Tag Archives: state laws

General Safety Issues

ABIDING BY THE LAWS OF WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY (GUEST POST)

The federal laws stated by the “Occupational Safety and Health Act” (OSHA), makes it mandatory for the employers to create a safe environment of working for the employees. Several states have their own laws for workplace safety. In order to abide by OSHA, employers are required to learn their obligations and also determine whether they need to abide by the state or federal laws. 

Depending on the state on which your company or business operates, it is determined whether you need to follow the sate or federal laws. This article mentions the state names that are governed by the state laws. The states not falling in that category need to follow the federal laws.

 The State Laws: 

OSHA, when passed, preempted all the state laws for occupational safety and health. At that time, every state had the choice to submit a plan to “Secretary of Labor” to get it approved. If the plan was found to be acceptable by the secretary, then the laws of the state were permitted to stand. In such states, referred to as the “state plan states”, employers must abide by the state’s standards, regulations and laws on workplace health and safety. The states do not require following the federal OSHA. 

The names of states falling in the category of “state plan states” are – Wyoming, Washington, Virginia, Vermont, Utah, Tennessee, South Carolina, Oregon, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Minnesota, Michigan, Maryland, Kentucky, Iowa, Indiana, Hawaii, California, Arizona and Alaska.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut also own workplace safety laws, but they are applicable to only the local and state government employees. Private employers are bound to follow the federal laws. 

In case your business runs in one of the states falling in the category of “state plan states”, you can gather information and details about the resources and laws of your state of the website of “U.S. department of Labor” at www.osha.gov. In the website, look for “State Occupational Safety and Health Plans”. 

If your business does not operate in one of the states listed above, then you must follow the federal OSHA. 

The Federal Laws: 

OSHA is applicable to everyone in a workplace. 

The rules of OSHA must be followed for each and every employee in your business, irrespective of the employee’s classification, status or title. This implies that the federal law is applicable to stockholders, partners, supervisors, mangers, officers, rank-and-file workers and the family members who are working in your business.

However, the law is not applicable to the family members of an operator of a farm and independent contractors. 

General rules of safety for all types of businesses: 

According to OSHA, the employers are required to maintain the workplace free from hazards, which they know about or should know, and which are likely to lead to or are leading to the occurrence of serious physical injuries or may prove to be fatal. Such hazards are known as “recognized hazards”. 

Hazards can be in the form of unsafe conditions such as broken equipment or toxic fumes. They can also be in the form of unsafe practices like operation of circular saws using one hand rather than using both hands, or push starting tractors. Hazards can be easily detected by walking around the workplace and utilizing the senses. For example, hazards can be detected by sight or smell. 

Your duty is also to ensure safety of employees when they are sent outside the workplace for any work. If the employees are being sent to a demolition or construction site, ensure it is a safe place. The tools and equipment used by the workers should be safe to use. 

Conclusion: 

This information would help you as an employer to determine which laws you are being governed by. Workplace safety is an extremely important factor, and you must abide by the laws, rules and regulations strictly. 

 

Author’s Bio: Alisa Martin, is a regular blogger, and has been authoring articles on various law topics for the past decade. She is a regular contributor to http://abinternationallaw.com/.

 

General Safety Issues

DISTRACTED DRIVING IS A WORKPLACE HAZARD

Thus states OSHA, in an open letter to employers:  “It is (the employer’s) responsibility and legal obligation to create and maintain a safe and healthful workplace, and that would include having a clear, unequivocal and enforced policy against the hazard of texting while driving.  Companies are in violation of (OHSA) if, by policy or practice, they require texting while driving, or create incentives that encourage or condone it, or they structure work so that texting is a practical necessity for workers to carry out their job.”  This letter was written to kick off “Drive Safely Work Week”, an article we featured on this blog.

Has this policy been established at your workplace yet?  Several workplace employees have told me that they are not allowed to text while driving during work hours, and if caught doing so, they will be fired.  The Department of Labor and Department of Transportation are joining OSHA in this initiative by creating public awareness campaigns on the serious issue of distracted driving.  OSHA’s top priority is keeping workers safe.  Year after year the leading cause of worker fatalities is motor vehicle crashes.  Distracted driving increases the risk of a vehicle accident.

Federal employees are prohibited to text while driving.  Because it is well known that texting while driving is a hazard, it is imperative that employers do not encourage workers to text while driving, which violates everything that safety rules stand for.  As stated by Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, “Although communication technology helps businesses work smarter and faster, it does not justify the dramatically increased risk of injury and death that comes with texting and driving.”

There are thirty states that ban texting and driving for all drivers.  OSHA’s website features a video message and the letter mentioned above to showcase employer policies and team up with employer and labor associations to communicate OSHA’s message.  According to fellow blogger, Ken Oswald, a complete listing of current state laws on cell phone use and texting while driving can be found on the Governors Highway Safety Association’s website or the National Conference of State Legislatures’ website. Also, Mr. Oswald states that OSHA has warned employers that it will investigate complaints that an employer requires or encourages texting while driving and penalties will be imposed to employers who fail to comply with its guidelines. 

In a separate report, Federal statistics include a code for factors involved in fatal crashes, which point to a big increase in inattentive driving.  “U.S. data combines  talking, eating, and using cell phones in the same group.  There has been a 42 per cent increase in fatal crashes in which the coder labeled inattention as a factor.”  (I recently received a comment on one of our latest  distracted driving blogs that questioned not only texting and talking on the cell phone, but also putting on makeup, reading, and other distractions while driving.  Good point.) 

Maybe when companies enforce these rules regarding texting and driving, those employees will adjust to not texting and driving during their free time.  It would be a better habit to turn the phone off and retrieve the messages when you are on your lunch break, or after you get home.  Hands-free phones should be the only type allowed, and even then, certain conversations may keep the driver from focusing on their driving.

Join in with OSHA and your state to make the highways safer.  Leave the phone off until your vehicle is stopped.  Their little answering machines work just fine!