OSHA watch
New Local Emphasis Program targets New England seafood processors
Launched on June 1, a new Local Emphasis Program (LEP) aims to mitigate hazards in the Region I seafood processing industry and related merchant wholesaler operations. The affected NAICS include Seafood Product Preparation and Packaging (311710), Seafood Canning (311711), Fresh and Frozen Seafood Processing (311712), and Fish and Seafood Merchant Wholesalers (424460). Focused on temporary workers, sanitation, machine guarding (29 CFR §1910 Subpart O), lockout tagout (29 CFR §1910.147), confined spaces (29 CFR §1910.146), PPE (29 CFR §1910), and powered industrial trucks (29 CFR §1910.178), inspections will begin 90 days after an initial outreach period, which began June 1.
After developing a master list, the Area Director will randomly select sites for inspection. The LEP will remain in effect for five years from its effective date (June 1, 2023), unless renewed. Employers are advised to evaluate their processes and procedures for compliance to prepare for an unannounced OSHA visit.
National Emphasis Program on Warehousing imminent
Speaking at a National Forklift Safety Day event, agency administrator Doug Parker said a National Emphasis Program (NEP), which will include all aspects of warehouse operations, will be launched this summer. He urged employers to prepare through training and other methods.
Lockout/Tagout pushed back to long-term actions in latest regulatory agenda
The Spring 2023 Regulatory agenda lists August 2024 as a target date for a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on the Lockout/Tagout update. The rule on Shipyard Fall Protection was also moved to "long-term actions," with an NPRM expected no earlier than November 2024.
Landscaping industry urged to stay focused on protecting workers
As demand increases, landscaping industry employers are urged to stay focused on protecting workers from hazards such as heat illness, machine injuries, and pesticide exposure. In 2021, 142 industry workers suffered fatal workplace injuries. While workers struck by vehicles is typically the industry's leading cause of fatal injuries, moving machinery parts, falling trees, toxic chemicals, and heat exposure also lead to fatalities.
Employers need a plan to protect workers from hazards of poor air quality
Employers are reminded of the resources available to help workers reduce their exposure to smoke during wildfires.
cdc.gov/niosh/topics/firefighting/wffsmoke
CSB video on refinery explosion highlights hazards of transient operations
In a recently released video on the April 2018 explosion and fire at the Husky Energy refinery in Superior, WI, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) urges facility operators and workers to pay attention to hazards during startup, shutdown, standby, and other transient operations in facilities covered under the Process Safety Management standard.
New resources
- Heat Illness Prevention brochure (new languages)
- On-Site Consultation brochure (new languages)
- On-Site Consultation webpage (revised)
- Silica fact sheets (now in Spanish)
- Reducing the Risk of Worker Exposure to Disease-Carrying Ticks Fact Sheet (now in Spanish and Polish)
- Shipyard Employment: Protecting Workers from Heat Illness in Confined Spaces (now in Spanish, Vietnamese, Portuguese)
- NIOSH tip sheet for hotel workers
Host employers reminded to protect temporary workers
With the increase in temporary workers during the summer months, employers are reminded to review best practices for host employers.
Safe + Sound Week - August 7 -13
Safe + Sound Week is a nationwide event that recognizes the successes of workplace health and safety programs and offers ideas on keeping workers safe. Participating in Safe + Sound Week helps energize safety and health programs and celebrates safety successes. Learn how.
State OSHA
MIOSHA
- Reminds employers of the State Emphasis Program for indoor and outdoor heat-related hazards, which was started in July 2022. Encourages employers to use the sample heat illness prevention plan (.docx) as a template to establish heat illness prevention procedures and reduce the risk of work-related heat illness.
- Urges employers to sign up for Workplace Mental Health email updates
- Coffee with MIOSH - August 15. Learn the latest initiatives, data, and enforcement programs and connect with representatives from Consultation, Enforcement, and Industrial Hygiene.
- Hosted a webinar on the effects of a four-day workweek on employees and production levels as part of its mental health awareness program.
