Here’s a challenging scenario: A prospective new hire seems perfect for a position in the shipping office, but she is a legal user of medical marijuana. Company policy says employees can use medical marijuana as long as they’re not in a safety-sensitive position, but the policy fails to clarify what such a job is. What …
Category: Miscellaneous
Employers Should File Lockout/Tagout Comments
Employers subject to the federal Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) rules should take advantage of the opportunity to comment on planned revisions of the standards or face enormous potential costs down the line, several attorneys warn. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a Request for Information (RFI) in May seeking input on the agency’s planned revision …
Safety 2019: Worker Fatigue, Incident Prevention and Well Being
Have you ever been so exhausted that it hurts? Fatigue, which is a common issue among overworked Americans, is the root cause of an overwhelming number of preventable workplace injuries. Phil La Duke, safety consultant and author, educated Safety 2019 attendees about what they can do to make workers aware about how lifestyle changes can …
Bad vibrations
Operating power tools, vehicles and heavy equipment can take both an immediate and eventual toll on the body. For millions of workers in the construction, maintenance, mining, forestry, transportation, agriculture and automotive industries, the effects of sustained on-the-job exposure to vibration – whether hand-arm or whole-body – may lead to various health problems. So what …
Driving delivery van was a pain in the butt: Did driver get workers’ comp?
A UPS driver says the padding on the seat in his delivery vehicle was so thin that he was basically sitting on metal for up to 10 hours a day. Did that cause an injury that was eligible for workers’ comp benefits? Jay Hannah, a delivery driver for UPS in West Virginia, claimed he injured …
A Clear Vision of Safety Starts at the Top
Despite their small size, our eyes are pretty big targets when it comes to workplace injuries. Every day, 2,000 Americans suffer eye injuries on the job, resulting in about 27,000 days away from work. When you factor in medical bills and compensation costs on top of all this downtime, eye injuries end up costing employers …
New research: As little as 16 minutes less sleep can harm work concentration
Poor sleep may lead to bad decision-making and distracting thoughts at work, according to a recent study by the Work, Family and Health Network. About 40% of U.S. workers report insomnia symptoms, which can impair middle-aged workers’ daily functioning in multiple ways, including less concentration and the potential for more mistakes while on the job. …
The Not-So-Quiet Dangers of Hearing Loss
Some of the most prevalent workplace hazards aren’t seen—they’re heard. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that 22 million U.S. workers are exposed to damaging noise levels at work, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), workplace-related hearing loss is the most commonly reported injury. It’s not …
Injured during driving test: Does he qualify for workers’ comp benefits?
If someone is injured during a pre-employment test, do they get workers’ comp benefits? The answer to that question came down to the definition of a three-letter word. Cozmin Gadalean applied for a commercial driver position with Imperial Trucking Inc. in Oregon. Gadalean interviewed with the company’s owner who scheduled a mandatory U.S. Department of …