OSHA watch
ITA account must be connected to login.gov for 2022 injury and illness reporting
The Injury Tracking Application (ITA) has transitioned its login procedure to the public's one account access to government applications, Login.gov. All current and new account holders must connect their ITA account to a Login.gov account with the same email address to submit Calendar Year 2022 Form 300A data. If you already have a Login.gov account with the same email address as your ITA account, select the "Sign in with Login.gov" button on the "Injury Tracking Application Login" screen and login to the ITA application. For information on how to create an account, click here . The injury reporting FAQs addresses other account access questions.
New and updated webpages
- Updated Seasonal Influenza webpage includes 2022-2023 flu vaccine recommendations and a new 'Quick Facts' section with links to prevention and control measures for protecting workers against flu and other respiratory illness.
- New webpage on stress and mental health is intended to help employers and workers manage workplace stress while maintaining mental health amid a shifting work climate. It features training resources, outreach materials, and analyses of real-world solutions, as well as other information.
Local emphasis program for food production workers in Illinois and Ohio
The program's initial outreach, which focused on more than 1,400 manufacturing facilities in Illinois and Ohio where year-round and seasonal workers manufacture and process confectionery, animal, fruit, and vegetable-based products, is scheduled to finish on January 3, 2023. Then the program empowers the agency to schedule and inspect select food industry employers with injury rates exceeding the states' average among all manufacturers. Data shows that food production workers in Ohio had a nearly 57 percent higher rate of amputations and 16 percent higher rate of fractures compared with the overall rates for manufacturers, and in Illinois these workers experienced a nearly 29 percent higher rate of amputations and 14 percent higher rate of fractures.
Employees and customers take company's violations viral
Just weeks after Dollar General received another set of fines for hazardous work conditions, employees and customers began posting videos of what the stores looked like. In a video with over 380,000 views, an assistant store manager says stores across the country are completely overwhelmed and showed the condition of his store with boxes filling the aisles and numerous crates that have not been unpacked. Some stores have been forced to close due to safety and health violations.
In October, Dollar General was placed in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP). Previously, even though the company had been cited multiple times, it did not meet the criteria for designation, which focused on high-hazard industries. However, in September the criteria were significantly expanded and include any employers with multiple willful and repeat violations. This means there will be more inspection activity at the stores and the negative implications for its reputation, recruitment, employee morale, and insurance costs are significant.
Recent fines and awards
Georgia
- TJX Companies Inc., the Massachusetts-based operator of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods ,and other department stores, was cited for exposing workers to fire, entrapment, and struck-by hazards. Inspectors found blocked exit routes and unstable merchandise storage at a T.J. Maxx Store in Pooler and proposed fines of $239,290.
Illinois
- A 39-year-old employee on the ninth day of his job was incinerated in an 11-foot-deep pot of molten iron heated to more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit when he fell at a Mapleton foundry. Caterpillar of Irving, Texas operates the foundry, which produces cast iron engine components. The company was cited for one willful violation of failing to protect workers from fall hazards and faces proposed fines of $145,027.
- A Calumet City roofing contractor, Araujo Construction Corp., faces $277,000 in fines for repeated failures to protect roofing employees from exposure to deadly fall hazards. The company was inspected three times in four months and each time workers were found without fall protection.
- A Schaumburg excavating contractor, A. Lamp Concrete Contractors Inc., was cited for failing to protect workers from potentially deadly trenches cave-ins. The company received three repeat, one serious, and one other-than-serious violations of federal trenching and excavation standards, and proposed penalties of $118,962.
Massachusetts
- Two contractors, NorthStar Contracting and Suffolk Construction were cited for demolition and asbestos hazards after a mezzanine collapsed at a former South Boston power plant. One employee lost his legs and two others were injured. Citations to NorthStar Contracting included three willful violations, four serious violations, and one other-than-serious violation of workplace safety standards with proposed penalties of $399,864 related to failure to conduct an engineering survey, improper procedures in asbestos containment areas, failure to train employees, and more. The general contractor, Suffolk Construction, faces $292,116 in penalties for failure to inspect the contractor's work, failure to have a plan to prevent the collapse, failure to ensure employees wore respirators inside regulated asbestos containment area, and more.
- A Quincy-based roofing contractor, Roof Kings LLC, was cited for the fifth time for hazards related to falls, including failure to provide fall protection, failure to train employees, unsafe use of ladders, failure to have a competent person conduct regular inspections, and failure to provide hard hats. The company was cited for four willful and two serious violations of workplace safety standards with proposed penalties of $137,196.
New York
- The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York denied a Staten Island health provider, Community Health Center of Richmond Inc.'s attempt to prevent the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from pursuing damages for a COVID-19 whistleblower whose private state whistleblower claim was dismissed. The employer argued that the dismissal of the former employee's prior state whistleblower claim prevents the DOL from obtaining monetary relief for the aggrieved worker. However, the court supported DOL's exclusive authority to seek damages for individual whistleblowers under the OSH Act.
Pennsylvania
- A Philadelphia framing contractor, Max Contractors Inc., faces $269,594 in proposed penalties after the company was again cited for exposing employees to deadly fall hazards at a residential worksite. The company received three serious and six repeat violations for not providing fall protection and protective eyewear while using air-powered nail guns, failing to train employees as required, and allowing improper use of ladders.
Wisconsin
- An Appleton contractor, Hector Able Hernandez - the operator of Town City Construction, with a long history of exposing employees to dangerous fall hazards now faces $349,371 in additional penalties after inspectors observed roofing workers at heights greater than 6 feet at risk of serious or fatal injuries at two Appleton-area jobsites. Citations included three willful and two serious safety violations for failing to provide eye, head, and fall protection, and train workers on fall hazards.