Full disclosure: Most of us at Causey Wright have convertible sit/stand workstations, and love them! – kc
Today’s post was shared by Jon L Gelman and comes from workers-compensation.blogspot.com
Before employers buy standing workstations and/or even treadmills to prevent repetitive motion claims, they ought to take heed of a recent study that considers them a useless fad. The newest marketing craze is work at standing desks, some even equipped with treadmills and marked as ergonomically safer for an employee’s health.
A recently published study has reported the proposed benefits as merely “marketing hyperbole.” “The promotion of active workstations, such as standing desks and even treadmills in the office has been promoted by manufacturers recently with claims of better physical health, improved posture, even reduced mental stress, and a general boost to wellbeing. A new study suggests that many of the proposed benefits and claims are little more than marketing hyperbole.”
Disorders due to repeated motion trauma, an occupational illness, have increased substantially over the decades. “The New Jersey Supreme Court has recognized that the modern workplace is technologically sophisticated and that ergonomics present new situations which have generated an epidemic of repetitive stress injuries. Office workers who regularly use computers often suffer from many debilitating hand and wrist disorders resulting in tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. Matter of Musick, 143 N.J. 206, 670 A.2d 11 (1996).” Gelman, Jon L, Workers Compensation Law, 38 NJPRAC 9.2 (Thomson-Reuters 2018).
For the second time in less than two years, Dollar Tree Stores Inc., faces stiff fines for workplace safety violations at two of its stores. The company faces $306,000 in state penalties.
The Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) cited and fined the Virginia-based employer after inspections at the company’s Bonney Lake and Kelso stores found “willful” violations, the most severe. The L&I inspector found the stores were knowingly exposing employees to workplace safety hazards. Dollar Tree stores in Aberdeen and Chehalis were cited for the same violations in 2016.
“We are seeing the same safety violations at Dollar Tree stores over and over again in Washington,” said L&I Division of Occupational Safety and Health Assistant Director Anne Soiza. “It’s concerning because this is a national problem as well. Employees, and sometimes customers, are being put at risk even though the fixes to these safety problems are simple.”
L&I initiated the recent inspections after getting complaints about safety hazards at the two stores. A customer at the Bonney Lake store contacted L&I to express concerns for the store employees’ safety because boxes crowded and blocked pathways and emergency exit routes. Many boxes were also stacked precariously and so high that they could easily have fallen on employees or even customers in some instances. All of the willful violations are serious, but the blocked pathways and emergency exits are the most concerning.
Bonney Lake store cited for dangerous stacks of boxes and obstructed exits
At the Bonney Lake store, the company was cited for three willful safety violations. The first was for not ensuring that exit routes were free of obstructions. At the time of the inspection, merchandise blocked several aisles and passageways. Employees did not have clear paths from the breakroom and other areas to emergency exits and could be trapped in a fire or other emergency. Because of the employer’s history, this violation carries the maximum fine of $70,000.
The second willful violation cited was for storing merchandise in a way that created a safety hazard. The stockroom was packed with boxes of merchandise in stacks and piles. Heavy boxes were on top of light ones, some had fallen from the stacks, and there were uneven and leaning stacks more than nine feet high. This violation also carries the maximum penalty of $70,000.
Improperly stored merchandise can fall on employees causing serious injuries or even death if the boxes cause an employee to fall and strike their head on the floor. Lifting heavy boxes onto nine-foot stacks is also likely to cause strains and sprains or serious back injuries.
A third willful violation with a penalty of $26,000 was cited for not installing protective guarding or covers over light fixtures that could be struck and broken by the stacked merchandise, which could cause eye injuries or cuts from falling glass.
Kelso Dollar Tree cited for similar safety violations
At the Kelso store, the company was cited for two willful violations with maximum penalties of $70,000 each. The violations were similar to those cited at the Bonney Lake store and previously at the Aberdeen and Chehalis stores. Merchandise was crowded into a storeroom with uneven stacks as high as eight feet, and exit routes were blocked or obstructed with boxes of merchandise.
