger,” according to the news release.

“OSHA investigators determined three workers, including the elevator superintendent, had been standing over the unguarded auger using a pole in an attempt to dislodge soybean debris in a grain bin that contained more than 50,000 bushels of soybeans sloped 12 to 20 feet up its walls.

“During its investigation, the agency found CPI failed to:

Disconnect a subfloor auger before allowing workers to enter.
Test atmospheric conditions in grain bins before allowing workers to enter.
Implement procedures to prevent sudden machine start-up or unintentional operation, a process known as lockout/tagout.
Install adequate machine guarding to avoid contact with moving parts.”

The Nebraska State Patrol on Twitter at @NEStatePatrol recently shared a news release that focused on being even more careful and aware of other vehicles than usual, which was the other motivation for today’s blog post.

Harvest is really ramping up just in time for the days to get shorter and machinery operators to be traveling to and from the fields at hard-to-see hours, especially dawn, dusk and at night. In addition, with the school year starting recently, more inexperienced drivers are driving with school permits on rural roads and might not be able to react as quickly as other drivers would anticipate.

“Combines, grain carts, tractors, and other agricultural implements typically travel at slower speeds,” according to the patrol’s news release. “Due to their dimensions and loads, operator visibility is often reduced. Motorists are reminded to be aware and utilize caution when approaching, following or passing farm vehicles.

“‘Harvest time means tall crops and often limited visibility at rural intersections,’” said Colonel Brad Rice, superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol in the news release. “‘Motorists should also be aware of the possibility of wildlife moving around due to the increased activity in the fields.’”

Here are some of the firm’s previous blog posts with additional resources about agricultural jobs and workers’ compensation, grain-handling safety, and harvest.

Please take the time during harvest, and all of the time, to know and follow safety policies and procedures in agricultural jobs. If you’re an employer or manager, it is essential that workers are trained in and implement safety efforts, regardless of the hustle and bustle of the season, harvest or otherwise.

Make sure to contact an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer if you or a loved one has questions about a work-related incident or injury.

College Football Programs Aim to Decrease Concussions

Posted on August 29, 2016 by Brody Ockander

With the start of college football, this state, like many others around the country, is abuzz with excitement. The start of this year’s college football season comes on the heels of a recent approval of a $75 million settlement of a class-action concussions case against the NCAA.

Some of this settlement money is earmarked for research and prevention of concussions. Before this settlement, however, the NCAA had already taken a step in the direction of trying to prevent concussions and head injuries by implementing new and stricter penalties for targeting – hitting defenseless players – and using one’s helmet as a weapon to hit another player.

Whether motivated by litigation or simply to prevent more injuries, some teams have also taken steps to minimize head injuries while playing football. The Nebraska Cornhuskers, for example, have implemented rugby-style tackling techniques in order to minimize head injuries. While the push for the new style of tackling is mentioned as a way to minimize targeting penalties, perhaps the greater reason is that the big-time football programs of the country, like Nebraska, are feeling the pressure to be proactive as a team in actually reducing concussions and the long-term effects of head injuries.

But do the sacrifices that individual players make outweigh the financial rewards to the universities and governing bodies for which they play?

The Big 10 Conference alone earned $448 million in television revenue in 2015 and paid its commissioner $2.3 million. Meanwhile, college football players risk limb and sometimes even their lives without any compensation for the risks they take for their schools. Leaving it all on the field should refer to competition and effort, not the sacrifice of a player’s future.

Workers' Compensation Watch

Published by Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm

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Category Archives: Workplace Injury

Union-Backed Group Pushes for Better Security at Wal-Mart

Workers Risk Injury During Holiday Shopping Season

It’s Complicated: Volunteer First Responders Generally Covered for Workers’ Compensation, with Exceptions

Top 10 OSHA Citations of 2016: A Starting Point for Workplace Safety

What Happens If I Get Hurt at My Second Job?

How to File a Safety and Health Complaint

Keep Ag Worker Safety in Mind this Harvest Season

College Football Programs Aim to Decrease Concussions

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