Workers should be able to trust their employers while they recover from work-related injuries and illnesses. After all, workers’ compensation is a right, and it’s illegal in many states for an employer to retaliate or fire a worker for reporting a workplace injury and filing a workers’ compensation claim. Yet firing – and the fear… Read more
Identifying workplace hazards is no game, but training to recognize potential dangers could be. At least that’s the idea behind a new online tool introduced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The agency’s Assistant Secretary David Michaels, Ph.D., M.P.H. announced the new tool at an American Society of Safety Engineers conference in Orlando,… Read more
Temp jobs are a permanent part of the new normal in the U.S. economy. An increasing number of workers in Pennsylvania and other states are temporary workers, and with the increase has come new concerns about worker safety. A Pennsylvania accident recently highlighted in an article by the journalism group ProPublica shows some of the… Read more
One of the arguments that many people make against the Social Security system is that the people who draw money from the program are “double dipping.” This argument alludes to the idea that some people collect disability checks from Social Security while also collecting unemployment checks. People argue that this is unfair. First of all,… Read more
Firefighters, police and other public workers face hazards every day on the job – but not all of them are immediately apparent. For example, firefighters have increased cancer rates, and first responders must deal with the emotional trauma of the serious situations they live through. The nature of these injuries and illnesses can create challenging… Read more
There are certain lines of work where you might expect to have a gun pointed at you, for example, law enforcement. But if you work in a retail job, chances are you aren’t expecting to be robbed at gunpoint in the normal course of a workday. If that were the case, you might not even… Read more
Often, disputes in workers’ compensation claims involves medical questions, such as whether carpal tunnel syndrome is job related or whether a heart attack stems from work. In other cases, the issue is not the injury at all. Instead, it involves whether the injury happened during the course and scope of employment. In Pennsylvania, the Workers’… Read more
As we round out June’s National Safety Month and head into the holiday weekend we thought it was good time to take a minute to review some summer safety tips. While most of these are common sense, it never hurts to have a reminder so that safety is at the top of the mind when… Read more
Congressional investigators recently determined that approximately 200 administrative judges have been approving a far higher rate of applications for certain federal benefits than they seemingly should be. Specifically, investigators insist that these judges are essentially “rubber-stamping” applications for Social Security Disability benefits that they are charged with overseeing. While several targeted judges are defending their… Read more
Amazon, the Internet retailer known for bringing Americans goods as varied as books, lawn care supplies and infant accessories, is under scrutiny following two deaths at fulfillment centers, including one in Pennsylvania. One of the deaths raises questions about temporary worker safety in the U.S. The most recent death happened in Carlisle, Pa., on June… Read more
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