Tag Archives: OSHA

A Year of Injuries, and Lessons

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Rod Rehm

Today’s post was shared by the U.S. Labor Department and comes from blog.dol.gov It was written by Dr. David Michaels, who is the assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health.

Although there has been some social-media coverage, this has been my first opportunity to read this particular summary. By clicking through to the OSHA report (where it says “we published a report of our evaluation”) and reading the eight-page document titled “Year One of OSHA’s Severe Injury Reporting Program: An Impact Evaluation” a person will gain some really helpful perspective and context for determining how effective this change in reporting “severe work-related injuries, including 7,363 hospitalizations and 2,644 amputations,” according to the report itself, was.

The graphic that breaks down hospitalizations, and the graphic in the larger report that breaks down amputations, are really interesting reading just by themselves.

“Our two main goals for the new reporting requirement were to engage more employers in identifying and eliminating serious hazards themselves, and to allow us to better target our enforcement and compliance assistance efforts to places where workers are most at risk. After reviewing the field reports and associated data, we are confident that both goals are being met,” Michaels said in the blog post.

He also writes about how OSHA is now “more likely to cite for non-reporting, and we have increase the maximum penalty for not reporting a severe injury from $2,000 to $7,000.”

Although lawyers often use the results of an OSHA investigation to help a client’s case, an injured worker frequently has a workers’ compensation case whether there is an OSHA investigation or not. So please contact an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer to talk over the details of the situation that a loved one or you are in regarding a work injury or death. Have a safe, productive day.

In January 2015, we started requiring employers to report any work-related severe injury – such as an amputation or an injury requiring hospitalization – within 24 hours. In the first year, we received 10,388 reports, or nearly 30 a day.

Each report told the story of a man or woman who went to work one day and experienced a traumatic event, sometimes with permanent consequences to themselves and their families. But the reports also created opportunities for OSHA to engage with employers in ways we had never done before, and to ensure that changes were made to prevent similar incidents from happening to others.

Infographic showing number and percentage of workplace injuries that led to hospitalizations by industry

We learned things that surprised us, encouraged us and sometimes disappointed us. Today, we published a report of our evaluation that features stories from our offices around the country and reflects on lessons learned in the first year.

Our two main goals for the new reporting requirement were to engage more employers in identifying and eliminating serious hazards themselves, and to allow us to better target our enforcement and compliance assistance efforts to places where workers are most at risk. After reviewing the field reports and associated data, we are confident that both goals are being met.

A few examples explain how:

In Chicago, a conveyor loaded with liquid chocolate suddenly started up as a worker was cleaning a roller. Her arm was pulled in and mangled so badly that she required a plate and skin grafting. To prevent future injuries,…

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

March Tragic Month for Nebraska Workers: 4 Deaths So Far

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Jon Rehm

Did you know that four people in Nebraska have died in work-related incidents this month? And March isn’t even over yet.

This recent news release from the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration goes into more detail about the circumstances regarding each person’s tragic, and as noted, “preventable work-related death.” Sympathies go to the loved ones of a 62-year-old worker in Sutherland; a 42-year-old worker in Hayland; a 42-year-old worker in Walthill; and a 61-year-old worker in Alliance.

It seems like the firm’s social-media channels have been inundated with these sad announcements, because all of these tragedies have occurred over less than two weeks. Four deaths in two weeks compares to 12 total on-the-job deaths in 2015, according to the news release.

“Additionally, OSHA has also opened 41 investigations since Jan. 1, 2016, 32 incidents were hospitalizations and nine were due to amputations. Last year, 162 severe Nebraska worker injuries were reported to OSHA, 113 of those required hospitalization and 52 involved amputation injuries.”

I agree with OSHA officials that it is essential for Nebraska’s business to review their safety and health programs and also make sure employees know and are using those procedures on a regular basis.

“Employers and workers alike can prevent job-related injury and death with simple, common sense safety procedures,” said Jeff Funke, OSHA’s area director in Omaha. “With spring now upon us, construction and other seasonable work will soon be in full swing. Once again, workers will be exposed to some of the most frequently cited OSHA hazards such as falls, struck-by, and trenching – three of the hazards suspected in the most recent fatalities.”