Dollar Tree has appealed the citation.
Penalty money paid as a result of a citation is placed in the workers’ compensation supplemental pension fund, helping injured workers and families of those who have died on the job.
For a copy of the citations, please contact Public Affairs at 360-902-5413.
Photo credit: Robert S., Yelp.com – “Typical aisle, with hazardous boxes blocking shelved merchandise.”
OWCP has published a final rule that implements the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act’s maximum and minimum compensation provisions as outlined in Sections 6 and 9 of the Act. The rule also addresses the Act’s section 10(f) annual adjustment provision.
To provide clarity for all stakeholders, the rule:
prescribes which maximum compensation rates apply to any particular injury by implementing the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the “newly awarded” phrase (i.e., compensation is “newly awarded” when the employee first becomes disabled) and the interpretation of the “currently receiving” phrase adopted by two courts of appeals (i.e., “currently receiving” means the date the employee is entitled to compensation;
addresses how the Act’s minimum compensation provisions apply; and
outlines the relationship between Section 6’s maximum and minimum compensation rates and Section 10(f)’s annual adjustment provision.
Please access our website (http://www.dol.gov/owcp/dlhwc/) for more information on this rule, including a letter from the Longshore Director summarizing the provisions of the rule and a link to the Federal Register site where you can review the final rule in its entirety.
OSHA cited a Florida communication tower contractor after three employees suffered fatal injuries at a Miami worksite.
MIAMI, FL – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Tower King II Inc. after three employees suffered fatal injuries while attempting to install a new antenna on a communications tower in Miami.
During the investigation, OSHA determined that a gin pole system – a device that attaches to a communications tower to hoist loads – failed, causing the employees to fall. Investigators determined that the employer failed to ensure the capacity of the rigging attachments were adequate to support the forces imposed from hoisting loads. The Texas-based tower contractor was issued one serious citation for exposing employees to fall and struck-by hazards. The company faces $12,934 in proposed penalties, the maximum allowed under law.
“This tragedy underscores the importance of having a qualified individual conduct an analysis before performing construction work on communication towers,” said Condell Eastmond, Fort Lauderdale OSHA Office Director.
The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
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 ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education, and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.
A spokesman for Jorgensen Forge said the owners see “much more opportunity in redeveloping this land.” Some of the 110 union employees at Jorgensen Forge have worked there for decades and aren’t sure what comes next.
After 78 years in business, a local manufacturer that forges metals for Boeing, the U.S. Navy and other big customers is shutting down so its property can be sold and redeveloped.
Jorgensen Forge, which operates a 22-acre facility next to Boeing Field in Tukwila, just over Seattle’s southern border, said Wednesday it has stopped taking new orders and will wind down operations over the next six months or so.
All 110 union employees at the plant are being laid off and were informed of the closure on Wednesday.
“Some people are very worked up, very upset,” said Matthew Steffen, a Jorgensen manager. “There are people that have worked here their entire adult lives, 30-40 years, and don’t really know any other place.”
Today’s post was shared by Jon L Gelman and comes from www.npr.org
A lot of very hard work is going on at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
A muscled guy in an undershirt tightens a big bolt with his wrench; a farm worker bends almost in half, filling his sack with cotton; Rosie the Riveter rolls up her sleeve to tackle her factory job. They’re all part of an exhibition called "The Sweat Of Their Face: Portraying American Workers."
But not all the laborers are big and burly.
A forlorn young girl — she can’t be more than 11 or 12 — stands at a long row of spools of thread mounted on a big piece of complicated machinery. Photographer Lewis Wickes Hine wrote her name and height on the back of the picture: "Sadie Pfeifer, 48 inches high, has worked half a year." She had a job in 1908 at the Lancaster Cotton Mills in South Carolina. You can almost hear the noise, feel the heat.
