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July 17, 2024 ORLANDO, Fla. (CBS12) — An Orlando woman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after investigators uncovered a nearly $8 million scheme. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Wednesday, Wendy Cudemo-Gamez registered a construction company she owned with the state. The company claimed to provide construction services and labor to contractors. However, according to the plea agreement, Cudemo-Gamez also used the company to engage in a scheme to defraud worker's compensation insurance providers. The plea agreement details that Cudemo-Gamez intentionally falsified information on insurance applications. She claimed her company had a limited payroll and a small number of employees working on construction sites, the DOJ said. Additionally, she made false claims through wire communications, assuring contractors that their workers had full worker's compensation coverage. In reality, Cudemo-Gamez’s company received and cashed more than $7.8 million in checks from construction contractors, the DOJ stated. The payroll figures that Cudemo-Gamez reported far exceeded the actual limited payroll. As a consequence, these workers, employed by Cudemo-Gamez lacked proper worker's compensation coverage, the release stated. The scheme also resulted in lost revenue for insurance companies as they were unaware of the actual number of workers requiring coverage. The DOJ stated that Cudemo-Gamez's fraudulent actions extended beyond insurance. Her company allegedly avoided ensuring workers were legally authorized to work in the United States and that required state and federal payroll taxes were paid. The contractors who utilized these workers' services were also able to evade these responsibilities. While no sentencing date has been set, the DOJ says the 47-year-old faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.

July 8, 2024 Employers will face three major workplace safety challenges in the coming years, but all can be mitigated through evolving safety solutions, workers’ compensation professionals say.   The report, Challenges for Today’s Worker–The Big Three: Physical Space, Mental Health and Environmental Impact, presented by National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) Insights at the 2024 Annual Insights Symposium in May, took a deep dive into top workers’ compensation issues. The study identified weather-related injuries, the evolution of safety and the impacts of mental health as critical factors to watch. Read more

July 2, 2024 Washington — OSHA has released a draft of its proposed rule on heat illness prevention.   The proposal will likely be published in the Federal Register in the coming days and a comment period will begin.   If finalized, the standard would require the formulation of a heat illness prevention plan. That plan would need to be in writing if an employer has 10 or more employees.   Employer requirements under the standard, or “initial heat trigger,” would go into effect when the heat index in the work area reaches 80° F or the wet bulb globe temperature is “equal to the NIOSH Recommended Alert Limit.”   Those requirements include: ·        Monitoring employees for heat stress ·        Identifying heat hazards ·        Providing water (1 quart per employee per hour) and rest break areas ·        Indoor work area controls ·        Acclimatization ·        Hazard alerts ·        Maintenance of personal protective equipment for heat   Additional requirements, known as the “high heat trigger,” would go into effect when the heat index reaches 90° F or the WGBT is equal to NIOSH’s Recommended Exposure Limit.   Those requirements include a minimum 15-minute paid rest break for employees every two hours and observing employees for signs and symptoms of heat illness using:   A buddy system in which co-workers monitor one other. Observation by a supervisor or heat safety coordinator – “with no more than 20 employees observed per supervisor or heat safety coordinator.” Two-way communication for lone workers. Employers would also have to place warning signs by indoor work areas where the “ambient temperatures” regularly exceed 120° F.   “Workers all over the country are passing out, suffering heatstroke and dying from heat exposure from just doing their jobs, and something must be done to protect them,” OSHA administrator Doug Parker said in a July 2 press release. “Today’s proposal is an important next step in the process to receive public input to craft a ‘win-win’ final rule that protects workers while being practical and workable for employers.”     The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs reviewed the proposed rule from June 11 to July 1.   In May, OSHA’s Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health unanimously approved the proposed rule. The proposal was also examined by a Small Business Advocacy Review panel.

