A contractor employee involved in an electrical explosion at Tesla’s Fremont factory has filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing the carmaker of a pattern of unsafe work conditions. The accident happened June 5, 2017, resulting in second and third degree burns over 36-year-old Son Nguyen’s body.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) says its new Association Health Plans (AHP) rule will enable small companies to more easily afford to offer health insurance to their employees. The AHP – which stems from an Executive Order by President Trump, will allow small businesses, including self-employed workers, to band together by geography or industry to obtain healthcare coverage as if they were a single large employer.

The Trump administration wants to merge the Departments of Labor and Education into one entity that would be called the Department of Education and the Workforce, according to news sources. The proposal was announced at a cabinet meeting yesterday.

With triple digit temperatures heating up parts of California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona and temperatures in the 80s and 90s in other states, employers need to take measures to protect their outdoor workers from heat illness.

Death by Trench: Equipment World has just completed a special report on trench hazards and the dozens of preventable deaths that happen ever year. Most chilling is the piece on survivors who tell of the terror they felt being buried under tons of soil.

Low back strains, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other soft-tissue musculoskeletal injuries are the most frequent causes of missed workdays in the United States, and most result from ergonomic, slip, trip, or fall hazards, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

OSHA has cited EnviroTech Services Inc. – based in Greeley, Colorado – after an employee died due to lack of oxygen while cleaning the inside of a railcar. A second employee who tried to rescue the co-worker was also overcome, but survived. EnviroTech Services Inc. faces $64,857 in proposed penalties.

An arc flash that burned two contract workers at the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant near Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee was not was not due to any equipment or plant-related issues, according to an investigation by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

A fatigue crack was the cause of engine failure and a fire on a British Airways flight that ended prematurely, with passengers and crew fleeing a cockpit that was filling with smoke. The September 8, 2015 flight from Las Vegas to London came to an abrupt end, after its pilot heard a loud “bang” during takeoff and aborted the flight.

A recent study by Harvard University professor Michael Zaroob showed that unionization saves lives. That’s the good news. But it doesn’t happen automatically when you sign the union card. The beneficial effect of unions on worker safety is the result of action by educated union members supported by union staff.