Copyright
Friday, July 25, 2014
OSHA cites willful safety violation after workers expected to 'free climb' 195-foot tower without adequate fall protection
Friday, August 29, 2014
Can Boomers Stop The Bullying At Work?
Today's post was shared by Trucker Lawyers and comes from www.forbes.com
If you saw a young child being pushed around on the playground, chances are you would intervene. But are you equally proactive when you see bullying at work? While this may sound like a hypothetical question, it’s anything but. According to a 2014 survey conducted by the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), 27% of Americans have been bullied at work, 21% have witnessed it and 72% of us are aware that workplace bullying happens. Real bullying involves more than just bad management and obnoxious behavior. How Bullying Can Harm A Victim’s Health It also means health-harming behaviors that can include verbal abuse, offensive conduct and intentional sabotage. And workplace bullying doesn’t just harm the victim. It leads to poor morale, high turnover and low productivity, which impact the entire organization. (MORE: What to Do When You Work for a Bully) The problem is now so widespread that lawmakers in 15 states have introduced legislation aimed at prodding employers to take the matter seriously or face consequences. (Tennessee already has workplace bullying laws on the books, but they only apply to public sector employees.) Why Boomers Can Be Effective So what are you willing to do about it? I ask because many boomers are in management and as a result, some are in a good position to take action. Even if you’re not among your employer’s leadership team, you still might be able to make a difference. If you’re well respected by colleagues, have good... |
Saturday, February 13, 2010
US Department of Labor’s OSHA cites C.A. Franc $539,000 for willful fall hazard violations
“Mr. Franc knowingly and willfully failed to protect his workers from falling to their death,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels. “Despite repeated requests from workers that he provide fall protection, on this step roof, Mr. Franc refused to provide readily available protection. We will not tolerate this type of blatant and egregious disregard for the health and safety of workers.”
OSHA began its investigation immediately following the worker’s death on Aug. 15, 2009, and found the C.A. Franc company had failed to provide any fall protection to its employees working on a pitched roof 40 feet off the ground. In addition, Mr. Franc failed to train a newly hired college student in hazards and the necessary safety measures for roofing work. As a result of the investigation, the company has been cited for 10 alleged per-instance willful violations, one for each employee working unprotected on the roof, with a proposed penalty of $490,000, and one additional alleged willful violation for failing to train the new employee, with a penalty of $49,000.
General contractor Hospitality Builders Inc. also has been cited with one willful violation and a proposed penalty of $70,000 for failing to ensure that C.A. Franc workers had fall protection.
“This fall fatality was one of five that occurred during a 15-day span in the Pittsburgh area,” said John M. Hermanson, OSHA’s regional administrator in Philadelphia, Pa. “Falls are the leading cause of fatalities in the construction industry. Failure to provide employees with fall protection is unconscionable. We urge construction companies to take the necessary action to ensure their workers are protected.”
OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for the law’s requirements, or with plain indifference to employee safety and health. Detailed information about fall hazards and safeguards is available on OSHA’s Web site athttp://www.osha.gov/SLTC/fallprotection/construction.html.
The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. The investigation was conducted by OSHA’s Pittsburgh Area Office; telephone: 412-395-4903. To report workplace accidents, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-6742.
In a related criminal charge, Christopher A. Franc today entered a guilty plea in federal court to a violation of 29 U. S. C. Section 666(e). Sentencing is scheduled for June 18.
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 assure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, outreach, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.
Monday, February 26, 2018
Preventing Occupational Disease: NJ Governor Murphy Supports a Fracking Ban
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
The Next Wave: N.H.L. Players Sue League Over Head Injuries
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Monday, December 3, 2012
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy -- Football Injuries
The study included 35 former NFL (National Football League) players and revealed that 34 had CTE before their death. A class action lawsuit is pending by the NFL players for head trauma injuries.
"CTE is clinically associated with symptoms of irritability, impulsivity, aggression, depression, short-term memory loss and heightened suicidality that usually begin 8–10 years after experiencing repetitive mildtraumatic brain injury (McKee et al., 2009). With advancing disease, more severe neurological changes develop that include dementia, gait and speech abnormalities and parkinsonism. In late stages, CTE may be clinically mistaken for Alzheimer’s disease or frontotemporal dementia (Gavett et al., 2010, 2011). A subset of cases with CTE is associated with motor neuron disease (MND) (McKee et al., 2010)."
Read the complete research article: The spectrum of disease in chronic traumatic encephalopathy 10.1093/brain/aws307
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Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Employee vs. Independent Contractor: Can You Tell the Difference?
State and federal regulators are increasingly acting to combat worker misclassification. Before using independent contractors, it is imperative to verify that they are not actually employees. The issue is legal in nature so the legal principals must be thoroughly considered and applied. Mistakes, no matter how innocent, can result in costly lawsuits and significant legal penalties. As we have previously discussed on Scarinci Hollenbeck’s Business Law News, worker misclassification occurs when a bona fide, common law employee is classified to be an “independent contractor.” In some cases, worker misclassification is intentional to avoid tax withholding, overtime pay and insurance requirements such as Workers Compensation and Unemployment Insurance. Sometimes it occurs simply because the employer did not properly understand the law. To aid the analysis, the Department of Labor (DOL) recently published a revised factsheet on worker misclassification. As the DOL highlights, an employment agreement stating that a worker is an independent contractor hold very little weight, if any. Rather, the actual nature of the working relationship is determinative. Over 25 states also apply the “ABC” test which is even more difficult to overcome (as many prominent trucking companies have been learning in recent court cases). Below are several key factors that are generally considered when determining whether an employment relationship exists: |
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Monday, April 23, 2012
NJ Supreme Court To Rule on Several Critical Issues
1. Standard of Proof in a Fatal Heart Claim: Does the record support this workers' compensation claim under N.J.S.A. 34:15-7.2, which sets the standard of proof governing claims based on injury or death from cardiovascular causes?
Workers' Compensation benefits were awarded for a pulmonary embolism causally related to sedentary work activity. A NJ Appellate Court awarded benefits for the development of a pulmonary embolism precipitated by the inactivity of sitting long hours at a desk job.
Posted 6/10/11
Argued: 3/26/12
A-112-10 Wade Stancil v. ACE USA (067640)
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Monday, September 22, 2014
Former Senior Executive of ArthroCare Corp. PleadsGuilty in $400 Million Securities Fraud Scheme
A former senior executive of ArthroCare Corp., a publicly traded medical device company based in Austin, Texas, pleaded guilty for his role in a scheme to defraud the company’s shareholders and members of the investing public by falsely inflating ArthroCare’s earnings, announced Acting Assistant Attorney Mythili Raman of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman of the Western District of Texas. The plea was taken under seal on June 24, 2013, and unsealed late yesterday.
John Raffle, 45, of Austin, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Lane in Austin to conspiracy to commit securities, mail and wire fraud and two false statements violations. Raffle was the senior vice president of Strategic Business Units at ArthroCare, overseeing all sales and marketing staff at the company. Raffle admitted that he and other co-conspirators falsely inflated ArthroCare’s sales and revenue through a series of end-of-quarter transactions involving ArthroCare’s distributors and that he and other co-conspirators caused ArthroCare to file a Form 10-K for 2007 and Form 10-Q for the first quarter of 2008 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that materially misrepresented ArthroCare’s quarterly and annual sales, revenues, expenses and earnings. As part of his plea, Raffle agreed that his conduct and the conduct of his co-conspirators caused more than $400 million in losses to...
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