- OSHA penalties have been adjusted to the inflation rate and now the maximum penalty for serious and other-than-serious violations is $13,653 per violation compared to 13,494 last year. The maximum penalty for for willful or repeated violations is now $136,532 per violation. It was $134,937 per violation last year.
- OSHA also announced that it changed the system used to collect penalties. Violators will receive a series of 3 payment letters that will be sent 7, 30 and 60 days after a violator failed to timely pay the penalty. A phone call will also be made 14 days after the payment due date. Establishments that are not on an affordable payment plan and did not pay a penalty will be put on a priority list for further inspection.
- Biden appointed Dr. David Michaels, a prominent workplace health expert to his Covid-19 task force. Dr. David Michaels will help the business community by developing a national pandemic roadmap. So far this responsibility was left to individual states. Only 9 states have released comprehensive employer guidelines and only 4 others – Virginia, Michigan, California and Oregon – have enacted emergency workplace standards.
- in 2021, the covid19 pandemic is the main concern. How to keep workers healthy and prevent the virus to spread. Workforce-wide medical response platforms that were initially created to monitor injuries are expanding to tackle Covid-19 challenges. New research proposes masks with color changing stickers to detect the virus.
- Tech companies are being more and more involved in construction site safety. The New York City Department of Buildings is using programmed badges and an online database to quickly assess if workers on a construction site have been proprely trained.
- The National Institute for Occupational Safety (NIOSH) is focusing on falls from ladders. Fall is he most common and also the most dangerous accident on construction sites. Statistics show that an estimated 81% of fall injuries treated in hospitals involve a ladder. Therefore NIOSH recently selected a professor at the University of Pittsburgh for a 1.8 million grant to develop safer ladder designs and understand individual risk factors.
- Construction sites that do not take appropriate measures to protect their employees from Covid-19 might face OSHA violations and personal injury lawsuits. Prudent contractors should take steps to avoid future liability.
- While falls are the number one cause of fatal construction accidents, the 3 other main causes of fatality are struck-by-incidents, electrocution and caught-in-between. They are called the Fatal-Four by OSHA and every contractor should focus on safe work practices to prevent these types of accidents.
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