Archive for: Workplace Safety

Companies have devoted considerable resources to reducing injuries and conditions have improved, but not enough. Employers reported 2.8 million injury and illness cases in 2022, a 7.5 percent increase over 2021. There were 5,486 fatal work injuries in 2022—the equivalent of one death every 96 minutes. Here are seven reasons why more effective injury and […]

Although safety training has always evolved to meet the needs of the workplace, best practices focused primarily on physical safety and compliance issues. While these remain high on the list of priorities, the fundamental changes brought on by the pandemic broadened the perception of safety and psychological safety and mental health and wellness have emerged […]

While most organizations will never experience an active shooter situation, it’s clear it can happen anywhere and to anyone. According to FBI data, 250 active shootings took place between 2000-2017. From 2000 to 2006, shooting incidents averaged 6.7 a year, jumping to 16.4 a year from 2007 to 2013, and then averaging 22 a year […]

The U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently denied an employer’s motion to vacate a jury’s award of punitive damages to a former employee of an iron-casting company who claimed he was terminated for reporting alleged safety and health hazards. When no corrective action was taken after he repeatedly complained about a […]

Employers looking to boost the bottom line would be smart to closely examine the costs of their health and safety incidents. While high-profile disruptions such as cyber-attacks, IT outages, or extreme weather get more attention, health and safety incidents are the leading financial loss drivers for businesses around the globe, according to the BCI 2019 Horizon Scan. […]

The USG + U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index (CCI) https://www.uschamber.com/sites/default/files/cci_2018_q3_9-06_release.pdf is a quarterly economic index designed to gauge the outlook for, and resulting confidence in, the commercial construction industry. While earlier reports indicated that the shortage of skilled workers affected schedule performance and jobsite efficiency, the September index added a new dimension – […]

Even employers who have carefully researched the options, involved employees in the selection of PPE, and ensured that it is comfortable, attractive, and fits properly, still struggle to get workers to use it. Training often focuses on how to properly wear PPE, when it should be worn, the limitations, how to care for it, and […]

Getting LOTO wrong is costly Here’s how to get it right Many companies believe they are in compliance with OSHA’s Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) standard; yet, it is one of the most difficult to comply with and is the number five violation in general industry and construction. To give you an idea of the standard’s complexity, a […]

OSHA’s removal of the term “unexpected energization” from the LOTO standard likely to lead to more citations Under the Obama administration, OSHA began an effort under the Standards Improvement Project 4 to fix minor, noncontroversial issues in several existing regulations, including the lockout/tagout regulation. While these issues typically include correcting typos, eliminating redundancies and clarifying […]

Be sure your employees are covered when going out of state to assist with recovery The requirements for Workers’ Comp vary by state and the important message here is that if you have employees traveling out of state you want to be sure you have the correct states on the policy. You should work with […]