2022 MCA Safety Courses

The recent decline in COVID-19 cases is promising in some ways, but I fear that it is resulting in potentially dangerous complacency inside and outside of workplaces. It’s anticipated by the CDC and other authorities around the world that infections in the United States will increase substantially in the very near future. That said, there is new guidance from OSHA that may be helpful to you. When you have a few minutes, please visit the link below.

NEW OSHA GUIDANCE

OSHA Guidance for COVID-19 in Construction

Northwest Ohio-based RMF Nooter was honored by peers from across the country while receiving first place in the nation for over 2.3 million work-hours performed injury-free on a construction project.

2019-10-25 RMF Gold Star National Award Release

This online drug-free workplace video training is available at any time however, it cannot be completed in segments. It takes approximately 1 and 1/2 hours and once started must be finished. Upon successful completion of this training you will be provided a verification number and a certificate that you can print and/or email. Click here to access the online drug-free workplace training.

OSHA 300A & PERRP 300AP

REMINDER

A friendly reminder that OSHA Form 300A summaries are to be posted by Monday, February 1st for private employers. For public employers PERRP form 300AP must be posted by February 1st and a copy of your 300 AP form must be sent to PERRP by February 1st. 300A and 300AP forms must remain posted until April 30th.

From The MCAA-Pete Chaney

“Employers are prohibited from discharging, or discriminating against any worker for reporting a work-related injury or illness” The OSHA final rule does not ban drug testing of employees. However the final rule does prohibit employers from using the drug testing (or threat of drug testing) as a form of adverse action against employees who report injuries or illnesses. To strike the appropriate balance here, drug testing policies should limit post-accident testing to situations in which employee drug use is likely to have contributed to the incident, and for which the drug test can accurately identify impairment caused by drug use. The language in employers’ written substance abuse polices will have to be changed to state that post -incident testing will not be performed automatically after every incident, but that it will be performed whenever the supervisor in charge believes that drug use was likely to have caused the incident. That call is course highly  subjected. A savvy supervisor could choose to make the call for post-incident testing every time an incident occurs. However, that doesn’t solve a new problem with most state’s worker’s compensation systems. In most states if an injured worker is under the influence of one or more drugs the WC claim is significantly reduced or negated. OSHA’s new rule changes all of that. Pete C. stated that he believes that many employers are likely to risk the slim chance of receiving an OSHA
citation & fine, which would be much more less costly than a WC claim and increased future WC rates. MCAA is seeking clarification on language in the preamble that exempts certain mandated post-incident drug tests from the requirements in the standard. We’ll share the clarification with you as soon as we receive it.

Bess Cochran, COSS
MCA Director of Safety & Health
419-666-6900 ext. 3