If you have questions about potential safety hazards in your workplace or you or a loved one has been injured at work, please contact an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer who can help you determine how to proceed. In addition, OSHA’s toll-free hotline is 800-321-OSHA (6742), and OSHA’s Omaha office number is 402-553-0171.

OSHA Fines Nebraska Railcar Almost $1 Million after Explosion

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Rod Rehm

The incident referred to in this article was extremely tragic, as two workers were killed in April. Now OSHA has found that Nebraska Railcar Cleaning Services knew “that moments before the blast, an air quality check indicated a serious risk of an explosion. OSHA says that despite the warning, Nebraska Railcar Cleaning Services sent two employees into the railcar to work without monitoring the air continuously for explosive hazards as required, nor providing the employees with emergency retrieval equipment or properly fitted respirators.”

Sympathies continue to go to the loved ones of both Dallas Foulk and Adrian LaPour.

Nebraska Railcar Cleaning Services has been placed in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program and fined $963,000 for “seven egregious willful, three willful, two repeated, 20 serious, and one other than serious safety and health violations.”

In addition, the article said the EPA is doing an investigation regarding the company’s hazardous-waste disposal.

For those who argue that businesses have safety and the best interests of their workers in mind, please read the article linked to above, and really think about that philosophy, especially when an explosion led to workers dying. Then read the quote from the article below and ask yourself about workplace safety again.

“This company has regularly failed to use appropriate equipment and procedures to keep their employees safe, and in this case it had tragic consequences,” Jeff Funke, OSHA Area Director in Omaha, said in a written statement. “The company needs to immediately reevaluate its procedures for entering and cleaning railcars.”

Texas Trench Collapse Results in $400k OSHA Fine and 16 Safety Violations

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Rod Rehm

Today’s post comes from guest author Leonard Jernigan, an advocate for workers from The Jernigan Law Firm in North Carolina. In it, he writes about a high fine that was levied against a Texas construction company by OSHA after a trench collapse.

OSHA is active investigating companies in Nebraska, too. Just last week, OSHA cited Endicott Clay Products in Endicott, Nebraska, “after a 41-year-old worker was fatally crushed in a machine on June 16, 2015.” Three serious safety violations were cited, regarding in proposed penalties to the company of $15,300. There were missing or inadequate safety guards, along with fall hazards present. “The worker was crushed by a brick setting machine when it operated as he was retrieving bricks that had been drying in the kiln,” according to a news release from OSHA.

Although these OSHA investigations and fines aren’t a huge deterrent, even when it’s a fine as in the article below, the efforts at least hold the offending business somewhat accountable to know that they need to examine their safety structures. And safety includes at least three things: well-maintained equipment that is appropriate for the job, training on how to use that equipment to be safe, and a company culture that encourages employees to consider safety and also ask for changes or help if they can’t do their jobs in a safe manner. Have a safe and productive day.

On July 22, 2015, Hassell Construction Co. was cited by OSHA for 16 safety violations (including 6 egregious willful violations) and given a whopping $423,900 fine. Hassell Construction Co. is a construction company based in Richmond, Texas with about 150 employees that construct water and sewer lines around Houston, Texas. The employer was given 15 business days to comply with each citation, request an informal conference with OSHA’s Houston South area director, or contest the citations and penalties before the OSHA Health Review Commission.

These citations were given after a trench that was 8 feet below the ground collapsed in February crushing an unsuspecting employee. Luckily, the worker was dug out by his co-workers using their bare hands. The minute the worker was freed from the trench, the trench collapsed a second time.

According to OSHA’s regional administrator in Dallas, John Hermanson, “Hassell Construction knew its trenches weren’t safe, but still put its workers in harm’s way.” Due to the fact that trench cave-ins such as the one in February are completely preventable OSHA has also placed the construction company in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program which often inspects employers and mandates follow-up inspections to ensure that they are complying with the law. In North Carolina, a similar incident allowed the employee to sue the employer directly and overcome the exclusivity provision of the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Act. Woodson v. Rowland. 373 S.E.2d 674 (1988).

Read about the citations here: https://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/HassellConstruction_1031127_0722_15.pdf

Original Article 7/22/15 posted on WorkersCompensation.com.

