Samantha Catone

All articles by Samantha Catone

 

From Lagging to Leading–OSHA Finally Focuses on Leading Indicators to Improve Safety and Health in the Workplace

OSHA has long focused on “OSHA recordables,” or the number of work-related injuries on an employer’s OSHA 30 log, to assess safety in workplaces. These lagging indicators have been denounced by safety and health professionals as reactive, and an ineffective means of measuring the effectiveness of an employer’s safety and health program. OSHA has finally agreed, and recently announced a stakeholder meeting to take place next month, where it will gather information to develop tools for employers to utilize leading indicators for safety and health.…  

Voluntary Internal Safety Audits: “Do’s” and “Don’ts”

There is no disputing that taking a proactive approach to safety and ensuring compliance within your company is not only prudent – but critical – for employers. It is equally critical, however, that employers understand the benefits and potential liabilities that initiating these measures can create. This post will break down the “dos” and “don’ts” of internal safety audits. First and foremost: as a general rule, you should never engage in a voluntary safety audit if you are not prepared and willing to…  

Element Two of the Unpreventable Employee Misconduct Defense: Effective Communication

In part two of this four-part series addressing the “unpreventable employee misconduct” defense, we will examine the second element an employer must prove to successfully defend against an OSHA citation: that the employer effectively communicated a rule, which, if followed, would have prevented the violation. The idea behind this element is simple: the employer must be able to show that the employee whose conduct was in violation of the rule had previously been told about the rule. However, proving that the communication (1) occurred and…