When COVID-19 made its appearance last year, no other organization was looked to for guidance and direction more than the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). During the pandemic, OSHA still managed to conduct 21,674 workplace inspections[1] which resulted in levying $4,034,288[2] in penalties against companies just for COVID-related violations.

Being able to translate safety information into terms that business leaders will more easily understand and relate to is an important skill for EHS professionals. Understanding key business principles and when to apply them provides some synergy between the safety function and the business itself but it also solidifies the EHS professional as someone who understands the business side of things and how to incorporate safety into the overall business strategy.

Under federal OSHA laws, workers have certain rights and protections. One of the most basic is the right to a safe workplace, and the right to speak up about hazards without fear of retaliation.

In this final part of our three-part series on confined spaces, we’re going to explore the actual entry process into a permit space, discuss what kind of post-entry activities that should be considered and how to keep good records of all entries.

In the first part of this three-part series on confined spaces we introduced you to some of the grim statistics for confined spaces, talked about the numerous standards and provided two tools to help make understanding the standards a bit easier.

Of all the activities a safety professional engages in, dealing with confined spaces can be one of the most stressful and challenging, especially for those who are new to the safety profession or those whose experiences in the field haven’t required much interaction with confined spaces. What most safety professionals do know, regardless of experience level, is that when not managed properly, confined spaces can be deadly.

When a company experiences an incident, especially if the incident was severe or particularly damaging, it’s natural for leadership to want to provide a quick response to show the workforce they’re involved and doing something.

While companies have been very busy trying to keep up with all of the changes and new COVID-19 related legislation such as the expansion of FML regulations to include the Families First Coronavirus Response Act or FFCRA, OSHA has been busy investigating the huge influx of COVID related whistleblower complaints.

So, you just found out you need updated labor law posters and OSHA posters. Normally you’d go online and buy an updated version of the same ones you’ve always purchased and call it a day but this year you’re a bit hesitant to do that because you’ve got a lot of questions.

How and when a company allows employees to return to work after experiencing an injury or illness is something that many companies don’t plan for until the situation is actually happening, which is unfortunately the wrong time to start thinking about it.