Workers Compensation News: OSHA Standard Updates

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Workers Compensation News: OSHA Standard Updates

Did You Know?

Olivet Management, LLC, a New York real estate management company, was recently fined over $2.3 million for knowingly exposing its employees and contractors to asbestos and lead hazards during cleanup operations in preparation for potential investors touring one of its properties.

An OSHA inspection found that the company failed to take basic safety precautions by neglecting to tell neither its employees nor its contractors about the presence of lead and asbestos, despite knowing the hazards existed.

Olivet was cited for 45 willful violations, 24 of them relating to exposure to asbestos and lead hazards.

Updates Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Construction Standard

OSHA has updated the 40-year-old Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution for Construction standard to align it more closely with modern standards and technological advancements.

Some major changes to the standard include the following:

  • The degree of training must be determined by risk to the worker for the hazard involved.
  • It is no longer necessary for employers to certify that workers are proficient in safe work practices.
  • On and after April 1, 2015, qualified workers must use fall protection when climbing or changing location on poles, towers or similar structures unless climbing or changing location with fall protection is infeasible or creates a greater hazard than climbing or changing location without it.
  • The standards adopt new requirements for electrical protective equipment made of materials other than rubber.
  • The final rule includes other new or revised requirements for fall protection, minimum approach distances and arc-flash protection, as well as requirements for host employers and contract employers to exchange safety-related information.

For more information on the new standard,  visit www.osha.gov/dsg/power_generation.

Learn more safety tips on how you can protect your workers by visiting  WORKERS COMPENSATION, or call SW Risk Insurance Specialist at 1-877-924-7976 (SWRM).

SW Risk Workers Compensation Team

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