A study released by the RAND corporation looking into California’s Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) indicates failures to “look beyond paper compliance with its provisions.” The paper points to training by employers and enforcement by regulators as having the most pronounced impact on injury rates under the program. The IIPP law has required for [...]

Workers’ compensation costs per claim for Louisiana grew at a double-digit rate in recent years, the fastest growth among all states in a new study by Cambridge, Mass.-based Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI). The 16-state study, CompScope™ Benchmarks for Louisiana, 12th Edition, reported that costs per claim rose 11 percent per year from 2007 to [...]

Along with its final report on three accidents that left five dead and three injured in a Tennessee metals plant, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board called on the Occupational Health and Safety Administration to develop and publish a combustible dust standard that includes coverage for metal dusts. The Hoeganaes powdered metal plant in Gallatin, Tennessee [...]

The United States Department of Occupational Health and Safety (OSHA) recently released a white paper affirming their belief that requiring all employers to maintain an Injury Illness Prevention Program (I2P2) will lead to both a decrease in occupational injuries and death and a cost savings for employers. To substantiate these claims the paper pulls from [...]

Michigan, Vermont, Florida, Arizona, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, California, Rhode Island, Kansas, Montana, New York, Illinois, Maine and several other states are rolling out changes to required labor law postings in January. The changes included increases to minimum wage, updates to youth employment standards and more. Employers are required by law to post the [...]

Exercise may be a recordable form of treatment, according to a letter of interpretation recently published by OSHA. The letter dated May 20, 2011 and posted a few weeks ago on OSHA’s website states that  an exercise regime directed by a Certified Athletic Trainer (ATC) to an employee due to signs and symptoms of a [...]

One in four Canadian workers say they are highly stressed, according to a recent released study by Statistics Canada. In the survey, 27 percent of workers, or almost 3.7 million working adults in Canada, said they were “quite a bit” or “extremely” stressed. Another 6.3 million (46 percent) reported being “a bit” stressed. The one-in-four [...]

According to a recent blog post by the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, David Michaels, OSHA will begin to target texting while driving to crack down on employee injuries and death. In 2009, distracted driving accounted for more than 5,400 traffic fatalities, or 16 percent of traffic fatalities. In terms of workplace [...]

Employees are more willing to report their employers for fraud, corruption and general unsafe workplace conditions according to data from Department of Labor. The data shows the number of whistle blower cases per year has steadily increased the past five years, with 2011 on pace to hit nearly 2,400 filings or nearly more than 300 [...]

A recently released study on rates of business in non-compliance of Cal/OSHA’s Injury and Illness Prevention Program standard show a large portion of employers are failing to meet the standard. The study, by Rand Corp. was commissioned by a body known as the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation (CHSWC) in advance of [...]