Tragic Cannery And Construction Site Deaths Highlight Need For Safety Enforcement

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Rod Rehm

Today’s post comes from guest author Catherine Stanton, from Pasternack Tilker Ziegler Walsh Stanton & Romano in New York City. Sometimes it is challenging to not wonder why a system or a safety policy was such a big failure that it resulted in the death of a worker. I like what Ms. Stanton wrote in the blog post: “The failure to follow or implement proper safety procedures was a calculated risk, a terrible misstep, or a downright criminal act.” That is one of the many reasons why the blog posts that come from the firm have a general focus on worker safety. Think of safety at work as an act of prevention, because the following quote from Ms. Stanton is also accurate. “According to OSHA rules, employers have the responsibility to provide a safe workplace.” Have a safe and productive week.

I was horrified when I recently read about a worker for a tuna company who was killed when he was cooked to death at the company’s California canning factory. According to the New York Daily News, the worker, Jose Melena, was performing maintenance in the 35-foot oven when a co-worker failed to notice he was still in the oven and turned it on to begin the steaming process of the tuna. The co-worker assumed Melena had gone to the bathroom.

While there apparently was an effort to locate the worker, his body was not found until two hours later when the steamer was opened after it completed its cooking cycle. As an attorney, my clinical instinct shifts my focus to the mechanics of the accident and to fault. There are so many unanswered questions. Why didn’t anyone check the machine before it was turned on? Why wasn’t the machine immediately shut down when they realized the worker was missing? As a person with feelings and emotions, I think of the horror and pain he must have gone through and the loss experienced by his family and friends as a result of his death. It is almost too awful to imagine.

While this terrible tragedy occurred in 2012, it appears the reason that the story is currently newsworthy is that the managers were only recently charged by prosecutors in the worker’s death for violating Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) rules. Closer to home, more recent and just as unfortunate were the cases of the construction worker in Brooklyn who fell six stories from a scaffold while doing concrete work and a restaurant worker who was killed in Manhattan when a gas explosion destroyed the building he was working in.

These stories highlight why safety procedures are so important. In some cases, there are no proper safety precautions in place. In others, there are safety measures in place but they may not have been followed. In rarer cases, crimes are committed that result in workplace fatalities. The failure to follow or implement proper safety procedures was a calculated risk, a terrible misstep, or a downright criminal act. In the case of the worker who died when he fell from a scaffold, there has been speculation that he may not have been attached properly to his safety harness. In the tuna factory death, the managers were charged with violating safety regulations; they face fines as well as jail time for their acts. In the gas explosion, there are allegations that the explosion was caused by workers’ illegally tapping into the restaurant gas line to provide heat for upstairs tenants. Prosecutors were trying to determine criminality; whatever the final outcomes, it appears that in these three instances the deaths were preventable.

According to OSHA rules, employers have the responsibility to provide a safe workplace. They must provide their employees with a workplace free of serious hazards and follow all safety and health standards. They must provide training, keep accurate records, and as of January 1, 2015, notify OSHA within eight hours of a workplace fatality or within 24 hours of any work-related impatient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye.

While this may seem like a small step, anything that results in creating higher standards for employers or encouraging them to keep safety a priority is always a good thing. These three examples are only a small percentage of the workplace deaths that occur each year. While not every death is preventable, everyone is entitled to go to work and expect to leave safely at the end of their shifts.

Catherine M. Stanton is a senior partner in the law firm of Pasternack Tilker Ziegler Walsh Stanton & Romano, LLP. She focuses on the area of Workers’ Compensation, having helped thousands of injured workers navigate a highly complex system and obtain all the benefits to which they were entitled. Ms. Stanton has been honored as a New York Super Lawyer, is the past president of the New York Workers’ Compensation Bar Association, the immediate past president of the Workers’ Injury Law and Advocacy Group, and is an officer in several organizations dedicated to injured workers and their families. She can be reached at 800.692.3717.

How Does Workplace Violence Fit into Workers’ Compensation?

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Brianne Rohner Erickson

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) defines workplace violence as any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site. OSHA also reports that nearly 2 million American workers report having been victims of such violence each year. We are probably most likely to think of the horrible stories of violent acts that occur in the course of commission of a crime such as a robbery. These acts are committed by persons who have no legitimate reason to be there, with no relationship to the employer or employees. Many instances of workplace violence are also committed by upset clients or customers, students or patients. Family members, acquaintances, and persons who have personal relationships with employees may also be perpetrators.

