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Telephone Hearings are so 2020. The Industrial Commission of Ohio plans to begin transitioning the hearing process from telephone hearings to web conferencing via the Webex platform by mid-April, 2021. Parties and representatives still will be able to attend hearings...
Ohio House Bill 352 (HB 352), known as the Employment Law Uniformity Act, was signed into law by Governor DeWine on January 12, 2021. The Act goes into effect on April 15, 2021. The new law makes changes to several areas of Ohio’s employment discrimination laws. Statute of Limitations The Employment Law Uniformity Act shortens the time period for…
Yesterday, March 22, 2021, the Industrial Commission of Ohio conducted a special telephone meeting in which the use of Webex was discussed. Tom Connor, Director of Adjudications, stated that the Commission presently hears 3 hearings per hour for seven hours per day. He anticipates the move to Webex will take place in mid-April. Of note, the Commission has conducted telephone…
Marijuana presents a challenging situation for employers around the country. Marijuana (cannabis) is illegal under federal law because it is classified as a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. This means Congress has determined that there is no medical value whatsoever for marijuana. Yet a total of some 36 states legalized cannabis for medical purposes, and…
A recent 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case from Michigan emphasizes the importance of creating and implementing computer and data privacy policies as well as monitoring employee use of digital data. The facts reveal that two employees of a Michigan truck and trailer company were part of the sales team for Royal Truck & Trailer Sales and Service, Inc.…
Since 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has increased OSHA penalties annually based on the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index, after a 26 year increase hiatus. The DOL is required to adjust maximum OSHA penalties for inflation annually by the 15th of January. Accordingly, the maximum OSHA civil penalties for 2021 have been adjusted as follows,…
The Process Safety Management (PSM), Hazard Communication (HazCom) and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) standards were implicated in a recent decision issued on December 31, 2020 by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) in Secretary of Labor v Mansfield Industrial, Inc. The facts reveal that the employer, Mansfield Industrial, provides services at a plant in Freeport, Texas operated by…
On January 8, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it has issued citations arising from 300 inspections for violations relating to coronavirus, resulting in proposed penalties totaling $3,930,381. Some of the violations employers were cited for include failure to: implement a written respiratory protection program; comply with required medical evaluations, respirator fit…
On January 29, 2021 the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) Deputy Assistant Secretary Jim Frederick issued a Guidance statement providing information to employers and employees regarding the implementation of a COVID-19 protection program. The Guidance is intended to be informational only to provide assistance to employers for planning and guidance purposes. However, the statement does recommend that employers use…
Shortly after the inception of the pandemic, Ohio state lawmakers got to work proposing legislation to cover coronavirus in the workplace. House Bills 571, 573, 605, 633, 667, and 668 propose amendments to the occupational disease provision of the workers’ compensation statute (4123.68) to include COVID-19 as a scheduled disease for first responders, essential workers, health care workers, grocery store…