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Ensuring compliance with federal or state occupational safety and health laws and regulations is only part of a workplace safety and health professional’s job. Often, safety managers also handle aspects of an employer’s workers’ compensation program. The two aspects of the job have different demands. OSHA, a federal agency within the Department of Labor, develops workplace safety and health standards that apply nationwide. Despite the fact that approximately half of U.S. states operate under state plans for occupational safety and health, there is a high degree of overall uniformity in workplace safety compliance obligations from one state to the next. Meanwhile, workers’ compensation is administered at the state level. It shields employers from liabilities for workers’ injuries, illnesses, and deaths while covering the costs of workers’ medical treatments and lost wages or providing death benefits to the surviving spouse and children of a worker killed on the job. Most states’ original workers’ compensation laws predate the federal Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act of 1970, and the provisions of these laws vary greatly from state to state. All states except Texas require employers to purchase workers’ compensation insurance coverage. Click to read more:

A Crystal River woman on Monday admitted to stealing thousands in federal workers' compensation and improperly reporting her income to get additional disability benefits. Ruth S. Sprake, 60, pleaded guilty at the U.S. District Courthouse in Ocala to charges of theft of government funds and making false statements to the Social Security Administration (SSA), according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Florida. A judge will sentence Sprake at an undetermined date to up to 15 years in prison Click to read more:

A recent but long-awaited ruling by the Florida Supreme Court is likely to negatively impact cost associated with workers’ compensation claims and insurance premiums for any business that employs workers in Florida. On April 26, 2016, in Castellanos v. Next Door Company, the Florida Supreme Court, in a five to two ruling, determined that the provision stated in an October 2003 workers’ compensation law (Senate Bill 50A), which caps attorney fees based on a specific formula, is unconstitutional under both the Florida and U.S. Constitutions. The original article is no longer available

Hiring independent contractors is a growing practice for many businesses, allowing them to take on work larger in scope without all of the associated costs involved in hiring full-time employees—including the expense of workers’ compensation insurance. However, the use of independent contractors may also lead to the unforeseen risk for businesses of being deemed an uninsured employer or statutory employer under the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act (the act), which can expose businesses to significant expense and criminal prosecution under the act, as well as liability under the Construction Workplace Misclassification Act (CWMA) Click here to read more:

Gerry Realin spent four hours with the dead inside of Pulse Night Club. ​ He remembers the blood. The smell. The scene was so bad, the eight-member Hazmat team wouldn't let any other officers help them remove the bodies. That way fewer people had to witness what they saw. Click here to read more:

Workers at Wyatt Bassett’s furniture factory in Virginia use powerful tools to churn out the company’s trademark dressers and headboards, so screening new hires for drugs is a no-brainer. Or it used to be. Virginia last year fully legalized marijuana — the first state in the South to do so. The upshot is that “being positive for cannabis does not necessarily disqualify you for employment,” said Mr. Bassett, CEO of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co., which has 575 employees. On Thursday, President Joe Biden issued an executive order aimed at reshaping how the federal government treats cannabis. The shift in policy should aid many companies. Faced with a shortfall in applicants, employers across the U.S. are balancing pressure to ease up on testing for a legal drug with concerns that this could impact safety and raise issues of Click to read more.