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07.01.2010 Newsletters Doerner

Employment: Quick Updates From Your Friends at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Training

In April, OSHA issued a policy statement regarding your training standards. Basically, the policy statement is to remind employers that when you are training or instructing employees regarding safety and health issues, you must do so in a manner that the employees can understand. There are two main components to this:

  • Training and instruction must be in a language understood by the employee. If you have non-English-speaking employees, you must train and instruct in a language they understand. For Hispanic employees, OSHA has set up a site here to assist with your training efforts.
  • Training and instruction must use vocabulary understood by the employee.

Severe Violator Enforcement

If you are a repeat offender, OSHA is increasing its focus on you. On June 18, OSHA announced a Severe Violators Enforcement Program (SVEP) intended to increase enforcement efforts on employers who repeatedly and/or willfully endanger workers.

By Kristen L. Brightmire, kbrightmire@dsda.com

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