OSHA – Overlawyered

OSHA drones flying over your workplace

Walter Olson — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 05:05:49 +0000

“‘That buzzing noise over a construction site could be an OSHA drone searching for safety violations,’ Bloomberg Law reports, linking to a May 18, 2018 DOL memorandum obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Yes, your friendly neighborhood OSHA inspector is now authorized by the Labor Department ‘to use camera-carrying drones as part of their inspections of outdoor workplaces.'” And while current procedures call for obtaining employer consent before sending the spycams aloft, thus avoiding Fourth Amendment challenge, employers who refuse such consent “risk the ire of the DOL, with serious consequences. Nothing is more likely to put a target on an employer’s back for multiple and frequent future investigations than sending a DOL investigator away from your doors. Refusing consent will label you at the DOL as a bad faith employer that deserves closer scrutiny. This I know through experience practicing before DOL and as a former Administrator of DOL’s Wage & Hour Division.” [Tammy McCutchen, Federalist Society]

And speaking of the Fourth Amendment (if not of OSHA), here is a Cato Daily Podcast with Caleb Brown, Julian Sanchez, and Matthew Feeney on how courts think about rights against unreasonable search and seizure in the digital age, and what could be done to improve protections.

Tags: Fourth Amendment, OSHA, surveillance

OSHA drones flying over your workplace is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

OSHA: unlawful for employers to have rule requiring drug tests after accident

Walter Olson — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 04:15:08 +0000

Jon Hyman, Ohio Employer’s Law Blog:

Buried in OSHA’s impending final rule on electronic reporting of workplace injuries and illnesses is this little nugget. OSHA believes that you violate the law if you require an employee to take a post-accident drug test. Let me repeat. According to OSHA, you violate the law if you automatically drug test any employee after an on-the-job accident.

Allow me to pause while this sinks in.

The agency concedes that employers might still lawfully do some post-accident testing on a case by case basis so long as they are willing to develop evidence pointing to, e.g., a given employee’s drug use as an accident cause. Of course it is precisely such effectively accusatory, singling-out testing that is most likely to provoke litigation for having unfairly cast suspicion on an individual employee.

Tags: illegal drugs, OSHA, safety

OSHA: unlawful for employers to have rule requiring drug tests after accident is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Labor and employment roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 04:05:54 +0000

Mach Mining v. EEOC: unanimous SCOTUS, Kagan writing, agrees courts can hold EEOC to legal duty of pretrial conciliation, but prescribes narrower review than employer asked, with no commission duty of good-faith negotiation [Maatman et al; earlier on case here, here, and here; earlier from me on EEOC record of frequent losses in court]
New “ambush election” rules: “Your Privacy Has Just Been Compromised, Thanks To Obama’s NLRB” [Labor Union Report]
U.K. controversy parallels ours: “Banning unpaid internships will harm, not help, the disadvantaged” [Andrew Lilico, IEA]
“U.S. signed agreement with Mexico to teach immigrants to unionize” [Sean Higgins, Washington Examiner]
Another view on bias-law “Utah compromise” [Dana Beyer, Huffington Post; my critical view]
Advice to employers: “OSHA is not your friend. It is not there to give you an atta-boy on workplace safety. It is there to find violations and levy fines to make money for OSHA.” [Jon Hyman]
“CA: Failing to Pay Prevailing Wages May Be Intentional Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage” affording competitors a cause of action [Garret Murai via TortsProf]

Tags: California, EEOC, Mexico, OSHA, privacy, Utah, wage and hour suits

Labor and employment roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Labor and employment roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 04:05:28 +0000

Lefty argument du jour: government benefits for working poor subsidize low-wage employers. Oh? [Adam Ozimek via Tyler Cowen] Similarly: Tim Worstall; Michael Strain, WaPo; Coyote;
“OSHA’s Latest Reporting and Recordkeeping Mandates: More Burdens with Few Benefits” [Eric J. Conn, Washington Legal Foundation]
“EEOC: New York City owes underpaid minority female employees $246 million” [NY Daily News, NY Post (“de Blasio administration offered no evidence to contest the charges, the commission said”), Jon Hyman]
Will the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal require countries to adopt minimum wage laws? [Simon Lester, Cato]
House hearing on Obama executive order blacklisting contractors over labor violations in unrelated areas of their business, or at subcontractors [witnesses and testimony, Walberg statement, press release, video, SHRM]
Sixth Circuit retaliation decision confirms need for kid-glove handling of employees who file discrimination complaints [Jon Hyman]
Spontaneous protest doesn’t come cheap: SEIU spent $24 million in 2014 on fast food/retail wage movement [WLS Chicago 7]

Tags: government contract compliance, labor unions, NYC, OSHA, restaurants, Sixth Circuit, Wal-Mart

Labor and employment roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Employer incentives and the discontents of workers’ comp

Walter Olson — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 04:15:21 +0000