- August 7-11, 2023 is the 2023 Take a Stand for Workplace Safety and Health. Professional staff will provide a day of one-to-one consultation to high-hazard industry employers who register. There will be no citations or fines for participating workplaces, however, participants must agree to correct all serious conditions.
- Agency Instructions
Issued: May 4, 2023: Hexavalent Chromium - National Emphasis Program
Cancelled: May 11, 2023: COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan
MNOSHA
In late May, the Governor signed the sweeping Jobs and Economic Development and Labor Omnibus Budget Bill, which included workplace health and safety provisions. The Ergonomic Program requirements apply to warehouse distribution centers and meatpacking sites with 100 or more employees, as well as hospitals, outpatient surgical centers, and nursing homes of any size. The Warehouse Distribution Worker Safety Law establishes new worker safety requirements for warehouse distribution centers and requires investigations into warehouse distribution centers when injury rates warrant such scrutiny. It also limits the use of quotas.
The Safe Workplaces for Meat and Poultry Processing Workers Act creates new workplace safety obligations for meatpacking employers, such as new-task and annual training requirements, safety rules for future public health emergencies, and provider training requirements for workplace medical services. The Packinghouse Workers Bill of Rights amendments require packinghouse employers to provide notice of workers' compensation rights and create a right to a civil cause of action for employees who do not receive that notice.
North Carolina OSHA
Reminder - as of July 2023 all minimum and maximum civil penalties associated with standard violations are increasing.
Oregon OSHA
On May 24, 2023, Governor Tina Kotek signed into law legislation raising penalties for workplace fatality-related citations to a maximum of $250,000 for a willful or repeat violation, far above federal limits. Adjustments cannot be made based on an employer's size unless the employer agrees to abatement measures. The law took effect immediately.
Recent fines and awards
California
- Cal/OSHA fined two farms in Half Moon Bay, where a mass shooter killed seven employees in January after an investigation found the employers had no safety plans to evaluate the threat of violence. Terra Gardens received 22 violations that resulted in $113,800 in fines and Concord Farms, Inc. received 19 violations with $51,700 in fines.
Florida
- Preparing fireworks for a show, four young employees (ages 22 - 27) of Magic in the Sky Florida LLC were killed and a fifth suffered near-fatal injuries when an ignition sparked a fire and explosions in an Orlando storage facility. The company was cited for 10 serious violations and faces $109,375 in penalties.
- On the first day of his job at a Parkland farm, a 28-year-old Mexican with a visa struggled to keep pace with more experienced farmworkers as the area's heat index neared 90 degrees. He experience fatigue and leg pain, symptoms of heat illness, and later was found unresponsive in a shallow ditch. Rafael Barajas, the Okeechobee farm labor contractor who hired him, was cited with failure to provide workers adequate water, shade, and rest breaks and faces $15,625 in penalties, the maximum set by statute.
- A Jacksonville behavioral health and substance disorder facility, Wekiva Springs Hospital, was cited for regularly exposing workers to intense incidents of violence from patients. There were reports of 182 alleged incidents in 2022, nearly 70 percent requiring a police response. The company received one serious violation, totaling $15,625.
- Dollar General in Astor was cited for allowing merchandise and other items to block access to fire extinguishers and permitting employees to store materials improperly in the working space around an electrical panel, both violations often found at the company's locations. $196,438 in penalties was assessed.
Georgia
- The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) upheld fall hazard citations issued to Norcross-based Fama Construction Inc. The company argued it had ended its training program and halted safety inspections of its worksites, asserting that the subcontractors bore the responsibilities and that it was economically infeasible for it to hire an additional supervisor. OSHRC ruled the company had to satisfy certain safety requirements in its secondary role as a controlling employer and ordered it to pay $68,344 in penalties.