June 28, 2024 Washington — Preventing harassment in the construction industry is the focus of a new guidance document from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.   “While workplace harassment is an issue in all sectors and industries, it is prevalent on many construction jobsites, and some of the most egregious incidents of harassment investigated by the EEOC have arisen in the construction industry,” the agency says in the document. It adds that harassment is a workplace safety issue because of the high-risk nature of construction sites.   The document identifies risk factors related to the nature of the industry that may increase the likelihood of harassment, including workforces that are predominantly male, workplaces that are decentralized, pressure to conform to traditional stereotypes and the potential presence of multiple employers on a jobsite.   Suggested best practices: ·        Project owners and general contractors should prioritize and emphasize collaboration to prevent and correct harassment. ·        Anti-harassment measures should be included in contract bids. ·        General contractors should coordinate harassment prevention across worksites and help resolve difficult issues. ·        Employers should evaluate policies and seek feedback from employees to ensure they’re clear and comprehensive. ·        Post anti-harassment policies in consistent and easy-to-find places and communicate them regularly. ·        Have an accessible and effective “no wrong door” complaint system. ·        Plan regular, interactive and comprehensive anti-harassment training for workers, as well as additional training for those with legal responsibilities. The guide is a key piece of EEOC’s Strategic Enforcement Plan for FY 2024-2028, which includes a goal to “address systemic harassment” in the industry.

June 28, 2024 Eighty-three percent of employees agreed they were open to trying and using new safety technologies in the workplace yet “purchase cost remains a key barrier in adopting safety technologies,” according to a report released Thursday by the National Safety Council.   The NSC has been analyzing trends in workplace hazards and safety technology implementation since 2020. For the latest research, the researchers surveyed 1,000 employees and 500 employees to gauge interest in technologies and address overall workplace safety concerns.   The most notable increases in technology usage were for risk management software, proximity sensors and drones, while use of other technologies has remained flat. The report also highlighted gaps in interest in using technologies and the application thereof, with the widest gaps seen in worker impairment detection, virtual reality, and wearables to track worker health.   Of safety concerns, fatigue topped the list of workplace dangers, followed by heavy equipment operation, heat stress, and working at heights, according to the study. Of the workplace risks that have caused accidents and injuries, fatigue was named among 44% of workers surveyed, followed by lack of proper training at 42% and lack of workplace awareness at 41%.

June 20, 2024 While overall prescription drug costs per claim in workers compensation continued to dip in 2023, topical medications and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are top cost-drivers, according to a study released Thursday by the Workers Compensation Research Institute.   In examining costs in 28 states, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based institute found that as opioid alternatives, topical medications costs represented 22% and NSAIDs represented 18% of the drug spend for injured workers in the median states in the first quarter of 2023. The states make up about 75% of the comp drug spend in the country, WCRI has said.   Nearly half of the states studied saw increases in topical medications of 30% or more of the drug spend. Five states — Connecticut, Georgia, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Vermont — saw more than 45% of the drug spend allocated to such medications.     The share of prescription drugs for migraine medications accounted for 7% to 15% of the spend across the 28 states; anticonvulsants and musculoskeletal agents accounted for 9%.   Opioids continued to drop to just under 5%, a downward trend that researchers have said has led to an increase in alternatives for pain management.

June 18, 2024 Gainesville, FL — A sense of guilt can help employees be better co-workers after they’ve been rude at work, results of a recent study suggest.   Researchers from the University of Florida and Texas A&M University conducted three studies involving 107 participants. They tracked the workers’ daily workplace habits and encouraged them to recall times they acted rudely to a co-worker.   The participants who reported shouting at or excluding colleagues at work felt guilty and were more likely to vent at home in the evening. The next day, however, “they put their head down, worked harder and were less likely to be rude again, seemingly in an effort to repair their relationships and reputation,” a UF press release states.   Further, the researchers saw no significant difference in the feelings of guilt based on who the recipient of the rude behavior was, whether they were a superior, peer or subordinate.   “When you’re being uncivil, it comes back to hurt you as well,” study co-author Daniel Kim, a doctoral student at UF, said in the release. “But we can take solace in this idea that people have opportunities to correct their behavior by working harder, apologizing and being more polite.”