A federal workplace safety investigation has again found workers at an Amazon fulfillment center exposed to ergonomic hazards, this time at a Logan Township facility.
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Wednesday, August 9, 2023
Saturday, July 29, 2023
OSHA Issues Extreme Heat Hazard Alert
The U.S. Department of Labor announced that it's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a heat hazard alert to remind employers of their obligation to protect workers against heat illness or injury in outdoor and indoor workplaces.
Friday, July 28, 2023
President Biden Announces New Actions to Protect Workers from Extreme Heat
Millions of American workers are currently experiencing the effects of extreme heat, which is growing in intensity, frequency, and duration due to the climate crisis. President Biden requests the Department of Labor to issue Hazard Alerts for Heat and take other actions to protect workers from extreme heat.
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
New OSHA Reporting Requirements For Injuries and Illnesses
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
Protecting workers from electronic monitoring, tracking, and management
Automated technological tools are being deployed to monitor, surveil, manage workers, and defend workers’ compensation claims. The Biden Administration has focused on this issue and requested information to create an advanced understanding of these tools' design, deployment, prevalence, and impacts.
Saturday, July 15, 2023
Workers' Compensation Judges Exempt from Gun Permit Requirement
A Federal Judge, in a multifaceted decision, upheld a New Jersey law exemption that allows specific individuals to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. Workers’ compensation judges actively handling cases are one of the groups of individuals who are exempt from the permit requirement.
Friday, July 14, 2023
State of New Jersey Failed to Address Deficiencies in $96 Million Workers’ Compensation Program
A report released today by the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) finds that the agency that manages workers’ compensation claims filed by state employees failed to remedy deficiencies identified three years ago. As a result, the State faces a greater risk of preventable workplace injuries, spurious claims, and wasted tax dollars.
Thursday, July 13, 2023
OSHA Cites Main Line Contractor Corp. of Newark NJ for 21 Violations and $333,052 in Penalties
A series of inspections by the U.S. Department of Labor has found a Newark-based construction contractor defying federal safety regulations by exposing employees to more than 20 violations, including potentially deadly falls, at six southern and central New Jersey work sites in early 2023.
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
EPA Seeks Reporting of Asbestos Fibers
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule to require comprehensive reporting on all six fiber types of asbestos as the agency continues its work to address exposure to this known carcinogen and strengthen the evidence that will be used to protect people from this dangerous chemical further. Historically asbestos, a known carcinogen, has been present in workplaces causing significant occupational exposures to workers, sometimes fatal, and has generated a long wave of workers’ compensation claims.
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
California Supreme Court to File its Decision in a Derivative Immunity Claim Tomorrow
The California Supreme Court will file its much-anticipated decision regarding KUCIEMBA v. VICTORY WOODWORKS, Case: S274191, on Thursday, July 6, 2023, at 10:00 am (PT). The Court had accepted the request of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to answer a question of state law regarding employers' liability in COVID claims. Briefs are now available online (See below).
Thursday, June 29, 2023
Fireworks, pyrotechnics industry employers strongly urged to make worker safety a priority on July 4
Since the founding fathers declared the colonies independent in 1776, cannons, fireworks, and today, extensive pyrotechnic displays have become a July 4th fixture. Unfortunately, so have severe injuries and worse for people in the fireworks and pyrotechnics industry when necessary workplace safety standards are ignored.
Thursday, June 1, 2023
NJ Targets Rampant Misclassification of Drywall Workers
In its second strategic enforcement initiative, focusing on the drywall industry, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) reached a first-of-its-kind enhanced compliance agreement with Donald Drywall, L.L.C. of Lakewood after investigators found the subcontractor had committed numerous wage and hour, earned sick leave, and employee misclassification violations.
Monday, May 22, 2023
United Hospital Supply Corp. faces $498K in penalties after amputation incident
An employee's first day of work at a southern New Jersey manufacturing facility ended tragically when he suffered the amputation of three fingers while operating a press brake without required safety guards, similar to violations cited by federal safety investigators at the facility in 2010 and 2015.
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
OSHA: America Airlines Fined for Retaliating Against Worker Who Reported Hazardous Fumes in Cabin
Federal safety and health investigators have determined that one of the nation's largest airlines retaliated against flight attendants who reported worker illnesses caused by toxic fumes entering aircraft cabins.
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Work-Related Respiratory Disease Rate Soars
The decline in injury and illness cases was due to a drop in illness cases, with private industry employers reporting 365,200 nonfatal illnesses in 2021, down from 544,600 in 2020, a drop of 32.9 percent. This decrease was driven by a 37.1 percent decrease in employer-reported
respiratory illness cases in 2021 at 269,600, down from 428,700 in 2020. (See chart 2.) In 2019, there were 127,200 illness cases and 10,800 respiratory illness cases. Total reported injury cases increased by 6.3 percent to 2.2 million cases in 2021, up from 2.1 million cases in 2020. (See chart 1.)
The rate of injury cases increased in 2021, with private industry employers reporting a rate of 2.3 cases per 100 FTE workers compared to 2.2 cases in 2020. Over the same period, the rate of illness cases decreased from 55.9 cases per 10,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers to 37.7 cases. The decrease was driven by the drop in the respiratory illness rate, which fell from 44.0 cases per 10,000 FTE workers to 27.8 cases.
Occupational injuries and illnesses collected in the 2021 SOII include cases of COVID-19 when a worker was infected as a result of performing their work-related duties and met other recordkeeping criteria. COVID-19 is considered a respiratory illness under criteria established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
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Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thomson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thomson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com has been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.
Thursday, October 20, 2022
Paterson NJ Employers Face $518K in OSHA Fines
The U.S. Department of Labor has issued citations to three New Jersey contractors who willfully exposed employees to potentially lethal dangers by allowing them to work near energized power lines at a Paterson worksite.
Thursday, October 13, 2022
A Cautionary Note on Citing Unpublished Decisions
Attorneys should be careful about citing unpublished decisions to support their legal arguments. Overzealous advocacy of citing such decisions as an authority is frowned upon by the reviewing tribunals.
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Rehabilitation, recognition and research needed for people living with long COVID
While most people who develop COVID-19 fully recover, it is estimated that 10–20% go on to develop what is now known as long COVID. This condition involves a variety of mid- and long-term symptoms such as fatigue, breathlessness and lack of mental focus. While the science behind long COVID is still unclear, a new WHO/Europe factsheet collects existing evidence on the condition and its often-debilitating effect on people’s lives.
Saturday, October 8, 2022
Occupational Exposure to Monkeypox
A recent report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] provides evidence supporting the hypothesis that both health care workers’ [HCW] infections observed in this study were transmitted through fomite exposure with surfaces in the patient’s home, their own PPE, or outer surfaces of the specimen transport box.
Friday, October 7, 2022
New Fee Rules for Obtaining Medical Records
A new law has been enacted that amends the current law concerning the fees that may be charged for copies of medical and billing records by hospitals and by health care professionals licensed by the Board of Medical Examiners. Obtaining medical records in Workers’ Compensation actions is a standard claim and litigation procedure.