Massachusetts Workers Compensation Lawyers Blog

If you witness a problem at your place of employment and you feel like you’ve been treated unfairly, there’s a new and easier way for you to report it. According to officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), you can now file complaints online. This online form is going to allow workers who have been retaliated against in any way to reach out and get help from officials with OSHA.

“The ability of workers to speak out and exercise their rights without fear of retaliation provides the backbone for some of American workers’ most essential protections,” said Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.

Our Boston workers’ compensation lawyers understand that whistleblower laws are in place not only to protect our nation’s employees, but to also protect the public at large. Before, employees across the nation could only file a complaint to OSHA by writing in or calling their hotline. Now they can file a whistleblower complaint online.
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Officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently cited a Massachusetts fencing company more than $82,000 in fines for 14 serious and repeat violations for putting workers’ safety and health in jeopardy. The Richmond Hill-based company was fined for dangerous work conditions observed at its Marlborough, Massachusetts location. Officials with OSHA’s Andover Area Office kicked of an inspection into the location following a July complaint.

“These conditions exposed workers to struck-by and crushing injuries, electric shock, laceration hazards, being caught in operating machinery, hearing loss and exposure to hazardous chemicals,” said Jeffrey A. Erskine with OSHA.

Our Marlborough workers’ compensation lawyers understand that this wasn’t the only problem that OSHA officials have had with the company. Earlier in the year, the company’s Wingdale, N.Y. plant was cited with some of the same violations. These violations included lack of blade guards and anti-kickback devices, table saws lacking blade guards and a violation for a table saw that lacked proper electrical grounding. With these New York violations, the company was cited more than $35,000 in fines. And many of these were repeat violations, meaning that the company was already cited for the problems at least once in the last five years.
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The holiday shopping season is upon us and is about to kick into high gear with Black Friday. Officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are encouraging retail employers to take precautions to prevent workplace injuries during these kinds of sales events.

This year is a special holiday as it marks the fifth anniversary of the death of a worker killed when his store opened its door for its annual Black Friday shopping event. Back in 2008, the employee was trampled to death as customers bombarded the store in search of holiday sales. This year, OSHA officials are asking retailers to take the proper precautions and to review crowd management strategies to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

Our workers’ compensation lawyers in Massachusetts understand that OSHA has been sending letters out to major retailers across the country to help to warn them of the risks associated with Black Friday and with large crowds. But those letters are useless if employers don’t take action. Review the following before launching your Black Friday sale and help to keep everyone, including your employees, safe.
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Officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are working to make sure that workplace safety is improved through better recording of work accidents and injuries. They recently proposed a new rule to achieve this, and released the news to coincide with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ release of its annual Occupational Injuries and Illnesses report. This report estimated that roughly 3 million people were injured on the job last year.

“Three million injuries are three million too many,” said Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor.

Our workers’ compensation lawyers in Massachusetts understand that under the OSHA’s current recordkeeping regulation, covered employers are required to prepare and maintain records of serious occupational injuries and illnesses, using the OSHA 300 Log. This information is important for employers, workers and OSHA in evaluating the safety of a workplace, understanding industry hazards, and implementing worker protections to reduce and eliminate hazards. With the changes that have been proposed, officials with OSHA look to make sure that everyone in the workplace has better access to accident information to help to better create rules, regulations and standards for preventative measures to avoid on-the-job accidents. The proposal was created to modify an employer’s obligation to transmit records to OSHA.
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The “Winter Alert” campaign is in full effect, according to the U.S. Department of Labor‘s Mine Safety and Health Administration. This campaign works to warn coal mine operators and miners of the risks and hazards that accompany winter weather. According to the latest statistics, we most commonly see deadly mine explosions from the months of October through March. These incidents are much more likely during cold periods than during warmer periods.

“Operators of underground coal mines need to be fully aware of the precautions they can take to avoid tragic accidents at their mine sites,” said the assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, Joseph A. Main.

Our Boston workers’ compensation lawyers understand that during winter months, huge decreases in barometric pressure allow potentially explosive methane to move from remote areas to working areas of an underground coal mine. These conditions increase the risks that methane could mix with an ignition source and an explosion could occur. As a matter of fact, more than 100 miners have been killed in mine explosions over the last 20 years.
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Officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently cited New England’s Palumbo Trucking Inc. and ordered the owner of the company to withdraw a retaliatory lawsuit filed against two former workers of the commercial motor carrier who raised safety concerns, pay them $60,000 in damages and take other corrective actions.

“Filing a baseless, retaliatory lawsuit against workers who engaged in protected activity has a profound chilling effect,” said OSHA’s New England regional administrator, Marthe Kent.

Our workers’ compensation lawyers in Massachusetts understand that there are laws in place to protect employees who report violations of various workplace safety. As a worker in the United States, you have a right to a safe workplace and you also have the right to speak up about any safety-related concerns. In the recent incident, OSHA found that the company violated federal protection provisions when they filed a lawsuit against two of its workers. The two workers allegedly filed complaints about issues they had with one of their work trucks.
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