Dangerous overpass painting, lunching with cadmium and where's the eyewash?
From unnecessarily dangerous overpass painting to workers storing their lunches at cadmium-contaminated workstations, OSHA's recent citations and orders were directed at a range of employers including a construction company, a gun manufacturer, a sponge processor and a trucking company.
Whistleblower protection in Knoxville, Tennessee
OSHA ordered Knoxville-based Heartland Transportation Inc. to reinstate a former employee and pay him $62,090 in compensatory and punitive damages plus more than two years of back wages, interest, benefits and reasonable attorney's fees. The worker was fired after complaining about mechanical failures in trucks he was assigned to drive for his employer, a contract mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. The order issued by OSHA also requires the trucking company to expunge any adverse references from the complainant's personnel records relating to the discharge.