OSHA and Workplace Safety
MSHA and Mine Safety

As the Trump Administration pursues its agenda of de-regulation, OSHA issued a policy memo recently, reversing course on a key part of its approach to the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). According to a May 30th memo, which revised a 2013 policy (“Memorandum #7”), OSHA will no longer automatically issue an Intent to Terminate Notice (ITT) to companies on VPP when certain events occur. Instead, the agency will take a more deferential and conciliatory approach to overseeing VPP participants. The changes implemented by the May 2018 memo took effect immediately.
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Levinson.SafeSound.RT.072718

OSHA and a long list of public and private partners are promoting next week as Safe + Sound Week. The goal is to raise awareness about the value of integrated safety and health programs in workplaces. Companies looking to participate in local public events or hold their own can find resources and ideas at the OSHA Safe + Sound web site.

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Last month, OSHA’s administrator for Region VII issued a press release announcing the agency’s intention to counter the increase in work-related fatalities in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. During the current fiscal year (Oct17-Sep18), OSHA has investigated 34 fatalities in these states.  Sadly, that number has continued to rise in the weeks since the press release was issued.  What can we learn from this announcement?
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Here’s an all-too-familiar story with an all-too-uncommon ending. An MSHA inspector saw equipment positioned a certain way, assumed that someone had used it unsafely in that position, and issued a citation. A judge then upheld the citation by giving more weight to the inspector’s assumption than to the worker’s sworn testimony about how he acted safely. But, in this case, the mine operator refused to accept that unfair result. They appealed… and won.
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by Julia Banegas

How would the Trump administration’s government reorganization plan affect highly technical workplace safety programs, such as OSHA and MSHA? Part of the plan, announced June 21, 2018, proposes merging the Department of Labor (where OSHA and MSHA sit) and the Department Education into a new agency named the “Department of Education and the Workforce.”

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