May 8, 2024

Department of Labor plans to restructure workplace safety, health regional operations strategically to protect workers

WASHINGTON – The Department of Labor today announced strategic changes to the structure of its Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s regional operations designed to direct its resources effectively and make the agency more resilient. 

May 8, 2024

Department of Labor takes critical step in heat safety rulemaking, continues heightened enforcement efforts, focuses on dangers to agricultural workers

WASHINGTON – The Department of Labor has taken an important step in addressing the dangers of workplace heat and moved closer to publishing a proposed rule to reducing the significant health risks of heat exposure for U.S. workers in outdoor and indoor settings. 

May 7, 2024

Department of Labor encourages construction industry employers, stakeholders to join 2024 National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is encouraging construction industry employers and workers across the nation to take part in its 11th annual National Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction from May 6-10. The event focuses attention on preventing the industry’s leading cause of worker deaths.

May 7, 2024

Settlement affirms willful OSHA violations, $215K penalties, against contractors for fall hazards at multiple New Jersey work sites

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, NJ – Two related North Jersey construction contractor companies – Primetime Construction LLC and its subsidiary Primetime Contractors LLC of Paterson – have agreed to pay $215,000 in penalties and undertake several significant safety measures to resolve numerous safety violations found at five Paterson construction worksites in 2021, as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor.

May 7, 2024

Department of Labor cites goods transport provider after truck strikes grain yard manager, weeks after federal inspectors warn of hazards 

FREMONT, NE – Responding to an employer’s report that a worker needed hospitalization after being struck by a semi-tractor-trailer and suffering severe injuries at a Fremont grain yard, federal workplace safety inspectors identified 23 violations by the worker’s employer, including failing to protect workers from being struck by moving vehicles.

May 7, 2024

St. Louis contractor faces $258K in fines after exposing roofing workers to potentially deadly fall hazards 5 times in 7 weeks at Wentzville worksites

ST. LOUIS – Federal workplace safety inspectors have cited a Missouri roofing contractor for 21 violations for illegally exposing roof workers — five times in seven weeks — at six Wentzville residential worksites to the dangers of fall hazards, the construction industry’s leading cause of serious injuries and death. 

May 6, 2024

US Department of Labor finds Chicago-area medical glass manufacturer again ignoring machine safety procedures, issues repeat violations

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, IL – A follow-up workplace safety inspection at a metro Chicago manufacturer of medical glass bottles and vials found the company continues to fail in its obligation to protect workers by training them in machine safety procedures.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration returned to Gerresheimer Glass Inc., in Chicago Heights on Jan. 31, 2024, to verify compliance after inspections in October and December 2022 found workers exposed to machine hazards. 

May 6, 2024

Department of Labor cites Midwest bread products supplier after worker suffers disabling injury at Sun Prairie facility

SUN PRAIRIE, WI – A U.S. Department of Labor investigation into an employee’s disabling injuries at a Sun Prairie commercial baking facility in October 2023 found the well-known Midwest bread supplier again violated workplace safety regulations.

May 2, 2024

Department of Labor investigation of Boston window cleaner’s 29-story fall finds employer again failed to inspect, replace protective equipment

BRAINTREE, MA  The U.S. Department of Labor has determined an East Boston window cleaning company’s failure to inspect and replace damaged or defective equipment contributed to an employee’s fatal 29-story fall from a building in downtown Boston’s financial district in October 2023.

May 1, 2024

US Department of Labor finds prominent South Carolina shipyard ignored federal measures that could have prevented 41-year-old worker’s fatal fall

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – A major East Coast ship repair and servicing company’s failure to make safety its #1 priority, a promise made on its website, has led to another employee fatality — the fourth in five years — a U.S. Department of Labor workplace safety inspection has found.   

May 1, 2024

US Department of Labor finds Georgia construction contractor could have prevented 31-year-old worker’s fatal fall in Arcadia

ARCADIA, FL – A Georgia construction contractor’s failure to enforce safety regulations at an Arcadia worksite led to a 31-year-old steel erector suffering fatal fall injuries, an incident caused by the same workplace safety violations for which federal inspectors cited the employer just 10 months earlier.

May 1, 2024

Department of Labor investigation into visiting nurse’s death finds home care agency failed to protect workers against workplace violence

HARTFORD, CT – A federal workplace safety investigation following the death of a licensed practical nurse during an Oct. 28, 2023, home visit in Willimantic, Connecticut, found one of the nation’s largest home-based care providers did not provide adequate safeguards to protect the nurse, Joyce Grayson, and other employees from the dangers of workplace violence. 

April 23, 2024

Department of Labor again cites Hanover Foods for exposing workers to dozens of safety, health hazards; proposes $761K in penalties

CENTRE HALL, PA – The U.S. Department of Labor has again found Hanover Foods Corp., a large food manufacturer with a history of hazardous workplace safety practices, in violation of dozens of safety and health hazards at its Centre Hall facility.

The producer of glass-pack, canned, frozen, refrigerated, freeze-dried and snack food products under the Hanover brand as well as other private labels also operates eight other manufacturing plants, including five in Pennsylvania and one each in Delaware, New Jersey and Guatemala.

April 23, 2024

Tamuning contractor faces $1M in penalties after federal inspectors find employees again exposed to potentially fatal trench hazards

TIYAN, GUAM ‒ A contractor with a history of failing to protect employees working in trenches from potentially deadly harm faces penalties of more than $1 million after federal investigators found employees working in trenches deeper than 5 feet without required safety equipment. 

April 23, 2024

US Department of Labor cites 2 Florida construction contractors after finding lack of crane safety protocols led to 37-year-old employee’s fatal injuries

ORLANDO, FL – Federal workplace safety investigators have determined that a Tampa-area construction contractor could have prevented a 37-year-old aerial lift operator from suffering fatal injuries after being struck by a boom as a crane tipped over during work on an Orlando highway ramp in October 2023.

April 17, 2024

US Department of Labor to honor workers whose jobs claimed their lives, recommit to protecting workers as nation marks Workers Memorial Day

WASHINGTON – When the nation first observed Workers Memorial Day on April 28, 1970, an estimated 38 U.S. workers suffered fatal on-the-job injuries each day and many more endured debilitating respiratory diseases and other life-altering illnesses related to workplace exposures. 

April 16, 2024

US Department of Labor provides support to families of fallen workers, stresses importance of workplace safety on Workers Memorial Day

LINCOLN, NE Fifteen years after the fatal, work-related incident that took the life of Waverly High Alumni Tonya Malley Ford’s uncle, she has turned her family’s loss into a national event. 

April 16, 2024

US Department of Labor finds employee fatally injured after manufacturer failed to protect her from caught-between, struck-by hazards

FRANKLIN, OH ‒ An Ohio subsidiary of one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers could have prevented a 26-year-old employee in Franklin from being fatally crushed in October 2023 if the company had provided proper machine guarding. 

April 15, 2024

US Department of Labor cites South Florida contractor for lack of heat illness prevention program after heatstroke claims 26-year-old worker’s life

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Making the trip from Mexico to South Florida, a 26-year-old man arrived in September 2023, ready to start a new job on a sugar cane farm in Belle Glade. Four days later, he suffered fatal heat-related injuries while working in an open field as the heat index reached 97 degrees.