By Subcontractors USA News Provider The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently published an interim final rule establishing procedures and time frames for handling employee retaliation complaints under the Taxpayer First Act. The Taxpayer First Act, enacted July 1, 2019, protects employees who report underpayment of taxes or other potential federal…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently announced the availability of $3.2 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for Susan Harwood Workplace Safety and Health Training on Infectious Diseases, Including COVID-19 grants. The grants will fund training and education to help…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider For two years, millions of the nation’s healthcare workers have been battling the coronavirus. Many have endangered themselves as they care for those who contract COVID-19 while working in high-risk settings that expose themselves and their families. As the nation moves to the next phase of the pandemic, the U.S….
By Subcontractors USA News Provider Increasingly, U.S. industries are using robotic technologies to perform dangerous or repetitive tasks, and these systems are becoming more collaborative and mobile in nature. While these advances add new capabilities to work and the workplace, they also introduce new workplace hazards for those who work with, and alongside them. In…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is withdrawing the vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard issued on Nov. 5, 2021, to protect unvaccinated employees of large employers with 100 or more employees from workplace exposure to coronavirus. The withdrawal is effective January 26, 2022. Background and…
A disparity study determines whether a government entity, either in the past or currently, engages in exclusionary practices in the solicitation and award of contracts to minority, women‐owned, and disadvantaged business enterprises (MWDBEs). This study can help determine if there is disparity between the availability of firms and the utilization of those firms in its…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider OSHA recently announced that it intends to continue to work expeditiously to issue a final standard that will protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 hazards, and will do so as it also considers its broader infectious disease rulemaking. However, given that OSHA anticipates a final rule cannot be completed in a…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider Under the OSH Act, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthy workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm. As we are still in the midst of the pandemic, employers should continue to engage with workers and their representatives to determine how to…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider As the coronavirus began to spread rapidly across the nation in March 2020, an employee of one of the world’s largest manufacturers of light, medium and heavy-duty trucks told a supervisor of their concerns about exposure to the virus at the Denton facility. In response, a representative of PACCAR Inc….
By Subcontractors USA News Provider A federal whistleblower investigation led the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to order a Houston mobile crane rental company to pay a former employee nearly $24,000 in back wages, interest and damages after firing the worker in June 2020 for refusing to drive in excess of…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider A new online portal for submitting applications to the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) is now available. The new portal modernizes the application process for companies that qualify for VPP and makes it easier for candidates to start, continue and get assistance…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider With the National Retail Federation expecting retailers to hire more than 500,000 seasonal workers and employers hopeful for a busy holiday season, the U.S. Department of Labor reminds them not to overlook their worker’s rights to a safe and healthy workplace and to be paid all of their legally earned…
COVID-19 has wrought unprecedented challenges that have and continue to affect us in profoundly different ways…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider Recently, The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) met with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to share a host of concerns about the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s (OSHA) draft emergency temporary standard (ETS). OSHA sent the draft ETS—the details of which remain unknown—to OMB…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider Record-breaking heat in the U.S. in 2021 endangered millions of workers exposed to heat illness and injury in both indoor and outdoor work environments. Workers in outdoor and indoor work settings without adequate climate-controlled environments are at risk of hazardous heat exposure, and workers of color are exposed disproportionately to…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider The U.S. Department of Labor has filed suit against an Austin luxury car dealer for terminating an employee who warned managers and other co-workers about potential coronavirus hazards in the workplace. The action follows an investigation by the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration that found Hi Tech Motorcars LLC,…
According to recent statistics via Zippia, the most common ethnicity among general contractors is White, which makes up 77.5% of all general contractors…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider A Fort Worth masonry company continues to put its workers at risk for falls – the leading cause of death and serious injury in the construction industry – by ignoring workplace safety regulations, a recent federal inspection at a Denton work site found. A March 2021 inspection initiated as part…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider The Texas Transportation Commission recently announced a new task force to be comprised of representatives from the Texas Department of Transportation and the state’s metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to further identify and fund safety projects from funding allocated to MPOs throughout the state with a relentless focus on reducing the…
By Subcontractors USA News Provider Are you providing a safe workplace for your workers? Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers have a responsibility to provide a safe workplace. OSHA covers most private sector employers and their workers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and other U.S. jurisdictions either directly…