What happens when someone is injured due to violence that occurs between co-workers, though? Are injuries sustained as a result of this violence compensable under Nebraska workers’ compensation law? The answer, like many answers to legal questions, is it depends. The fact that you can prove you were assaulted and injured on the job does not automatically mean you are entitled to benefits. It is always the injured workers’ burden to prove he or she suffered injuries because of an accident arising out of and in the course of employment. Here, too, an injured worker must prove the accident resulted from risks arising from within the scope or sphere of the worker’s job. The general rule for workplace violence in Nebraska law is that where an assault is purely personal, the victim is not entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. This means that if you are assaulted at work by a co-worker, and you are unable to show that the violence grew out of or was connected to the relationship as fellow employees or acts in the performance of work, you may not be entitled to compensation for your injuries.

Examples of cases where an injured employee was denied benefits include where a fight broke out over payment on a side job, where one employee assaulted another because he had a problem with that employee’s status as a registered sex offender, or where one employee shot and killed her husband (a co-worker) allegedly due to her fear of further domestic violence. The courts determined in these cases there was no causal connection between the employment and the accident and injury.

Whether an accident arises out of and in the course of employment must be determined by the facts of each case. As a practical matter, in many cases, a claim for injuries due to workplace violence may take more time than usual to process. Sorting through witness accounts and getting every side of the story will be a necessary and often complicated part of the workers’ compensation insurer’s investigation. Since finding out the reason for the incident is significant, benefits may be more likely to be delayed than in a more typical or common workers’ compensation claim. It is important to consult an experienced workers’ compensation attorney if you have questions about whether you are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits for an injury resulting from workplace violence.

Nebraska’s Statistics Inform in AFL-CIO Report

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Rod Rehm

Here’s the third installment in an occasional series about the annual report that the AFL-CIO recently released regarding fatalities at work. Today’s blog post focuses on Nebraska statistics and numbers only, and 2013 was the most recent year for which information was available, with some information coming from OSHA’s 2014 fiscal year. When that is the case, it is noted.

The table “Workplace Safety and Health Statistics by State, 2008-2013” includes Fatality Rates, which is the rate of deaths per 100,000 workers; Injury/Illness Rates, which is the rate of total cases per 100 workers; and Average Penalties from OSHA.

“Fatality Rates” in Nebraska were

2008: 5.7
2009: 6.2
2010: 6.3
2011: 3.9
2012: 5.2
2013 4.0

“Injury/Illness Rates” were

2008: 4.4
2009: 4.1
2010: 4.2
2011: 3.9
2012: 3.9
2013: 3.8

“Average Penalties” were $1,106 in fiscal year 2009; $1,279 in 2010; $2,984 in 2011; $2,835 in 2012; $2,565 in 2013; and $2569 in fiscal year 2014. This includes “averages per serious citation for conditions creating a substantial probability of death or serious physical harm to workers,” according to the report.

The table “Workplace Fatalities by State, 1995-2013” includes the following statistics. Please respect that one death of each yearly total was a real person with loved ones whose lives most likely changed abruptly after his or her death.

1995: 54
1996: 56
1997: 46
1998: 56
1999: 66
2000: 59
2001: 57
2002: 83
2003: 51
2004: 46
2005: 36
2006: 57
2007: 63
2008: 53
2009: 57
2010: 54
2011: 39
2012: 48
2013: 39

The table “Fatal Occupational Injuries by State and Event or Exposure, 2013” included the following information for Nebraska: Total Fatalities, 2013: 39

Assaults and Violent Acts: 4
Transportation Incidents: 21
Fires and Explosions: 0
Falls: 4
Exposure to Harmful Substances or Environments: 1
Contact with Objects and Equipment: 9

The table “Number and Rate of Injuries and Illnesses by State for All Industries, Private Industry, State Government and Local Government, 2013” gives no explanation for why the number of injuries/illnesses was not applicable for state government for that year.

“Number of Injuries/Illnesses”

All Industries: 29,200
Private Industry: 24,700
State Government: N/A
Local Government: 3,300

“Rate of Injuries/Illnesses” per 100 Workers

All Industries: 3.9
Private Industry: 3.7
State Government: 3.6
Local Government: 6.2

The table “Hispanic or Latino Worker Fatalities by State, 1996-2013” … “includes both foreign-born and native-born” people, according to the document.

