Walmart argues that a customer failed to keep a proper lookout when she allegedly slipped and fell on an air freshener that was on the restroom floor. Walmart answered the complaint on Oct. 8 through attorney James DeFranco of DeFranco & Bradley PC in Fairview Heights, denying liability. In its affirmative defenses, Walmart argues that the sole proximate cause of…
A highway worker was killed and a co-worker was seriously injured when a vehicle struck them as they were working along a rural road in eastern Indiana, state police said. The two Union County Highway Department employees were working about 9 a.m. on Oct. 18 along a road near U.S. 27 when a vehicle struck both of them, a preliminary…
An inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration at a rehabilitation and post-acute care facility in Byron, Illinois, found the health care facility did not comply with federal respiratory protection requirements in its quarantine area and failed to protect workers from coronavirus hazards. OSHA found that Generations at Neighbors LLC, operator of six similar facilities in Illinois and Indiana,…
A fuel company worker alleges his exposure to benzene and other toxic chemicals caused him to develop cancer. Howard Smith and Lyn Vigna-Smith filed a complaint Sept. 27 in the Madison County Circuit Court against Piasa Motor Fuels LLC, formerly known as Piasa Auto Supply Service, and others, alleging negligence. According to the plaintiffs’ complaint, Howard Smith drove “various vehicles”…
Standardized benefits paid to injured workers from 2015 to 2019 have continued to drop, in line with a 10-year trend, according to a study released Thursday by the National Academy of Social Insurance. In studying data on coverage of the U.S. labor force, the cost of that coverage, and benefits paid to workers at both the national level and across…
Federal workplace safety officials say a Bloomingdale, Illinois, nursing facility failed to protect employees and temporary staff from possible coronavirus hazards a year after an employee died of the disease. OSHA initiated a follow-up inspection at West Suburban Nursing and Rehabilitation Center LLC on July 28, 2021, under the National Emphasis Program for Coronavirus Disease 2019 and the Emergency Temporary…
For the sixth time in seven years, a federal workplace inspection has found a Roselle, Illinois, construction contractor putting workers at risk of serious injury or death by defying federal requirements to ensure the use of fall protection. On April 16, 2021, U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors observed employees of Emerald Inc. without fall protection…
A federal agency has recommended that Tootsie Roll Industries pay more than $136,000 in fines after a machine at its Chicago plant cut off part of an employee’s finger earlier this year. In a news release, the U.S. Department of Labor said that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued one willful violation “for inadequate machine guarding” and proposed…
Bayer AG won its first trial over claims its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer after a California jury found that the herbicide was not a substantial cause of a child’s rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the company said Tuesday. Destiny Clark alleged that her son Ezra developed Burkitt’s lymphoma after he was exposed to Roundup which she sprayed on weeds at…
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s “diminished” enforcement of its 2016 Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica rule has left “more workers at risk for exposure to silica,” according to a U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General Audit report released Thursday. The rule was created after 18 years of rulemaking to reduce and eliminate worker exposure to respirable…
