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Safety/Health

OSHA: Record injuries from ‘horseplay,’ team-building

06/01/2009

If your organization is required to keep track of employees’ injuries, take note of two OSHA interpretation letters.

Are you ill prepared? 13 steps to stay ahead of the H1N1 virus

06/01/2009

In light of the H1N1 virus pandemic scare, now’s the time to make sure your organization has an effective pandemic plan in place. As public health officials prepare for a vaccination campaign this fall, here are 13 steps you can take to deal with H1N1.

Employers must record at-work ‘horseplay’ injuries

05/27/2009

If your organization is required to keep track of employees’ injuries, take note of a new OSHA interpretation letter. It confirms that injuries suffered at the workplace as a result of “horseplay” and certain other nonwork-related activities must be recorded in OSHA logs, as long as the injury meets regular recording criteria.

And you think your office fridge is gross!

05/27/2009

Maybe you’ve joked that the contents of your workplace refrigerator constitute a toxic-waste cleanup site. At the AT&T building in San Jose last month, that was no joke.

Threats at work: You can punish, even if weapon turns out to be a toy

05/27/2009

You probably have workplace rules that ban weapons in the workplace and don’t allow employees into the building with guns or knives. And that rule probably spells out that you will terminate an employee who threatens or displays a weapon at work. But what if the ‘‘weapon’’ turns out to be a toy?

Extra cheese please, but hold the snot

05/27/2009

As Michael Setzer stuck a piece of cheese up his nose and placed it on the Domino’s sandwich he was preparing, he mugged for Kristy Hammonds’ camera. After Hammonds’ video received more than 550,000 hits on YouTube, the pizza chain mobilized quickly to contain the damage.

How can we prevent co-worker harassment from escalating into violence?

05/27/2009

Q. A co-worker is harassing one of our employees, and we are concerned it may get violent. What can we do about this?

@Twitterers: Watch what you tweet! @Videographers: Grow up!

05/19/2009

Employees do the darnedest things, and it’s often up to HR to clean up the resulting mess. Better to have prevented it in the first place. Two recent news stories point out problems that could have been stopped with simple policies on use of technology in the workplace. With the right handbook lingo, much corporate embarrassment could have been avoided.

How to prepare your workplace for a possible flu pandemic

05/13/2009

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have for years predicted that a virulent influenza outbreak could kill tens of thousands, hospitalize hundreds of thousands and sicken millions. Regardless of how the swine flu crisis plays out, it should be a wake-up call for employers. If you haven’t already, now is the time to undertake pandemic planning efforts.

Hey, look, we’re on TV! Better fire that guy!

05/06/2009

The U.S. Department of Labor has settled with Triple B Cleaning, a Houston company, that it claims illegally fired an employee who had complained about workplace safety issues to local news media.