Workforce Bulletin

Since OSHA’s revised fatality and severe injury reporting rule went into effect on January 1, 2015 (see related story), employers have been deeply concerned that the agency would use information contained in Rapid Response Investigation Reports (RRIs) -- required by OSHA in response to approximately 50% of the reports made this year -- as the basis for issuing citations and fines.  This concern stems from the fact that when OSHA finds an employer’s RRI unsatisfactory, such as where the employer merely blames the victim or fails to provide what the agency determines is an adequate ...

One of the featured stories on Employment Law This Week – Epstein Becker Green’s new video program – is Dollar Tree's $825,000 fine for OSHA violations.

Retail store Dollar Tree has agreed to a hefty fine as well as continual monitoring of its stores across the US. A third-party monitor will conduct audits on 50 stores over the next two years. This settles a wide range of complaints arising from 13 different OSHA inspections. The agency is increasingly using this tactic of issuing repeat citations for the same violations at different company worksites. This could have a much bigger ...

OSHA has employed many creative strategies to maximize its enforcement efforts during the Obama administration.  One such tactic involves scrutinizing employers with multiple worksites (retailers are a particularly easy target), sending compliance officers to inspect one of the worksites, issuing citations, and then visiting the employer’s other worksites, identifying the same problems found in the first worksite inspected, and issuing repeat citations to the employer based on the citation issued at the original worksite.  This approach gives OSHA significant bang for ...

In a decision with ramifications for employers in health, retail, hospitality and other industries serving the public, on October 22, 2015 in a decision, Marina Del Rey Hospital, 363 N.L.R.B. No. 22, 2015 BL 347693, the NLRB confirmed the legality of policies barring employees from the premises when not on duty, which contain an exception permitting off-duty employees to be on the premises as members of the public, e.g., as a patient or a visitor.  The Board found, however, that enforcement of the facially neutral policy to certain employment restrict protected activity constitutes ...

As we mentioned before the holiday, I was recently interviewed on our firm’s new video program, Employment Law This Week.  The show has now released “bonus footage” from that episode – see below.

I elaborate on my recent post with Jason Kaufman, “2nd Circuit Expands Dodd-Frank Anti-Retaliation Protection to Cover Internal Whistleblowing.”

[embed]https://youtu.be/YQWiGxbm8wI?list=PLi4sj4jEe5heNkhVnjMTh94ipZhPPpMVh[/embed]

As our regular readers know, I was recently interviewed on our firm's new video program, Employment Law This Week.  The show has now released "bonus footage" from that episode – see below!

In the interview, I elaborate on my recent post, “Employers Beware: OSHA Fines Are on the Rise for the First Time in Twenty-Five Years.”

Thanks for watching – I'd love to know if you have any questions. (And what you think about these videos!)

[embed]https://youtu.be/uQxHsNG0bQE?list=PLi4sj4jEe5heNkhVnjMTh94ipZhPPpMVh[/embed]

Frustrating news has emerged from Washington D.C. as the recently-published federal government’s Fall Semiannual Regulatory Agenda revealed that the long-anticipated U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) for regulations governing website accessibility for places of public accommodation under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“Title III”) would not be issued in the Spring of 2016 as most recently anticipated and would instead be delayed until fiscal year 2018.  DOJ now intends to issue a NPRM governing ...

Frustrating news has emerged from Washington D.C. as the recently-published federal government’s Fall Semiannual Regulatory Agenda revealed that the long-anticipated U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) for regulations governing website accessibility for places of public accommodation under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“Title III”) would not be issued in the Spring of 2016 as most recently anticipated and would instead be delayed until fiscal year 2018.  DOJ now intends to issue a NPRM governing ...

Frustrating news has emerged from Washington D.C. as the recently-published federal government’s Fall Semiannual Regulatory Agenda revealed that the long-anticipated U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) for regulations governing website accessibility for places of public accommodation under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“Title III”) would not be issued in the Spring of 2016 as most recently anticipated and would instead be delayed until fiscal year 2018.  DOJ now intends to issue a NPRM governing ...

Frustrating news has emerged from Washington D.C. as the recently-published federal government’s Fall Semiannual Regulatory Agenda revealed that the long-anticipated U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) for regulations governing website accessibility for places of public accommodation under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“Title III”) would not be issued in the Spring of 2016 as most recently anticipated and would instead be delayed until fiscal year 2018.  DOJ now intends to issue a NPRM governing ...