OSHA's new Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee held its first meeting last week in Washington, D.C. Representatives from both management and labor highlighted improvements made to the program over the past 18 months.

Seth D. Harris, the Department of Labor's deputy secretary since May 2009, has been named acting secretary of labor. Before joining the department, Harris was a professor of law at New York Law School and director of its Labor & Employment Law Programs.

In the spring of 2010, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who announced her resignation January 9^th, 2013, put her name on the Department of Labor’s Regulatory Agenda Narrative, where she endorsed a strategy of “Plan/Prevent/Protect.”

It’s official: Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has announced in a letter to colleagues dated January 9^th that she is leaving her cabinet seat to “begin a new future” back in her home state of California. She submitted her resignation to President Obama on the 9^th.

While U.S. companies contend with a shortage of EHS professionals and skilled laborers, a global look at current and expected hiring reveals a complex picture. According to ManpowerGroup's first-quarter 2013 Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, the majority of employers in the global labor market are less confident about adding staff than they were at the start of 2012, suggesting a more difficult time ahead for job seekers in some countries.

Most of the sources with longstanding OSHA connections that ISHN has contacted post-election contend that we are in for a revival of the Injury and Illness Prevention Program (i2P2). OSHA officials backed off discussing in public to any detailed degree the controversial rule during the 2012 presidential election race.

We could see history being made here. Many DC sources tell us the same thing: Dr. Michaels “loves” his job, according to one source, and has made it known in DC he wants to stay on. It would be the first time in OSHA’s 40+ year history that an OSHA chief has stayed in place for a president’s second term.

Posted with permission from FairWarning.org: Months after settling complaints of unfair labor practices, a big warehouse operator in Southern California is facing new charges accusing it of illegally firing or reducing the hours of workers who took part in a strike and protest march.

A Nebraska auction ran afoul of the child labor laws when one of its teen employees was trampled by a 600 pound calf while herding cattle.

On behalf of its Mine Safety and Health Administration, the U.S. Department of Labor has filed complaints in U.S. district courts against mining companies in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire to collect $267,724 in unpaid civil penalties resulting from federal mine safety violations.