The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has recently cited Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. LLC for 22 alleged serious workplace safety violationsin Somerville´s Inner Belt neighborhood. OSHA additionally proposed $130,800 in fines to the company for these violations. Inspections carried out between April and October uncovered…
A repairman was rescued after passing out in a 14-foot deep septic pump chamber last Thursday, September 29, in West Bridgewater. The work-related accident happened just outside of a West Bridgewater car repair shop, where the repairman was fixing a broken valve. Although the sequence of events was at first…
A Beverly dentist, N. Terry Fayad, is being sued by the U.S. Department of Labor for reportedly terminating an employee for raising concerns about needle contamination hazards in the workplace and for filing a complaint with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The whistleblower, who remains anonymous, filed the…
The Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH) has recently conducted an assessment of workplace safety at Angelica Textile Services, operating under the name of Royal Institutional Services, in Somerville, Massachusetts. The investigation was prompted by multiple worker complaints in regards to illnesses, injuries, and long-term health problems due…
Bostik Inc. reported yesterday that they had determined the cause of their plant´s explosion and 4-alarm fire at their adhesive manufacturing plant in Middleton on March 14. They asserted that the explosion which injured four of their workers was due to open valves that let flammable gas permeate throughout the…
According to a report released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, teen work injuries remain a major issue for Massachusetts despite a slight decline over the past few decades. The report is a part of the department´s “teens at work” project that tracks teenager hospital room visits and teenager…
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has recently released a campaign for a safer working environment for employees who drive while working. Following national awareness and campaigns on the dangers of texting while driving, OSHA is working together with the Department of Transportation and has released a “no-texting while…
Following the death of a 20-year-old worker in Ohio last September, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has drawn national attention to grain storage facility deaths. After inspecting Gavilon Grain LLC, OSHA charged this company with over forty citations and $465,500 in fines for safety violations…
The Occupational Safety Health Administration has recently updated procedures to help whistleblowers who believe that their employers are not following safety laws in relation to nuclear and environmental safety or security, clean air, safe drinking water, solid waste, and toxic substances. Now consistent with OSHA’s other whistleblower procedures, the new…
Two Massachusetts contractors have been cited for similar trench violations by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration within the past week. On February 25, 2011, the first contractor cited was A.A. Will Corp., of Stoughton, for willful and repeat violations of workplace trench safety at the…