By Ryan M. Gilchrist and Meghan A. Douris
Seyfarth Synopsis: On June 28th, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, No. 22-451, 603 U.S. __ (2024), overturning Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 468 U.S. 837 (1984), which, for the past 40 years, had afforded federal administrative agencies deference
Continue Reading The End of Chevron Creates Uncertainty for the AbilityOne Program
By A. Scott Hecker, Adam R. Young, Patrick D. Joyce, James L. Curtis, and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: On April 14, 2023, we attended a webinar presented by U.S. DOL Solicitor Seema Nanda, DOL Wage and Hour Division Principal Deputy Jessica Looman, DOL Occupational Safety and Health Administration Assistant Secretary Doug Parker, National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo
Continue Reading Looking to Prevent and Address Workplace Retaliation, Government Leaders from DOL, NLRB, and EEOC Present Employers with “Best Practices”By Brent I. Clark, Mark A. Lies, II, Benjamin D. Briggs, James L. Curtis, A. Scott Hecker, Patrick D. Joyce, and Adam R. Young
Seyfarth Synopsis: As the prospects of a likely Biden administration develop a key question becomes what should employers expect from OSHA under Biden? A COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard, aggressive enforcement,
Continue Reading What to Expect from OSHA in a Biden Administration
By James L. Curtis, Adam R. Young, Matthew A. Sloan, and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: Employees who complain about safety measures to protect employees from COVID-19 may be protected from retaliation by federal and state laws. Employees who refuse to perform job functions may also be protected.
News media reports during the COVID-19 pandemic highlight
Continue Reading Whistleblower Liability for Employee Safety Complaints During the COVID-19 Pandemic
By Brent I. Clark, Benjamin D. Briggs, Matthew A. Sloan, and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: A construction contractor twice orders, via text message, his employees to work on a roof, and both times the employees fall through. The contractor later testifies in a deposition that he did not ask them to work on the roof.
Continue Reading What Not to Do: Construction Contractor Charged With Lying to OSHA
By James L. Curtis, Kay R. Bonza, and Craig B. Simonsen
Seyfarth Synopsis: A railcar cleaning company and its executive officers were recently charged in a 22-count indictment with conspiracy, violating worker safety standards resulting in worker deaths, violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and for submitting false documents to a federal agency.
Nebraska Railcar
Continue Reading Company and its Executives/Owners Charged With Criminally Violating Worker Safety and Environmental Laws That Led to Workers’ Deaths
Mark A. Lies, II, Patrick D. Joyce, Adam R. Young
Seyfarth Synopsis: OSHA’s new final rules call into question mandatory post-accident drug screenings and safety incentive programs, open the door to new retaliation citations, and will require employers to post OSHA logs electronically.
Introduction
On May 12, 2016 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration published new final
Continue Reading New OSHA rules on drug-testing, retaliation claims, and accident reporting
By Mark A. Lies, II and Patrick D. Joyce
Take a look around you. There’s a good chance you work at a facility that uses a Powered Industrial Truck (PIT).
OSHA defines a PIT as “any mobile power-propelled truck used to carry, push, pull, lift, stack or tier materials.” Most people think of PITs as forklifts. Though forklifts come in
Continue Reading It’s the PITs! Employer Guide to Forklift Liability in the Workplace
By Brent I. Clark, James L. Curtis, Adam R. Young, and Craig B. Simonsen
In a review of an Occupational Safety & Health Review Commission (OSHRC) decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled this week to vacate a $490,000 penalty for failure to employ machine guards to prevent the ejection of a workpiece
Continue Reading Eighth Circuit Rejects OSHA’s Attempt to Expand the Scope of its Machine Guarding Standard
By Mark A. Lies, II and Craig B. Simonsen
Employers today can find themselves in a seemingly untenable dilemma when they have violence threaten to invade their workplaces. Two recent cases illustrate the competing liabilities that employers face in their decision-making as to how to respond to workplace violence.
In one case, decided by the United States Court of Appeals
Continue Reading Workplace Violence – Putting Employers on the Horns of a Dilemma