"And there she is, this little girl, alone, facing an enormous machine," says Dorothy Moss, who curated this show with David C. Ward. She says Hine was a crusader, and his cause was to abolish child labor. "He would often disguise himself as a Bible vendor or newspaper deliverer, other professions, to get into these mills."
Hine put himself at risk to take these pictures, and, with the camera as witness, reforms and regulations were enacted. This exhibition showcases centuries of American workers. They are, as Moss says,"the people who were building this country, who may be on the sidelines, who…
Today’s post was shared by Jon L Gelman and comes from www.cnn.com
(CNN)California’s insurance commissioner has launched an investigation into Aetna after learning a former medical director for the insurer admitted under oath he never looked at patients’ records when deciding whether to approve or deny care.
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones expressed outrage after CNN showed him a transcript of the testimony and said his office is looking into how widespread the practice is within Aetna.
"If the health insurer is making decisions to deny coverage without a physician actually ever reviewing medical records, that’s of significant concern to me as insurance commissioner in California — and potentially a violation of law," he said.
Aetna, the nation’s third-largest insurance provider with 23.1 million customers, told CNN it looked forward to "explaining our clinical review process" to the commissioner.
The California probe centers on a deposition by Dr. Jay Ken Iinuma, who served as medical director for Aetna for Southern California from March 2012 to February 2015, according to the insurer.
During the deposition, the doctor said he was following Aetna’s training, in which nurses reviewed records and made recommendations to him.
Jones said his expectation would be "that physicians would be reviewing treatment authorization requests," and that it’s troubling that "during the entire course of time he was employed at Aetna, he never once looked at patients’ medical records himself."
Many apprenticeship programs that exist in federal agencies, on Native American tribal lands, and for multi-state non-building trades apprenticeships are overseen by United States Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship (DOL/OA) Las Vegas, Nevada.
For more information, contact: US Department of Labor, Office of Apprenticeship Douglas Howell, Region 6 Multi-State Navigator 600 South Las Vegas Blvd Suite 520 Las Vegas NV 89101 702-388-6396 Email: howell.douglas@dol.gov
Today’s post was shared by Workers Comp News and comes from www.jdsupra.com
In the vast majority of cases, workers’ compensation benefits are fully tax exempt, at the federal, state and local level. But this is not always the case where the workers’ comp beneficiary is also receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits.
Workers’ comp programs, which are run at the state level, provide benefits to people who suffer from work-related disabilities, stemming either from specific incidents or from conditions that develop over time, otherwise known as occupational injuries. The federal SSDI program compensates people with sufficient work histories who are deemed unemployable due to their disabilities, regardless of any connection between the person’s employment and the disability.
As is the case whenever a person with Social Security benefits receives supplemental income, a person’s SSDI benefit becomes taxable if the combined SSDI and workers’ comp income exceeds $25,000 (or $35,000 for joint filers).
To further complicate matters, if the person’s combined income exceeds this, then the workers’ comp award may also become taxable where the person is subject to the workers’ comp offset. This rule exists to prevent a person from receiving a combined amount from SSDI and workers’ comp in excess of 80 percent of the person’s prior earnings. In such cases, the Social Security Administration will reduce the person’s SSDI benefit until it meets the 80 percent threshold.
Mentors and internships help bridge the gap between school and employment.
It’s easy to become a mentor
Educurious and the Port of Seattle are building a network of mentors, especially professionals in the public administration, environmental, skilled trades, aviation or maritime fields. Find out more here, or contact Rose Carlson at rcarlson@educurious.org, call (206) 717-2295, or schedule a phone meeting here.
The Port is currently accepting applications for at least 44 college internships in 2018, and will start accepting applications for 80 high school summer internships soon. These paid positions will provide meaningful work and learning experiences, allow students to try out careers, develop skills and networks, and benefit from mentoring. To visit the application web page click here.