Despite discontents with the workers’ compensation system, statistics show the American workplace growing steadily safer, and it is anything but clear that the incentives for safe practice of the various players would be improved by a system which forced more accident cases into litigation [Gordon Yago, York Daily Record, quotes me at several places]

Tags: OSHA, Pennsylvania, workers' compensation

Employer incentives and the discontents of workers’ comp is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Labor and employment roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 28 May 2014 04:05:40 +0000

“House Report criticizes EEOC for litigation before conciliation” [HRM America, attention-stirring Merrily Archer survey and more]
Do you gripe about upward spiral of executive salaries? Do you want to force employers into fuller pay disclosure? Be aware of the tension between those two positions [Gary Shapiro of CEI, Daily Caller]
Because the union is all about respect: Laborers/LIUNA brings giant inflatable rat to St. Louis funeral home [KTVI]
Reality-based: “during five of last six federal minimum wage increases, nation fell into recession” [Thomas Firey, Cato via @scottlincicome] Minimum wage and automation [Ira Stoll, earlier]
Minnesota legislature expands employer regulation under apple-pie heading of “Women’s Economic Security Act” [Courtney Ward-Reichard guest-posting at Daniel Schwartz’s] How well are state-mandated employee leaves working in California? [Coyote]
“EEOC continues fight against severance agreements, while employers fight back” [Jon Hyman, earlier on CVS case]
OSHA targets auto suppliers in South for enforcement crackdown, rationale to be supplied later [Sean Higgins, DC Examiner via Instapundit (“Well, he can’t come right out and say it’s about hurting non-union shops”)]

Tags: California, EEOC, labor unions, minimum wage, Minnesota, OSHA, United Auto Workers

Labor and employment roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Organizers Should Have Access?

Walter Olson — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 14:04:09 +0000

“Union representatives join federal government safety inspectors on site visits to non-union businesses” [Patrick Howley, Daily Caller; SHRM, Better Roads, Associated Builders and Contractors on OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) letter of interpretation]

Tags: labor unions, OSHA, property rights

Organizers Should Have Access? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Farm and food roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 04:05:32 +0000

California Medical Association, which seems unruffled by growth of regulatory state when docs are not its targets, backs bill to require warning labels on soda [Governing, AP, Sacramento Bee, Monterey Herald]
“The Farm Bill Came Surprisingly Close to Fixing Some Protectionist Regulations” [K. William Watson, Cato]
“New York Alcohol Bill Benefits Big Business at Consumers’ Expense” [Michelle Minton, CEI; earlier; my upcoming Feb. 27 Bastiat Society panel in Charlotte on alcohol regs]
Lawmakers to OSHA: hands off small farms [Insurance Journal, US News]
States cheat the system through “heat and eat” food stamp scam [USA Today editorial]
Why so few chickens are raised in Montana [Baylen Linnekin]
Comic-book interpretation of Quebec’s great maple syrup heist, including background of legally enforced cartelization [Modern Farmer]
Seen on “farm tourism” outing: “The USDA requires that only the farmer feed us” [Ira Stoll]
Next frontier of public-health disapproval: grilled, smoked, and fried food? [Brian Palmer, Slate]

Tags: agriculture and farming, alcohol, California, Canada, eat drink and be merry, food safety, medical, Montana, New York, OSHA, public health, soft drinks

Farm and food roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Department of Labor vs. family farms, cont’d

Walter Olson — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 13:34:38 +0000

Farms are not supposed to face OSHA regulation unless they have 10 employees, but the agency has tried to get around that rule by declaring that grain storage and handling facilities on farms aren’t really part of the farm. Now 43 Senators have signed a letter warning the agency to back off. [Future of Capitalism; another family farm labor controversy from last year]

Tags: agriculture and farming, OSHA

Department of Labor vs. family farms, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Labor and employment roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 04:07:25 +0000

McDonald’s worker complains she’s not paid $15/hour, but there’s a logical problem with that [David Henderson]
EEOC Phoenix office signs pact with Mexican consulates to curb discrimination against illegals [EEOC press release]
“Former Lawmaker (and Ex-Felon) Urges Connecticut To Ban Discrimination Against Felons in 2013” [Daniel Schwartz]
Connecticut: “NLRB sues to reinstate union saboteurs at nursing homes” [Gehrke, DC Examiner, Schwartz, Jillian Kay Melchior/NRO, earlier on pols that enable the strikers] More: Ivan Osorio.
OSHA after clerk robbery: “handling money, working alone and standing behind open counters” expose employer to violations [OSHA press release]
“N.D. Ill.: Under ADAAA, Asthma Triggered by Strong Perfume Might Be Disability” [Bagenstos]
“Worker centers” allow organizers to dodge the legal responsibilities owed to workers by actual labor unions [Stefan Marculewicz and Jennifer Thomas, Fed Soc]

Tags: Connecticut, criminal records and hiring, EEOC, immigration law, labor unions, minimum wage, nursing homes, OSHA

Labor and employment roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system