Workers' Compensation

Friday, January 3, 2014

OSHA announces proposed new rule to improve tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses

"Three million injuries are three million too many," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. "With the changes being proposed in this rule, employers, employees, the government and researchers will have better access to data that will encourage earlier abatement of hazards and result in improved programs to reduce workplace hazards and prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities. The proposal does not add any new requirement to keep records; it only modifies an employer's obligation to transmit these records to OSHA."The Occupational Safety and Health Administration today issued a proposed rule to improve workplace safety and health through improved tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses. The announcement follows the Bureau of Labor Statistics' release of its annual Occupational Injuries and Illnesses report, which estimates that three million workers were injured on the job in 2012.

The public will have 90 days, through Feb. 6, 2014, to submit written comments on the proposed rule. On Jan. 9, 2014, OSHA will hold a public meeting on the proposed rule in Washington, D.C. A Federal Register notice announcing the public meeting will be published shortly.OSHA is also proposing that establishments with 20 or more employees, in certain industries with high injury and illness rates, be required to submit electronically only their summary of work-related injuries and illnesses to OSHA once a year. Currently, many such firms report this information to OSHA under OSHA's Data Initiative.The proposed rule was developed following a series of stakeholder meetings in 2010 to help OSHA gather information about electronic submission of establishment-specific injury and illness data. OSHA is proposing to amend its current recordkeeping regulations to add requirements for the electronic submission of injury and illness information employers are already required to keep under existing standards, Part 1904. The first proposed new requirement is for establishments with more than 250 employees (and who are already required to keep records) to electronically submit the records on a quarterly basis to OSHA.

OSHA plans to eventually post the data online, as encouraged by President Obama's Open Government Initiative. Timely, establishment-specific injury and illness data will help OSHA target its compliance assistance and enforcement resources more effectively by identifying workplaces where workers are at greater risk, and enable employers to compare their injury rates with others in the same industry. Additional information on the proposed rule can be found athttp://www.dol.gov/find/20131107/ and http://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/proposed_data_form.html.

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. For more information, visit www.osha.gov.

Justice for asbestos victims

Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from you.38degrees.org.uk

Dear Lord Freud The 2013 Mesothelioma Bill in its current form is unfair and punitive. It imposes arbitrary deadlines on already-vulnerable people, depriving them of vital compensation.We call on you to amend the bill to ensure that everyone who is affected by asbestos exposure get 100% of the compensation owed to them.
Anyone who is exposed to asbestos at work, and subsequently develops mesothelioma cancer, is entitled to compensation from their employer. However, many people can’t be paid compensation because they can’t track down the company who insured their employer at the time of exposure, which could have been many decades ago.The government is currently legislating to set up a scheme where they will compensate those affected if they can’t find the relevant insurer. However, they’ve imposed a cut-off date of 25th July 2012 so anyone diagnosed before that date can’t claim from the new scheme. This arbitrarily punishes people struggling with life-threatening illnesses.And they’ve capped the compensation someone can claim to 70% of the average compensation paid through the civil court system. This robs people of vital funds they need at a difficult time of their lives. This government is crippling individuals, to save themselves pennies.Sign this petition and demand fair, compassionate treatment for all asbestos-affected people.

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Unemployment benefits, the cruelest cut of all

Today's post was shared by Steven Greenhouse and comes from www.washingtonpost.com

To 1.3 million jobless Americans: The Republican Party wishes you a Very Unhappy New Year!
It would be one thing if there were a logical reason to cut off unemployment benefits for those who have been out of work the longest. But no such rationale exists. On both economic and moral grounds, extending benefits for the long-term unemployed should have received an automatic, bipartisan vote in both houses of Congress.

It didn’t. Nothing is automatic and bipartisan anymore, not with today’s radicalized GOP on the scene. In this case, a sensible and humane policy option is hostage to bruised Republican egos and the ideological myth of “makers” vs. “takers.”
The result is a cruel blow to families that are already suffering. On Saturday, benefits were allowed to expire for 1.3 million people who have been unemployed more than six months. These are precisely the jobless who will suffer most from a cutoff, since they have been scraping by on unemployment checks for so long that their financial situations are already precarious, if not dire.
Extending unemployment benefits is something that’s normally done in a recession, and Republicans correctly point out that we are now in a recovery. But there was nothing normal about the Great Recession, and there is nothing normal about the Not-So-Great Recovery.
We are emerging from the worst economic slump since the Depression, and growth has been unusually — and painfully — slow. Only...

