OSHA has proposed $60,000 in fines against G. Lopes Construction Inc. for allegedly failing to provide cave-in protection for employees working in a 6-foot, 3-inch-deep excavation located in front of 156 Winthrop St. in Taunton, Mass.
Joseph T. Hansen, International President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and chair of the Change to Win Immigration Task Force, and John Sweeney, International President of the AFL-CIO, today unveiled a unified framework for comprehensive immigration reform legislation, according to an AFL-CIO press release.
A first of its kind study funded by EPA shows that environmental education programs are an effective tool in helping to improve air quality in North America, according to a recent agency press release.
In the words of a safety professional whose career pre-dates the beginning of OSHA in 1971, the recent response to Labor Secretary Solis’ appointment of Jordan Barab as acting OSHA administrator and full-time deputy has been “underwhelming.”
OSHA has ordered United Parcel Service (UPS) to immediately rehire and pay back wages, benefits, compensatory damages and $50,000 in punitive damages to a former Bay Area driver who was wrongfully terminated after he refused to drive after raising safety concerns, according to an OSHA press release.
In a prepared statement, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said: “The safety and health of America’s working men and women should be a top priority of any administration. But, a new report from the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released reveals that the Bush Administration’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration systematically failed to enforce the law against employers who put workers in serious danger. The OIG investigation of OSHA practices under its Enhanced Enforcement Program (EEP) – a program calling for stepped up enforcement against serious violators – found that in 97 percent of studied enforcement cases, OSHA’s follow-up was deficient or lacking. This failure may well have cost workers their lives. The OIG found that at worksites of 45 employers where OSHA oversight was deficient, 58 workers subsequently were killed by job hazards.
A first of its kind study funded by EPA shows that environmental education programs are an effective tool in helping to improve air quality in North America, according to an agency press release.
Like EPA, Earth Day is celebrating its 39th anniversary this year and, in an Earth Month video message released today, Administrator Lisa P. Jackson challenges all Americans to begin building the green economy that will define the next two decades, according to an EPA press release.
EPA announced in a press release that it is withdrawing a rule intended to provide financial incentives for states to use fees when administering a clean water permit program. The agency issued the rule in September 2008.
According to a press release from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the agency has made the following recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration: