Tag Archives: Occupational Health & Safety

by chaunce.stanton | March 29, 2013 · 8:27 am

Temporary Employee Dies in Pain, Employer Unwilling to Call 911

“OSHA proposed a $473,000 fine against Raani for 14 alleged violations, six of which are classified as willful, indicating ‘plain indifference’ toward employee safety and health.”

Read full article on salon.com

“Centeno’s death underscores the burden faced by some of America’s 2.5 million temporary, or contingent, workers — a growing but mostly invisible group of laborers who often toil in the least desirable, most dangerous jobs. Such workers are hurt more frequently than permanent employees and their injuries often go unrecorded.”

Bullying Employer K.O.’d in Ontario Workplace Violence and Failure-to-Post Case

Aldo Sarra, supervisor for Pro-Cut Concrete Cutting Ltd., physically assaulted John Owens, one of Sarra’s employees. Less than two weeks later, Sarra threatened to kill another employee, Jean-Guy Herron.

Both Owens and Herron were members in good standing of the Labourers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA). The union promptly filed a workplace violence grievance with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) who found that Sarra’s actions violated Bill 168 (also known as the Bully-Busting Bill). Bill 168 introduced workplace violence provisions into Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA).

Additionally, an OLRB investigation concluded that Pro-Cut Concrete Cutting did not post the workplace violence and harassment policies or programs, as required by Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act. Pro-Cut Concrete Cutting did not participate in the hearing.

Outcomes

Pro-Cut Concrete Cutting was ordered to:

Comply with the Province’s OHSA.
Provide full compensation to Herron and Owens for hours worked and vacation time.

The OLRB scheduled a separate hearing to consider assessing damages for mental distress to the employees who were victims of workplace violence.

Ontario OHSA Posting Requirements

Employers with locations in Ontario are required to:

Post a copy of the OHSA and explanatory material, both in English and the majority language of the workplace, outlining the rights, responsibilities and duties of workers.
Prepare and review at least annually a written occupational health and safety policy and develop and maintain a program to implement that policy.
Post a copy of the occupational health and safety policy.
Provide to an employer-designate health and safety committee or to a health and safety representative the results of a health and safety data (injuries, illnesses, etc.).
Advise workers of the results of the health and safety report (if the report is in writing, employers must make it available to employees in written form).

About the OLRB

The Ontario Labour Relations Board is an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal mandated to mediate and adjudicate a variety of employment and labor relations-related matters under a number of Ontario statutes. They provide guidance on cases involving:

Establishing or terminating bargaining rights in a workplace
Trade unions’ duty of fair representation or referral of its members
Unfair labor practices by any workplace party
Illegal strikes or lockouts
Grievances to arbitration in the construction industry
Accreditation in the construction industry
Unlawful reprisals

Need Help Navigating Canadian Labor Law Posting Requirements?

If you have multiple employment locations in the U.S. and Canada and would like to simplify your labor law poster compliance program, visit GovDocs’ Canadian Posting Compliance page to learn more about how we can help.

1 Comment

Filed under Canada, General Labor Law Practices, Ontario, Unions, Violence in workplace, Workplace Safety

Tagged as Canada, Employment, employment poster, employment postings, Labour law, Occupational Health & Safety, OHSA, OLRB, Ontario, Ontario Labour Relations Board, Workplace Violence

by chaunce.stanton | September 17, 2012 · 1:16 pm

What’s the Difference Between Mandatory and Non-Mandatory Changes? Part 2

Utah State Capitol (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here’s a typical scenario: your business receives an email, telephone call, or a snail-mail letter telling you that posters for your state have changed and that your posters are now out of compliance.

How can you be sure that they aren’t just feeding you a line? After all, they’re in business to sell as many posters as possible.

Three recent employment posting changes to Utah state postings serve as a good example. Several GovDocs’ competitors listed these changes as mandatory changes requiring customers with locations in Utah to purchase new posters.

Workers’ Compensation Notice (English): Verbiage addition to the poster that states employees have 180 days to give notice of injury. (Utah law has required the 180-day limit for more than 10 years. The English version now mirrors the 180-day language already found on the Spanish version.)
Workers’ Compensation Notice (Spanish): Reformatting/slight text changes.
Workplace Safety and Health in the State of Utah: Includes language that whistleblower complaints must be filed within 30 days.

GovDocs uses a very thorough research methodology when it comes to determining whether a posting change is mandatory or not. Our Research Department delved deeper with qualified members of the Utah Occupational Safety and Health (Utah OSHA) and confirmed that the three changes mentioned above are not mandatory changes, and Utah employers who display the previous version of each of these posting are in compliance.

