Amazon Being Investigated for Worker’s Death at U.S. Warehouse

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is currently looking into the recent death of a worker in an incident at an Amazon warehouse, it revealed in a press release yesterday. The incident occurred on June 1 at an Amazon fulfillment center in Carlisle, Pa., the agency said.

The Associated Press reported that the deceased is Jody Rhoads, a 52-year-old woman who was killed when machinery she was operating to move pallets crashed into shelving and pinned her.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jody’s family and loved ones,” an Amazon spokeswoman said. “We are actively working with OSHA to investigate this tragedy.”

Separately, OSHA yesterday issued its findings on the investigation into the work conditions surrounding the death of 57-year-old Ronald Smith, who died in December after being crushed my machinery at a New Jersey sorting facility owned by Amazon but operated by a separate company.

Five companies were cited for violations related to Smith’s death, but Amazon wasn’t one of them. One was Genco, the logistics company hired by Amazon to manage the facility as well as four staffing agencies, including one called Abacus that employed Smith. The four staffing agencies each face penalties of $6,000 — yes, only $6,000 — for “failure to perform a hazard assessment of the facility before assigning employees to determine if hazards existed.”

Genco is also facing a $6,000 penalty for failing to confirm that...

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LAX shooting suspect identified; TSA agent dead

Violence in the workplace at Los Angeles Airport resulted in at least one fatality and multiple people being injured. Apparently TSA agents were targeted. TSA employees are unarmed. Today's post is shared from shared from usatoday.com A lone gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle went on a shooting spree Friday at Los Angeles International Airport, killing one person and leaving at least six people injured before the suspect was tracked down and taken into custody. "We have one deceased,'' Capt. Brian Elias of the Los Angeles County Coroner's office told USA TODAY. Tim Kauffman, a spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees in Washington, told the Associated Press that the victim who died was a Transportation Security Administration officer. He said the union's information came from its local officials in Los Angeles. Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as 23-year-old Paul Ciancia. Airport police chief Patrick Gannon said the gunman forced his way past a TSA checkpoint into the heart of LAX Terminal 3. He said authorities believe the gunman acted alone. Ciancia, a U.S. citizen, was shot in the face in the confrontation with police, a federal law enforcement official said. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the suspect had survived the shooting but his condition was not immediately known. One TSA officer is the only person confirmed dead, the official said. Gannon said the shooting began at 9:20 a.m. PT, when the suspect pulled an "assault rifle" out of a bag and began to open fire in LAX Terminal 3. "He proceeded up to...

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Wal-Mart worker: Fired for helping assaulted woman

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

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- A Michigan man says he was fired from his job at Wal-Mart after he tried to help a woman being assaulted in the parking lot of one of the retail giant's stores and ended up fighting with her attacker. Kristopher Oswald told WXYZ-TV in Detroit (http://bit.ly/18qGyBh ) that Wal-Mart has policies against workplace violence to prevent employees from assaulting co-workers or tackling a shoplifter, but that it appears that nothing allows for them to assist in situations of imminent danger and self-defense. A spokeswoman for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. told The Associated Press on Thursday that while the company understood Oswald's intentions, his actions violated company policy. "We had to make a tough decision, one that we don't take lightly, and he's no longer with the company," company spokeswoman Ashley Hardie said. Oswald, 30, said he was in his car on his break about 2:30 a.m. Sunday when he saw a man grabbing a woman. He said he asked her if she needed help and the man started punching him in the head and yelling that he was going to kill him. Oswald said he was able to get on top of the man, but then two other men jumped him from behind. Livingston County sheriff's deputies arrived and halted the fight. Oswald said the Hartland Township store's management gave him paperwork saying that "after a violation of company policy on his lunch break, it was determined to end his temporary assignment." Oswald had worked for Wal-Mart for...

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Aging Baby Boomers Continue to Postpone Retirement, Report Finds

Working into retirement age is changing the way workers' compensation programs must handle claims. Developing new techniques to handle aging worker claims requires new economic and social considerations. Today's post is shared from alfa.org. A new survey reveals the financial impact the Great Recession has had on the Baby Boomer generation. 47 percent of working adults surveyed said they now expect to retire later than they previously thought, with an average retirement age of 66.  This figure was nearly three years later than the respondents’ reported estimate when they were 40. Working in "Retirement" The poll, conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, surveyed 1,024 people aged 50 and older nationwide. Those surveyed were asked questions about their employment status, financial situation, and plans for retirement. Overall, men were more likely than women to postpone their retirement plans.  Minorities, parents of dependent children, those without health insurance, and those with an annual income of less than $50,000 were also more likely to delay their plans. Among those surveyed who had already retired, 4 percent said they were looking for a job and 11 percent are already working again. Among employed respondents, 82 percent said they were likely to seek at least part-time employment for extra income during retirement. Retirement Savings and Ageism  When asked specifically about retirement savings, about an equal share of those surveyed felt secure about the amount of savings they have for retirement (46 percent) as feel anxious (45 percent).  However, the researchers found that a significant portion of respondents gave signs of...

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Social Security raise to be among lowest in years

Social Security payments are tightly kinked to workers' compensation disability payments. When there are increases in benefits, some "reverse offset" states are liberal in passing along the adjustments to injured workers'. The State of New Jersey does NOT pass along the benefit increase and the workers' compensation insurance company does NOT increase the disability award payment to the injured workers. Today's post is shared from the dallasnews.org.

For the second straight year, millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees can expect historically small increases in their benefits come January. Preliminary figures suggest a benefit increase of roughly 1.5 percent, which would be among the smallest since automatic increases were adopted in 1975, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. Next year's raise will be small because consumer prices, as measured by the government, haven't gone up much in the past year. The exact size of the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, won't be known until the Labor Department releases the inflation report for September. That was supposed to happen Wednesday, but the report was delayed indefinitely because of the partial government shutdown. The COLA is usually announced in October to give Social Security and other benefit programs time to adjust January payments. The Social Security Administration has given no indication that raises would be delayed because of the shutdown, but advocates for...

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Bridge Safety: Many U.S. Spans Are Old, Risky And Rundown

Transportation accidents are one of the leading cause of work-related compensation claims. Today's post was shared by Huffington Post and comes from www.huffingtonpost.com

Motorists coming off the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge into Washington are treated to a postcard-perfect view of the U.S. Capitol. The bridge itself, however, is about as ugly as it gets: The steel underpinnings have thinned since the structure was built in 1950, and the span is pocked with rust and crumbling concrete. District of Columbia officials were so worried about a catastrophic failure that they shored up the horizontal beams to prevent the bridge from falling into the Anacostia River. And safety concerns about the Douglass bridge, which is used by more than 70,000 vehicles daily, are far from unique. An Associated Press analysis of 607,380 bridges in the most recent federal National Bridge Inventory showed that 65,605 were classified as "structurally deficient" and 20,808 as "fracture critical." Of those, 7,795 were both – a combination of red flags that experts say indicate significant disrepair and similar risk of collapse. A bridge is deemed fracture critical when it doesn't have redundant protections and is at risk of collapse if a single, vital component fails. A bridge is structurally deficient when it is in need of rehabilitation or replacement because at least one major component of the span has advanced deterioration or other problems that lead inspectors to deem its condition poor or worse. Engineers say the bridges are safe. And despite the ominous sounding classifications, officials say that even bridges that are structurally...

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