Pier 1 Imports Faces $101k In OSHA Fines for Exposing Employees to Workplace Hazards

One of the store locations in Glendale, Wisconsin is facing up to $101,420 in fines for five repeated, two serious and one other-than-serious violation. These include improper use of ladders, exposing employees to fall hazards, lack of railings on the stair and storage areas, blocking electrical panels, and electrical junction boxes without covers. The employees at this store were also put at risk from failure to prevent boxes from blocking aisles and being piled at dangerous heights. Federal workplace safety inspectors have found similar safety hazards at several other U.S. store locations. Christine Zortman, OSHA’s area director in Milwaukee, said “haphazardly stacked boxes can fall and injure workers, or block exit routes in an emergency.” She continues to state how “Pier 1 must take responsibility to ensure the safety of its workers in all of its stores before someone is hurt or worse.” Read more here.

Taking Advantage of Increasing Green Bonds

Green bonds are fixed income, liquid financial instruments that are used to raise funds dedicated to climate-mitigation, adaptation, and other environment-friendly projects. According to the international Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), $27.3 billion dollars has already been issued in 2016 for projects supporting environmental sustainability—alongside the $41.8 billion that had been issued in 2015. One of the key drivers of the market is the growing number of asset managers with mandates to increase investment in instruments that support low-carbon growth. World Bank Group Vice President, Rachel Kyte, has proclaimed that these green bonds “are providing green investment opportunity for an ever wider investor group, including those who wish to divest and diversify from fossil fuel-intensive portfolios, and they have proven that a stream of investor capital exists for green assets.” The benefits of these projects can be measured both in the benefits to society and in the reduction of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Proceeds from these bonds are earmarked for green projects but are backed by the issuer’s entire balance sheet. Read more here.

OSHA Penalties Greatly Increased by August 2016

The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, passed through Congress in November of last year, has increased penalties and made it substantially more expensive for businesses in violation of OSHA standards. This act has changed the requirement to adjust for inflation each year as well as eliminating the exemption for agencies such as OSHA to adjust a number of civil penalties every 4 years to account for inflation. These new penalties will go into effect no later than August 1, 2016—although OSHA will publish an interim final rule adopting these on or before July 1, 2016. Businesses that are inspected before the effective date, but receive citations once these sanctions are in place will have the newly adopted penalties adjusted to their citation. In order to prevent these increased fines from disproportionately impacting smaller business, OSHA’s penalty structure will provide a reduction factor based on the size of the employer. The last time OSHA’s penalties were adjusted was in 1990.  Read more here.

Ontario Law Recognizes PTSD as an Occupational Disease for First Responders

Ontario has become the latest province to enact legislation making post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) a presumptively occupational disease. Emergency service employees with PTSD will no longer have to prove it was caused by tragedies they handled on the job in order to receive workers’ compensation benefits, erasing a major roadblock to prompt treatment. The new law applies to police officers, firefighters, emergency-response teams, paramedics, some corrections employees and other workers who are first on the scene in traumatic situations. This bill had been proposed in an attempt to combat a recent rise in suicides among first responders—and help first responders to come forward for help when they need it. Ontario Labour Minister Kevin Flynn has recently stated how “psychological injury is just as damaging, is just as harmful, and is just as preventable in many ways as a physical injury.” Read more here.

Guess? Retailer Faces $65K fine for “Obvious and Easily Preventable” Risks

The Guess? Factory Store in Hartford, Connecticut has recently been cited and fined $65K for repeat violation relating to a blocked emergency exit and electrical panels as well as improperly stored stock. These hazards left employees at risk of burns, lacerations and being struck by falling objects. Warren Simpson, OSHA’s area director in Hartford, indicated "these were obvious and easily preventable conditions that placed store employees needlessly at risk." Read more here.