Illinois
- Over $2.8 million in penalties were issued to Miracapo Pizza Company, which also does business as Little Lady Foods when a 29-year-old temporary sanitation worker suffered fatal injuries while working on the overnight shift at the Gurnee sheeting facility. Inspectors found that temporary workers had not been trained or given the authority to stop equipment from moving before cleaning and the company failed to install adequate machine guards. The company had previously been cited when two employees suffered amputations. Cited for 16 willful egregious violations (the agency's most severe), one willful violation, and 12 serious violations, including five serious instance-by-instance violations of two standards on different machines, the company was placed in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP). Separately, GDI Services Inc., a contractor who provides sanitation services to Miracapo Pizza was cited for two willful and two serious violations, including failure to train workers on safety procedures in a language they understand.
- For the seventh time since 2015 United Custom Homes LLC, an Oswego contractor, was cited for fall protection violations. In addition to not providing fall protection equipment, the contractor failed to train workers on the use of fall protection and forklift operations and did not provide workers with eye protection. The company was cited for one willful violation, one repeat violation, and two serious violations with proposed penalties of $151,260.
- A 27-year-old employee of Rooter Solutions Inc., a Burr Ridge plumbing contracting business, was fixing a residential water line damaged during excavation when the trench's walls collapsed, crushing him fatally. The company faces one willful and one serious violation with proposed penalties of $35,940 for failing to install cave-in protection and ensure the use of head protection.
- Juan Zuniga Ramos, operator of JZ Exteriors and Repairs LLC in Fairmont City, was cited for failing to provide fall protection and train workers on its use as well as other violations after inspectors observed roofers removing shingles on a commercial building in Greenville. The company faces five repeat, four serious, and one other-than-serious safety violation with proposed penalties of $66,711.
- Acting on a City of Waterloo engineer's referral, on five occasions inspectors found five employees of Breese-based Groundworks Contracting Inc. working in trenches without cave-in protection and head protection. The company was also cited for not training employees and not having a competent person on site to inspect trenches. It received one willful violation, four serious violations, and one other-than-serious violation with proposed penalties of $77,147.
- A 29-year-old worker suffered the amputation of a fingertip while reassembling a pump at a Hostess Brands LLC facility in Chicago. The inspection was expanded under the National Emphasis Program on Amputations for Manufacturing Industries and the company was cited for one willful violation, one repeat violation, and five serious violations, with penalties totaling $298,010.
Pennsylvania
- A federal district court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania has issued a consent judgment ordering a Luzerne County paper box manufacturer, Midvale Paper Box Company Inc., and its owner to pay a former employee $13,000 for terminating the worker because they mistakenly believed the employee had filed a safety complaint.
- Inspectors found hazardous conditions at four stores in Adams, Franklin, and Dauphin counties owned and operated by Dollar General Corp. and Dolgencorp LLC like those identified at other company locations, including blocked exit routes and electrical panels, and overall poor housekeeping practices. Citations were issued for two repeat, two serious, and one other-than-serious safety violation with $227,898 in proposed penalties.
Wisconsin
- Inspectors were investigating an incident that caused the amputation of the top of a finger when another serious injury occurred at a meat and sausage manufacturing plant, Abbyland Foods Inc. They then expanded the inspection under the Wisconsin Food Manufacturing Industry Local Emphasis Program and interviewed over 70 employees. The company faces one repeat and 17 serious violations related to failure to follow lockout/tagout procedures and provide adequate machine guarding. Proposed penalties are $277,472.
- An employee suffered crushing injuries to his right index and middle fingers at a Green Bay beef processing plant, JBS Green Bay Inc. Inspectors found that JBS failed to ensure that there was adequate guarding in place on the trolley line to protect workers from pinch points and proposed penalties of $227,786 for four repeat, four serious, and two other-than-serious violations. The inspection was expanded under the Food Manufacturing Industry Local Emphasis Program and some penalties related to lockout/tagout, fall and electrical hazards, and hazard communication.
- In response to an employee complaint, an inspection of a Dollar Tree store in Pewaukee revealed block aisles and exit routes and the company was cited for one repeat violation, totaling $98,219.