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NJ Governor Authorizes Friday Closure Of State Offices for All Non-Essential Workers

In anticipation of the severe winter storm expected to arrive in New Jersey beginning Thursday evening, Governor Chris Christie declared a State of Emergency, authorizing the State Director of Emergency Management to activate and coordinate the preparation, response and recovery efforts for the storm with all county and municipal emergency operations and governmental agencies. Governor Christie also authorized the closing of state offices on Friday, January 3rd for all non-essential employees.
“The impending weather conditions over the next several days will produce a variety of dangerous travel conditions throughout the state,” said Governor Christie. “I’ve authorized state officials to take all necessary action in advance of the storm, and my Administration will continue monitoring conditions throughout the remainder of the storm. I encourage all New Jerseyans to stay off the roads if possible so that our first responders and public safety officials can safely respond to any emergency situations.”
Starting Thursday evening, the storm is expected to bring high winds, heavy snow, mixed precipitation, storm surges and sub-zero temperatures throughout the state. A potential mixture of hazardous travel conditions, fallen trees and power outages and coastal, stream and river flooding are anticipated.
A copy of the Governor’s Executive Order declaring the State of Emergency [pdf 14kB].

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Blogging Judge to Put Away the Keyboard

Today's post was shared by WSJ Law Blog and comes from blogs.wsj.com

U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf’s days as a blogger have come to an end.
Judge Kopf’s blog “Hercules and the Umpire“, launched a little under a year ago, quickly made a splash in the legal world with its unusually candid mix of insights on the judicial process, legal news and personal reflections.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kopf announced that he’s hanging up his pajamas and donning only a robe. His decision to quit blogging came a day after his site was featured in a The Wall Street Journal story about how more judges these days are taking to the Internet to pass judgment on policy and opine on trends.
In a farewell post, the Nebraska jurist said he was quitting on his own volition.
“I am not quitting because of ethics concerns. Such problems are real, but vastly overblown. A thoughtful judge has about the same chance of violating the Code of Conduct when writing a book, giving a speech, authoring a law review article or writing a blog post,” Judge Kopf wrote. “No one has given me the slightest trouble about expressing myself here.”
He also said that although he’s “truly worn out,” he’s not quitting for health reasons either. “I have written all that I want to write and then some. It is that simple. My decision is final,” writes the judge.
As WSJ’s Joe Palazzolo’s wrote, Judge Kopf’s cerebral commentary — sometimes marked by an almost confessional tone — raised...

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Jurist Prudence? Candid Judges Speak Out

Judges typically confine their opinions to their rulings. But 2013 was a year of exceptions.
In Nebraska, U.S. District Judge Richard G. Kopf in February launched Hercules and the umpire, a blog that offers a mix of insights on the judicial process, legal news, personal reflections and wisdom. One nugget of advice to young judges: "It's not your job to save the world. Do law, leave justice to Clint Eastwood."

In his latest book, "Reflections on Judging," Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago pleads "guilty" to upholding a voter-identification law "now widely regarded as a means of voter suppression." The passage, picked up by several media outlets, was widely viewed as a mea culpa—a rare instance of a judge saying he got it wrong.
Judges have long been voluble, spirited and even poetic in their rulings. But in the digital age, they also have taken to the media and the Internet to pass judgment on policy and opine on trends.
In the process, the outspoken are butting up against the view held by some that sitting judges shouldn't be seen or heard outside of court. And there is the risk that litigants could try to push certain judges off cases because something they said publicly gave a hint of bias.
"The advice I was given over and over again was to keep your head down," said Nancy Gertner, a law professor at Harvard University and a former federal district judge in Massachusetts who has...

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North Dakota blast prompts review of oil train safety

A federal safety alert Thursday warned that crude oil flowing out of new fields in North Dakota may be more flammable than expected, a caution that comes several days after a train carrying about 3.5 million gallons of the same oil crashed in the state and set off a massive explosion.

The accident on the BNSF Railway, the fourth such explosion in North America involving crude oil trains, has fed mounting concerns over public safety as the rail industry sharply increases the use of rail to transport surging crude production in North Dakota, Texas and Colorado.
Following the latest derailment and crash, which forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 residents from the town of Casselton, the National Transportation Safety Board has launched the nation's first broad examination of the safety of moving petroleum by rail.
Trains carrying oil have multiplied across the country as environmental concerns and political maneuvering have delayed approval of a major new pipeline to transport oil to Gulf Coast refineries. The issue may be most crucial for cities in the West, which were often founded and developed by railroads so that main lines go directly through the centers of today's urban areas.
Crude oil shipments by rail have shot up 25-fold in the last several years as producers rush oil from newly developing shale fields to market. California alone has seen a fourfold increase over the last year, with current shipments of about 200,000 barrels a month.
Refinery operators this...

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Copyright

Friday, January 3, 2014