Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office announced last week that an agreement has been reached that will prevent an increase in rates paid by businesses for workers’ compensation insurance in Massachusetts until September of 2012. The Workers’ Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau of Massachusetts (WCRIBMA), the organization that oversees workers’ compensation…
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has recently released a compliance guide to help small construction businesses adhere to an important new rule for the use and operation of cranes and derricks. The new standard, Cranes and Derricks in Construction, was introduced in August of 2010, and had not been…
The Philadelphia retail and car service company, Pep Boys, has been charged by the US Labor Department’s OSHA with repeat and serious citations. After an inspection at the company’s Hamden, Connecticut, facility, OSHA found that workers were exposed to numerous work safety hazards, including potential electric shock due to damaged…
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…
Paul Newcomb, a Rutland firefighter, was injured on the job while on ambulance duty. He ruptured a disc in his back when lifting a patient into an ambulance on February 2, 2010, and has since been out of work. After an operation to remove the disc and implant titanium rods…
It was forty years ago that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was founded on April 28, 1971. The Occupational Safety and Health Act was signed by President Nixon in December of the previous year, marking a starting point for healthier workplaces and a decrease in workplace deaths and injuries…
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has recently cited a Masssachusetts contractor currently working on the Hultman Aqueduct project in Weston for repeat and serious violations of workplace safety. The Barletta Heavy Division Inc., from Canton, has been charged with a $52,500 fine for these…
W.R. Grace, the chemical company that is accused of asbestos contamination throughout the United States, will pay over $800,000 and will continue cleaning their nine contaminated sites in Massachusetts. Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office, who made the claims on behalf of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), has recently…
The Beverly facility of the Northeast Hospital Corporation faces up to $63,000 in fines for serious and repeat violations of electrical hazards. After a hospital employee brought the workplace hazards to the attention of authorities, the Andover Area Office of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration…
Winter continues to be a work hazard in Massachusetts. A young man who was hired to shovel snow off of the Antico Industrial Park roofs in Waltham, fell approximately 25 feet through a skylight at 108 Clematis Avenue. The young man who is in his early twenties remains unidentified. He…