1996-2001: 0 each year
2002: 9
2003: 3
2004: 4
2005 and 2006: 0
2007: 4
2008: 5
2009: 0
2010: 3
2011: 3
2012: 5
2013: 3

The table “Foreign-Born Worker Fatalities by State, 1996-2013” shows that “the definition of “foreign-born” employed by the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries refers simply to workers not born in the United States or U.S. territories and does not convey information on citizenship at birth,” according to the document.

1996-2001: 0
2002: 12
2003: 0
2004: 3
2005 and 2006: 0
2007: 5
2008: 6
2009: 4
2010: 3
2011: 3
2012: 7
2013: 4

Finally, here are links to two previous blog posts written about the AFL-CIO report: Death on the Job Annual Report from AFL-CIO Informative, Useful and ALF-CIO Report: Here are Some of Nebraska’s Numbers and Rankings. Two more blog posts that include statistics from the report on Iowa will also be shared in the near future, as well as a blog post that includes many of the nation’s totals for the categories listed above.

ALF-CIO Report: Here are Some of Nebraska’s Numbers and Rankings

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Rod Rehm

How did Nebraska fare in the recent AFL-CIO Death on the Job annual report? Generally speaking, better than some but not as well as all the other states.

Here’s some helpful information that quantifies how things are going for working Nebraskans when it comes to safety at work, looking through information from many sources, including the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“When it comes to job safety enforcement and coverage, it is clear OSHA lacks sufficient resources to protect workers adequately. A combination of too few OSHA inspectors and law penalties makes the threat of an OSHA inspection hollow for too many employers,” according to the report.

Staffing levels are stark at federal OSHA. Nebraska is one of 10 states (others include Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South Dakota, Texas and West Virginia) where “it would take 150 years or more for OSHA to pay a single visit to each workplace,” based on current staffing levels, with the actual number in Nebraska being 163 years. Though at the current level of state and federal OSHA inspectors there is one inspector for every 71,695 workers, Nebraska is one of the states where “the ratio of inspectors to employees is greater than 1 per 100,000 workers.” That means for the 932,768 employees in the state in 2013, there were 9 actual inspectors, leading to a ratio of 1/103,641, according to the table “Number of OSHA Inspectors by State Compared with ILO Benchmark Number of Labor Inspectors.” Note that Nebraska relies on the federal program only, so unlike Iowa, there is no state OSHA program.

Here’s some statistics from the table “Profile of Workplace Safety and Health in the United States.” For Nebraska, there were 39 fatalities in 2013, meaning a rate of 4.0 fatalities per 100,000 workers, ranking the state 31^st in the nation for worker fatalities that year.

In addition, there were 24,700 worker injuries or illnesses reported in 2013, resulting in a rate that was 3.8 injuries or illnesses per 100 workers. OSHA’s penalties in fiscal year 2014 averaged $2,569, or 4^th in the nation, for “averages per serious citation for conditions creating a substantial probability of death or serious physical harm to workers,” according to the same table cited above.

The table “State-by-State OSHA Fatality Investigations, FY 2014” shows that 12 OSHA fatality investigations were conducted in Nebraska in fiscal year 2014. A total of $268,671 in penalties was proposed, with the average penalty per investigation being $22,389. The median initial penalty proposed by OSHA was $10,800, while the median current penalty is $4,800.

Businesses often negotiate down their penalties with OSHA, and OSHA also tends to decrease or eliminate penalties once there is evidence of the safety issues being fixed. This is because OSHA’s ultimate focus is on workplace safety, not on holding businesses’ accountable for workers’ injuries or deaths.

To get your questions answered about specific Nebraska or Iowa workplace safety concerns, please contact lawyers who are experienced in workers’ compensation law.

Workers' Compensation Watch

Published by Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm

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Tag Archives: OSHA

A Year of Injuries, and Lessons

March Tragic Month for Nebraska Workers: 4 Deaths So Far

OSHA Fines Nebraska Railcar Almost $1 Million after Explosion

Texas Trench Collapse Results in $400k OSHA Fine and 16 Safety Violations

Tragic Cannery And Construction Site Deaths Highlight Need For Safety Enforcement

How Does Workplace Violence Fit into Workers’ Compensation?

Nebraska’s Statistics Inform in AFL-CIO Report

ALF-CIO Report: Here are Some of Nebraska’s Numbers and Rankings

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