Workplace Injuries

• Minnesota Workplace Injuries on the Decline

  Michael Johnson | January 20, 2006 1:38 PM | 0 CommentsMinneapolis, MN

  A survey released in November show that workplace injuries in Minnesota decreased by 3.6 percent in 2004 - this after an 8.3 percent decrease in 2003. The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) examined the records of nearly 5,000 private and public-sector employers for the 2004 data.According to the DOLI website:A total of 105,500 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses were...

• Mortgage Company Faces Class-Action Lawsuit for Unpaid Overtime

  Staff Writer | January 19, 2006 2:34 PM | 0 CommentsDallas, TX

  First Horizon Mortgage Corp. has been sued by several of its former loan officers. They contend that First Horizon Mortgage did not pay them overtime and violated the law. More specifically, seven loan officers for First Horizon in Johnson County, Kan., had filed suit in U.S. District Court Kansas City, Kan., in October claiming the company failed to pay them for overtime they worked. ...

• 15% Of Your Co-Workers May Be Impaired By Alcohol Use

  Bob Carroll | January 14, 2006 4:33 AM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  Workplace alcohol use and impairment directly affects an estimated 15 percent of the U.S. workforce, or 19.2 million workers, according to a recent study conducted at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) and reported in the current issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol. Source

• Unpaid Overtime Wal-Mart Class Action Lawsuit

  RLF Staff | January 13, 2006 1:06 PM | 0 CommentsDallas, TX

  Recently, a Pennsylvania judge approved a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart, Inc. brought by employees who allege that Wal-Mart, Inc. pressured them into working off the clock.The Unpaid Overtime Class-Action lawsuit alleges that employees worked regularly through breaks and after hours without overtime pay. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to pay covered employees who...

• Explosion Kills Worker, Injures Six Others

  Staff Writer | January 12, 2006 11:21 AM | 0 CommentsKansas City, MO

  Workers trying to repair hurricane damage at a Daytona Beach, FL wastewater treatment plant were the victims of an explosion Wednesday. The workers were using a cutting torch to repair a roof covering two chemical tanks. This is the suspected cause of the blast.Two surviving workers suffered burns over at least 80% of their bodies.Officials later found a small hole in a pipe that connects to...

• Building Partially Collapses in New York

  Staff Writer | January 09, 2006 12:02 PM | 0 CommentsPhoenix, AZ

  Two construction workers were injured when the building they were working in partially collapsed, with the first floor falling into the basement. The construction accident occurred just before noon this morning.The full AP release:NEW YORK (AP) - The first floor of a building under construction collapsed into the basement late Monday morning, sending two construction workers to the hospital,...

• Dirty Secret Behind Electrical Linemen Deaths

  Bob Carroll | January 07, 2006 2:02 AM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  Mothers, don't send your boys to be linemen.An electrical lineman's job is clearly one of the most dangerous in the United States. But the real tragedy, according to veteran linemen, family members, attorneys, and even OSHA [U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration] investigators, is that many of those deaths and horrible injuries could and should have been...

• Whitewater Engineering Corp. Pardoned

  Michael Myers | January 01, 2006 8:16 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  Whitewater Engineering Corp., a Bellingham company convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the death of one of its workers, received a pardon from (former) Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski just before he left office. The employee killed was working on a $15 million hydroelectric project in a valley outside Cordova. He was on a backhoe when snow slid off a 2,000-foot slope and buried him....

• Construction Worker Killed, Another Injured, When Wall Falls

  Michael Myers | December 29, 2005 9:25 PM | 0 CommentsSeattle, WA

  Construction workers in Federal Way were using a forklift to set a wooden wall into its foundation Friday morning when a cable snapped, dropping the wall onto two workers, killing one and injuring the other.A 41-year-old Renton man broke his leg and was taken to St. Francis Hospital, Hwang said. The other workers were able to scramble out of the way. The Department of Labor and Industries...

• Worker Killed When Run Over By Curb-Making Machine

  Bob Carroll | December 27, 2005 9:00 PM | 0 CommentsTampa Bay, FL

  A 19-year-old worker was killed at a construction site in Wesley Chapel Tuesday when he was run over by a curb-making machine operated by another man, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office reported. The accident is being investigated by the Pasco County Sheriff's Office and OSHA.The need to focus on job safety, especially where workers are in close contact with vehicles or heavy machinery, ia...