A Savannah, Georgia, company that performs work in crawl spaces failed to de-energize power lines before sending a worker to dig a shallow drainage trench, resulting in his death by electrocution, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Wednesday. OSHA, in proposing a $31,284 fine following the April 18 incident, cited East Coast Crawl LLC …
OSHA cites Georgia contractor after worker electrocuted Read More »
An appeals court in Mississippi on Tuesday found that a steelworker with marijuana in his system did not suffer a compensable fall at work on the presumption that the drug caused his accident. While working as a steel connector/iron worker for Cheyenne Steel Inc., Miles Meek in 2018 tripped and fell twenty feet from a …
Work-related fall ruled not compensable due to positive drug test Read More »
The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau said COVID-19 continues to account for a modest share of all California indemnity claims, and those filed in accident year 2021 were typically less severe than those from the prior accident year. The WCIRB said in its updated study on COVID-19 claims that the severity difference in claims filed …
COVID a small portion of indemnity claims in California: Report Read More »
The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division on Monday announced scaled-back COVID-19 protections for employer-provided labor housing, removing provisions deemed “no longer appropriate to this stage of the pandemic.” The changes, which went into effect Oct. 7, were in response to the state’s announcement of updated health guidance on Feb. 28 and direction from the …
COVID safety requirements trimmed for employer-provided housing Read More »
The Alaska Supreme Court unanimously upheld an award of benefits to a worker for his injuries from a fall despite his admission of using cocaine and drinking on the job and testing positive for drugs and alcohol after the accident. The high court said intoxication is an affirmative defense and requires the payer to prove an …
High court upholds award to worker injured after using cocaine, alcohol Read More »
(Reuters) — Business groups will almost certainly file lawsuits in an attempt to delay or derail a rule proposed by the Biden administration on Tuesday that would limit companies’ use of independent contractors, experts said. The proposal by the U.S. Department of Labor prompted immediate criticism from groups representing an array of industries and caused stocks …
Legal challenges could hamper rule to limit independent contracting Read More »
(Reuters) — The U.S. Department of Labor proposed a rule on Tuesday that would make it more difficult for companies to treat workers as independent contractors, a change that is expected to shake up the business models of the ridesharing, delivery and other industries that rely on gig workers. Shares in Uber and Lyft traded sharply down Tuesday morning. …
New labor rule would make some contractors employees Read More »
WorkCompCentral, a sister publication of Business Insurance, presented awards Tuesday for outstanding contributions to the workers compensation industry during its annual Comp Laude Awards and Gala in Huntington Beach, California. The event borrows its name from the Latin phrase “cum laude,” which means “with honor,” which is commonly used in academia. The top two awards …
(Reuters) — Workers at Wyatt Bassett’s furniture factory in Virginia use powerful tools to churn out the company’s trademark dressers and headboards, so screening new hires for drugs is a no-brainer. Or it used to be. Virginia last year fully legalized marijuana — the first state in the South to do so. The upshot is …
Legal cannabis poses a quandary for US companies screening staff for drugs Read More »
Medical payments per claim decreased more than 3% in the pandemic years 2020 and 2021 in half of the states studied by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research organization studied medical costs for 2020 injuries with costs incurred through March 2021 in 18 states, finding that the reductions —following four years of …
Comp medical payments decrease slightly during pandemic Read More »