As mentioned in Part 1 of this series, postings in the U.S. experience more than 200 labor law changes each year, but government issuing agencies deem approximately only 40% as mandatory changes requiring replacement of existing postings or the addition of new postings.

If you’re responsible for keeping a few locations compliant with labor law posting requirements, you many not mind spending an extra $30 here and there just to be “on the safe side.” But if you’re responsible for hundreds – or thousands – of locations, posting updates can be an expensive and confusing proposition.

GovDocs eliminates unnecessary spending on labor law postings and logistics for large, multi‐location employers with extreme accuracy.

That’s why many large employers – including 30% of Fortune 50 companies – rely on GovDocs to keep current with the latest state and federal labor law posting requirements. GovDocs actively monitors all changes from more than 500 state and federal agencies in order to provide complete and accurate posters that keep our customers compliant.

Learn more about how GovDocs helps business like yours remain compliant.

2 Comments

Filed under General Labor Law Practices, State Labor Laws

Tagged as Employment, Labour law, Occupational Health & Safety, Occupational Safety & Health Administration, Poster, Research Department, Utah, workers' compensation

by chaunce.stanton | July 21, 2012 · 9:25 am

California: Falling Stars and Lots of Labor Law Postings

Concrete floors breathed a collective sigh of relief after California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) let them off the hook for their role in Halle Berry’s workplace accident. The Academy-Award-winning actress was acting in a fight scene for a forthcoming movie The Hive when she fell and hit her head on a concrete floor.

Cal/OSHA spokesperson Peter Melton said the agency would decline to investigate as it focuses on workplace accidents caused by unsafe practices as opposed to stunt malfunctions.

“If she just fell on a concrete floor, we’re not going to go seal off the floor and say it’s dangerous,” Melton said.

Halle Berry is just one of the more than 16 million workers in California’s labor force, which is the largest in the country. (Even second-place Texas trails the Golden State by nearly 5 million workers.) The state maintains an active labor law and workplace safety enforcement program with more than $1.7 million in penalties assessed so far in 2012 by Cal/OSHA inspectors.

With 15 state labor law postings required for most employers, California also tops the nation for mandated postings. Texas is second again, tied with Pennsylvania at 11 required postings.

Blog Exclusive:

Save 20% on California Labor Law Postings

Although the postings are available directly from multiple state agencies like Cal/OSHA, GovDocs offers the required postings on a durable state-on-one poster that includes:

Notice to Employees – Unemployment Insurance, Disability Insurance, and Paid Family Leave
Safety & Health Protection on the Job
Discrimination and Harassment are Prohibited by Law
Pay Day Notice
Access to Medical Records
Time Off for Voting
Minimum Wage
Emergency Phone Numbers
No Smoking Except In Designated Areas
No Smoking
Notice A, Pregnancy Disability Leave
Notice B, Family Care and Medical Leave
Whistleblowers’ Protection Act
Notice to Employees – Injuries Caused by Work
IWC Wage Order (multiple industries)

As a blog exclusive, save 20% on your California poster and even on GovDocs’ convenient automatic Update Service for your California locations.

What do Your Employees Know About Rights? The DOL Wants to Find Out

The Department of Labor has developed a phone survey for 4,800 employees to assess knowledge of wage and safety rights.

A Department of Labor (DOL) survey could test your employees’ knowledge of their rights.

In its request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the DOL is looking for approval to hire the Gallup Poll to conduct a phone survey of 4,800 employees.

The survey will use one of two survey modules: either a Department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) module or an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) module. The questions are designed to see how well the sample group understands its rights as covered under the auspices of the Department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Examples of the more than forty proposed questions include some related to federal labor law postings, (one of GovDocs’ favorite topics):

If I wanted to learn more about my legal rights as a worker, I could easily get that information (agree/disagree)
How much do you know about your legal rights as a worker, in terms of how much you get paid?
What is the current federal minimum wage?
Does your current employer…hang posters in your workplace with information about your health and safety rights?

Most U.S. employers are required to display several postings from the DOL, including the OSHA Job Safety and Health: It’s the Law and the WHD’s Fair Labor Standards Act, which contains federal minimum wage information. These postings and other mandatory postings are available on GovDocs’ convenient all-on-one federal poster in English or in Spanish. They’re laminated, durable, easy to hang, and available for only $12.99.

Tag Archives: Occupational Health & Safety

Temporary Employee Dies in Pain, Employer Unwilling to Call 911