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The manager of an Orange Park area pizzeria faces felony charges for having cancelled his business’ workers’ compensation insurance policy at least two times in the past five years. ​ The Clay County Sheriff’s Office arrested Terry Lee Miller, 40, on June 26 using an arrest warrant procured by the Florida Department of Financial Services’ Workers’ Compensation Compliance Division. ​The investigation began on November 9, 2016 when state investigator Scott Erickson conducted a compliance check at Miller’s place of employment, The Infield Pizzeria and Sports Bar at 330 College Dr. According to documents filed with the Florida Division of Corporations, Miller is listed as a principal with the pizzeria’s parent company, Hoosiermama LLC. ​ Click here to read more:

A bill that would put insurance ratings agencies on notice and allow insurers to independently research and file their own workers compensation insurance rates in Florida, among other key changes, is making its way through the state Senate. Click here to read more:

Employers can do more to prevent fatal struck-by injuries in the construction sector, according to a report released Wednesday. Struck-by hazards are a major cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries in construction, with 804 construction workers dying from struck-by injuries, more than any other major industry, during the period of 2011 to 2015, according to a study by CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training in Silver Spring, Maryland. Click here to read more:

Dilated pupils, red eyes, anxiety and paranoia are some of the signs employers in Maine are being told to watch for in the state Department of Labor’s “impairment detection training” as Maine grapples with balancing anti-discrimination provisions in the recreational marijuana law with its mission to maintain safe workplaces. Click here to read more:

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that a woman who uses marijuana for medicinal purposes in compliance with Connecticut’s marijuana law can sue an employer who rescinded a job offer after a positive pre-employment drug test. Click here to read more:

A Florida roofing contractor faces penalties of more than $1.5 million for 14 workplace safety violations and has been placed in the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program due to high-gravity, willful, egregious violations related to fall hazards, the agency said Wednesday. Click here to read more:

A federal appeals court affirmed in part and reversed in part a district court decision involving a daycare that challenged a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary’s insurance business practices related to a workers comp policy in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Minnieland Private Day School Inc., a private daycare based in Woodbridge, Virginia, entered a reinsurance participation agreement in 2013 with Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary Applied Underwriters Captive Risk Assurance Company Inc. According to the three-year agreement, one or more insurers, all of which were Berkshire Hathaway subsidiaries, would issue workers comp policies to the daycare. The agreement also established a “segregated protected cell” through which Minnieland would share the issuing insurers’ profits and losses related to Minnieland’s policies, according to court documents in Minnieland Private Day School Inc. vs. Applied Underwriters Captive Risk Assurance Company Inc. Click here to read more:

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued an Oklahoma-based oil and gas drilling company for declining to hire potential employees based on age or previous history of filing workers comp claims. Purcell, Oklahoma-based Horizontal Well Drillers violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act when it “engaged in a pattern or practice of failing to hire qualified job applicants for drilling rig positions because of their disabilities, perceived disabilities and/or record of disabilities as indicated by their workers compensation claim or disability pension history,” according to the lawsuit filed by the EEOC on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. Click here to read more:

A Florida law targeting injured undocumented workers is set to undergo legislative review. Employers and insurance companies have been criticized for using the law to get such workers arrested, and even deported, in order to avoid paying workers’ compensation benefits. The law came into the spotlight following an investigation by ProPublica and NPR to evaluate its impact on undocumented workers. After examining 14 years of Florida insurance fraud statistics and court records, they found around 800 cases of undocumented workers being charged with fraud for using fake Social Security numbers to procure jobs, pursue workers’ compensation claims or both. Click here to read more:

This week, it was announced that a federal jury in Orlando, Florida had found a woman guilty of one count of theft of government funds and two counts of concealing a material fact in connection with the receipt of workers compensation benefits. 54-year-old Susan J. Gissy of Crystal River now faces a maximum penalty of ten years on the theft charge and up to five years on each of the concealment charges. The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on March 5, 2017. Click here to read more:

How much sleep are employees getting at night? Workplace safety experts are calling this one of the most frequently overlooked but critical questions to answer in employer safety programs due to rising fatigue risks. The Park Ridge, Illinois-based American Society of Safety Engineers is funding an ongoing study on fatigue through the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York. The study, which began in August 2015, is surveying what workers think about fatigue and whether they can recognize the signs in their everyday work life, according to researcher Lora Cavuoto, an assistant professor in the university’s Department of Industrial and System Engineering. Click here to read more:

Existing labor shortages could be exacerbated by the impact of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, while managing materials will be key as rebuilding efforts get underway, according to industry sources. Robust construction activity in Texas and Florida had already strained the regions’ labor supply, even before rebuilding efforts and even more demand loomed after the three hurricanes, sources said. Click here to read more: