NORTH PORT, FL – Working in the recesses of Apalachicola National Forest on a July day as temperatures neared 100 degrees, the supervisor of two crews hired to clear invasive plants saw one 42-year-old worker was sweating heavily, his hands were trembling, and he seemed confused, unable to respond to commands.

WASHINGTON – The Department of Labor, Department of Education, Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration today announced the members of a cross-agency working group that will collaborate to identify the current and future needs of the telecommunications industry workforce, including the safety of that workforce.

NEW YORK – Registered nurses, certified nursing assistants, patient care technicians and security officers provide essential services in healthcare settings. Their work also exposes them to various on-the-job hazards, including assault and other forms of workplace violence. When such hazards exist, employers must develop and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention program.

MOUNT VERNON, OH – Responding to a complaint that a Mount Vernon auto-parts supplier was ignoring guidelines to limit employee exposure to the coronavirus and that several employees were sick, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found the company did not enforce its own policy or federal guidelines on social distancing and mask wearing.

HARTFORD, CT– An employee of a Watertown metal fabrication company was electrocuted on July 14, 2021, while repairing a portable water heater. An inspection by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that his employer, PM Engineered Solutions Inc., lacked safeguards to protect employees against electrocution, as well as mechanical, chemical, fall and other electrical hazards.

AMARILLO, TX – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found that the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management violated procedures for safe handling of chemical materials at its Cliffside Helium Enrichment Unit in Amarillo, a federal chemical producing plant that refines and sells helium products to private entities.

SAVANNAH, GA – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has signed a strategic partnership with Choate Construction to promote worker safety and health during the construction of a mixed-use development in the historic district of Savannah. The Associated General Contractors of Georgia Inc. and the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute – Safety, Health and Environmental Services Group are also supporting this partnership effort.

BILLINGS, MT – A federal workplace safety investigation in July 2021 found a utility contractor in Montana exposed employees working in and around trenches to potentially deadly hazards.

Who:               Wage and Hour Division

                          Occupational Safety and Health Administration

What:             Assistance and enforcement action in Arkansas after December 2021 tornadoes

KANSAS CITY, MO – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Consulate General of Mexico in Kansas City have renewed an alliance – first signed in 2013 – to continue their collaborative relationship to promote workplace safety and health with the consulate and Mexican nationals working in Kansas and Missouri.

DECATUR, AL – Exposure to dangerous toxins at an Alabama chemical manufacturing plant – Daikin America Inc. – lead to the deaths of two workers and sickened another worker after the employer failed to provide appropriate protective equipment and implement safe work practices during maintenance activities on chemical processing equipment.

DELAIR, NJ – Aluminum Shapes LLC will affirm a $1 million penalty and accept 10 willful, 15 repeat and 55 serious violations and one other-than-serious citation in a settlement agreement to resolve two long-running U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration cases related to a fatality and a series of employee injuries at the company’s Delair plant.

BRADENTON BEACH, FL – Two men doing framing work at a residential construction project in Bradenton Beach on June 23, 2021, had no warning when the platform beneath them failed, causing both to fall about 25 feet – roughly two stories – to the ground. Head trauma killed a 49-year-old carpenter and crew leader, who died at the scene. The second worker, a 40-year-old carpenter, suffered fractures to his leg, knee, ribs and nose, and needed transport to a local hospital.

JACKSONVILLE, FL – A Florida-based roofing contractor – with a long history of exposing his workers to the serious and potentially fatal risks related to falls – faces possible incarceration for his failure to comply with court orders once again.

BOSTON – The Occupational Safety and Health Act authorizes the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue subpoenas to request necessary documents as part of an OSHA inspection. If a recipient fails to comply, the department may then move to enforce the subpoena in federal district court. A recent decision by the U.S.

EASTAMPTON, NJ – While falls continue to be the leading cause of death and serious injury in the construction industry, federal workplace safety inspectors too often find employers willing to ignore required safety protections and put the safety of their workers at risk.

NEVILLE ISLAND, PA – A workplace safety investigation into the June death in Neville Island of a 19-year-old roofing worker who fell 30 feet through an unprotected skylight found two commercial contractors willfully failed to use fall protection systems that might have saved his life.

KANSAS CITY, MO – A Leawood contractor rehabbing the Firestone, Shankman and Michaelson buildings in Kansas City’s historic Troost commercial district continues to expose its workers to asbestos and other workplace hazards, a June 29, 2021, federal safety and health investigation has found.

“OSHA is gratified the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit dissolved the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard. OSHA can now once again implement this vital workplace health standard, which will protect the health of workers by mitigating the spread of the unprecedented virus in the workplace.

MONTICELLO, AR – A knot saw operator suffered a partial amputation of an index finger in June 2021 when his hand came in contact with a rotating blade that lacked adequate machine guarding. A few weeks earlier, a similar saw at the Maxwell Hardwood Flooring plant in Monticello lacerated a co-worker’s palm severely, leaving them with nerve damage.