OSHA Violations can Lead to Injury

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matt Arnold answers the question: “Can my employer fire me because I filed a workers’ compensation claim?”

 

Every year, the United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) publishes a list of the past year’s most frequently cited workplace safety standards. OSHA exists to set and enforce workplace safety standards. OSHA is dedicated to maintaining standards for a worker’s safety in the workplace and their rights if they should be injured while on the job. If there are violations of an OSHA standard, the workplace is cited and can face serious consequences. The following are the 10 most commonly cited standards in 2018.

 

  • high-up-worker-Charlotte-Monroe-Lake-Norman-Personal-Injury-Workers-Compensation-Lawyer-300x200Fall Protection: Fall protection is the most commonly cited standard of 2018. It is at the top of the list for the eighth year in a row. Workplaces that fail to take the proper precautions to protect their employees from falls can be liable for injuries that result from said falls. An employee could fall in a variety of situations. Of course, accidents happen, but if a fall results from an employer’s failure to maintain a safe work environment, then issues arise.
  • Hazard Communication Standard: This involves failing to provide proper communication to employees about hazards, failing to train employees properly, or not maintaining proper data sheets.
  • Scaffolding, General Requirements: When an employer does not ensure that scaffolding has a solid foundation, injuries can result.
  • Respiratory Protection: This involves failure of establishing a proper safety program, not performing various fit testing for protective gear, and not providing medical examinations for employees.
  • Control of hazardous energy: This involves the failure to maintain machine and equipment properly, including not releasing a machine’s stored energy that could harm employees.
  • Ladders: Citations for this standard include using a ladder for unintended purposes or the ladder being damaged.
  • Powered industrial trucks: Some employers were cited under this standard for failing to train operators on forklifts and not removing damaged or broken forklifts from being used.
  • Fall Protection Training Requirements: Falling protection was the number one cited violation, which makes it not surprising that not training employees on fall protection is also a common standard citation. Employers have been found to not train each individual in preventing falling.
  • Machinery and Machine Gun Guarding: Each piece of machinery comes with safety regulations and instructions on how it should be operated. Part of the safety features on a machine are various guards to protect users. When employers fail to properly guard their machinery, this is a violation of safety standards.
  • Eye and Face Protection: In various lines of work, employees need to have protection provided for their eyes and face. When employers fail to provide necessary protections, people can get hurt.

 

If your employer has failed to maintain safety standards at your place of employment that has resulted in an injury, you may be entitled to compensation through a personal injury suit. The personal injury attorneys at Arnold & Smith, PLLC are here to help you navigate the personal injury process and achieve the best possible outcome. We are dedicated to investigating the situation and finding any violations that your employer might have made that resulted in your injury. Contact us today for a consultation. Now taking cases throughout the Charlotte region with offices in Uptown Charlotte, Mooresville and the new location under renovation in Monroe, call us at 704-370-2828 or click here for additional resources.

 

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The skilled personal injury attorneys at Arnold & Smith, PLLC are dedicated to maximizing the financial recovery and obtaining justice for every personal injury client injured by another party’s negligence. The issues our personal injury clients may be facing include, but are not limited to, slip and fall injuries, wrongful death, product liability, catastrophic injuries, dog bite claims, car and truck accident injuries, motorcycle injuries, traumatic brain injury (TBI), nursing home negligence, spinal cord injury, boating accidents, and defective medical device injury. Our personal injury attorneys understand the devastating impact such an injury can have on a person’s life, and that the effects so often go beyond physical pain and suffering. The personal injury attorneys at Arnold & Smith, PLLC are dedicated to helping clients determine the strength of their claims, and to aggressively pursuing the means necessary to achieve the best possible end result for each client’s particular situation.

 

Source:

https://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3021.pdf

https://www.osha.gov/Top_Ten_Standards.html

 

 

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See Our Related Video from our YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/ArnoldSmithPLLC/videos

 

 

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