Rotating Equipment Repair (RER) has had no recordable incidents of worker injuries in the last six years, but that wasn’t always the case. When the Sussex, Wisconsin-based company, that provides parts and services for high-energy pumps reached out in 2008 to OSHA's On-Site Consultation Program for help improving its safety and health program, the company had experienced two recordable injuries that year.

A manufacturer of storage tanks and pressure vessels for the petrochemical, paper, and energy industries sharply reduced its recordable injury rate after reaching out to OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program to help it identify and reduce workplace hazards. James Machine Works, LLC (JMW), which has been family owned for three generations, has grown from three to 160 employees since it was founded in 1927.

After an audit at a small Pennsylvania manufacturer revealed some safety complacency cropping up in day-to-day operations, the company reached out to OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program for assistance. The result: McGregor Industries Inc. has been free of recordable injuries since September 2015, is working to find new ways of reducing injuries and has been able to secure better insurance for individual jobsites. Dunmore-based McGregor Industries Inc. fabricates, delivers, and installs light structural and metal products for buildings, artistic projects, and anything requiring the shaping and finishing of metal.

The proposed 2018 budget released by the White House last week includes a 21 percent decrease in the Department of Labor’s budget – some of which will come from the elimination of OSHA’s training grants. That line item is expected to save almost $11 million from the 2017 annualized CR level.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), OSHA and partners like ASSE and AIHA are encouraging employers to hold special activities during June 12-18, designated as Safe + Sound Week. The event is a nationwide effort to raise awareness and understanding of the value of safety and health programs among workplaces.

Last year, 27,385 small and mid-sized U.S. businesses took advantage of OSHA's free and confidential On-site Consultation Program to remove workplace hazards and better protect their workers.

The majority of occupational safety and health professionals who responded to a survey in last week’s enewsletter about President Trump’s regulatory freeze were in favor of having the newly-issued beryllium standard in effect. Opinions differed on other regulatory issues. When asked what occupational safety and health hazards, if any, should be covered by new regulations, PEL updates were mentioned most.

CSX Transportation Inc. violated the anti-retaliation provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act when it suspended an employee at its Selkirk locomotive shop after he notified management of numerous alleged safety hazards and FRSA violations, OSHA has found.

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against Lear Corp., doing business as Renosol Seating LLC, and three of its managers for suspending and terminating employees who reported workplace hazards in violation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.