Safer workplaces reduce costs
- Oregon’s workers’ compensation rates remain among the lowest in the nation, according to an analysis released by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services.
- This reflects the state’s ongoing success in making workplaces safer and keeping costs under control.
- The biennial study ranks all 50 states and Washington, D.C., based on premium rates that were in effect Jan. 1, 2022.
- Oregon had the 10th least expensive rates in 2022 and the index rate is 93 cents per $100 of payroll, down from $1.00 from 2020.
OSHA partners with the brewing industry
- OSHA and three trade organizations formed a two-year alliance to provide New York’s brewing industry with information, guidance, and access to training resources to help them protect the safety and health of workers.
- The effort will seek to prevent and reduce exposure to hazards during brewing, storing, containerizing, handling and delivery of beer to final locations.
- It will also promote an understanding of workers’ rights and employers’ responsibilities under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
- The agreement will expire on Nov. 9, 2024.
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Man takes $127,000 in workers’ comp funds
- A Clark County man was recently charged with stealing $127,000 in workers’ compensation benefits for working at his own construction business while claiming he was too injured to work.
- Daniel Joseph Lesieur of Washougal, Washington, pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree theft in Clark County Superior Court.
- Lesieur is accused of deceiving medical and vocational providers and falsely completing official forms so he could take nearly $121,000 in wage replacement payments.
- He’s also accused of taking more than $6,200 in vocational training benefits from the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries.
Lawmakers hear concerns about Amazon
- A congressional hearing was held to examine warehouse safety nationwide, particularly at Amazon warehouses.
- South Jersey Congressman Donald Norcross requested the hearing before the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee after three New Jersey Amazon workers died in one month last summer.
- Amazon said one of those deaths was not work-related and is cooperating fully with OSHA.
- The injury rate inside Amazon’s New Jersey warehouses jumped more than 54% compared to 2020, according to a Policy Perspective and Rutgers University study.