OSHA resources to protect healthcare workers

Photo by Natanael Melchor on Unsplash

You might think that construction workers or manufacturing employees have the highest rate of workplace injuries. To the contrary, however, it’s healthcare workers.

On average, U.S. hospitals recorded 6.8 work-related injuries and illnesses for every 100 full-time employees, nearly twice the rate for private industry as a whole. The numbers are even higher for nursing and residential care facilities.

The most typical injuries include overexertion and repetitive stress; slips, trips, and falls; contact with objects; workplace violence; and exposure to harmful substances (including needle sticks).

Thankfully, if you are healthcare employer, OSHA has myriad publications to help.

WIRTW #499 (the “boarding house” edition)

The first time I ever heard of Jack White was August 10, 2001. I read about this up and coming band playing at the Beachland Ballroom. It was two-piece, the “brother” playing guitar and singing, and the “sister” on the drums. I was intrigued enough to check them out. Memory tells me that the first song Jack and Meg played that night was “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground.” Setlist.fm says it was “Let’s Shake Hands.” It doesn’t matter. After one song, I was completely hooked, and by the end of their set I had found a new artist to add to my musical pantheon.

Today, Jack White released his latest album, Boarding House Reach. Like everything he does, it rocks. It’s also brilliantly bonkers. Jack White is the mad scientist of 21st century rock ‘n’ roll. Like Bowie before him, Jack does an amazing job of changing things up from project to project, and this one does not disappoint.

Give it a listen:


Here’s what I read this week:

Ohio Chamber of Commerce takes the lead on fighting addiction at work with launch of its Employer Opioid Toolkit

Nearly 50,000 Americans lost their lives to opioid-related overdoses in 2016. Compare that figure to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which recorded 43,000 deaths during its peak in 1995, or the entire Vietnam war, which saw 58,000 U.S. soldiers die.

Needless to say, our opioid problem is a national epidemic. And, Ohio sits right on the front lines, with the 3rd highest rate of annual opioid-related deaths, trailing only West Virginia and New Hampshire.

My state, however, is not taking this problem sitting down. Last week, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce launched its Employer Opioid Toolkit.

How can you transition older workers if you can’t force them to retire?

A Michigan oral surgery practice has agreed to pay $47,000 to settle an age discrimination lawsuit filed by the EEOC. The agency alleged that it violated the ADEA by maintaining a policy that required employees to retire at at 65. The lawsuit stemmed from the firing of an employee four days after her 65th birthday.

According to Kenneth Bird, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Indianapolis District Office, “December 2017 marked the 50th anniversary of the ADEA, Five decades later, the EEOC remains committed to vigorously enforcing that all-important law. Private employers need to understand that mandatory retirement policies run afoul of the ADEA and will be met with challenge.”

He’s absolutely correct.

I’m lovin’ it: McDonald’s settles joint employer case with NLRB

It has been nearly four years since the NLRB filed complaints against McDonald’s, seeking to hold it liable as a joint employer for the unfair labor practices of its franchisees. I have suggested that “if franchisors are equal under the National Labor Relations Act with their franchisees, then we will see the end of staffing agencies and franchises as a viable business model.”

In the interim, the NLRB has flip-flipped on its joint employment standard several times, and this very important area of the law has been in flux.

Now comes word that the NLRB and McDonald’s have reached an 11th hour settlement.

The 5th nominee for the “worst employer of 2018” is … the pension preventer

ERISA section 510 provides:

It shall be unlawful for any person to discharge, fine, suspend, expel, discipline, or discriminate against a participant or beneficiary for exercising any right to which he is entitled under the provisions of an employee benefit plan … or for the purpose of interfering with the attainment of any right to which such participant may become entitled under the plan.

The Supreme Court has long interpreted this section as “protect[ing] plan participants from termination motivated by an employer’s desire to prevent a pension from vesting.” As the 6th Circuit noted, “[T]he prohibitions were aimed primarily at preventing unscrupulous employers from discharging or harassing their employees in order to keep them from obtaining vested pension rights.”

Late Friday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe late Friday. McCabe was (almost) a 21-year veteran of the Bureau, and was to have retired just two days later. The March 16 firing, however, prevented McCabe both from voluntarily leaving the FBI and collecting his federal pension.

WIRTW #498 (the “blarney” edition)

Photo by Khara Woods on Unsplash

Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. Have you ever thought about what the Patron Saint of Ireland can teach us about employment-law compliance? I did, seven years ago.

Click here for 10 compliance challenges to chase out of your workplace.

Here’s what I read this week: