OSHA fines 2 companies in worker’s death at Longmont’s Village at the Peaks

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited and fined two Colorado companies for a dozen serious violations in the wake of a construction worker’s death at Village at the Peaks in August.

Tereso Zamarippa-Hernandez, 39, died after falling 15 feet through a hole in a roof and landing on concrete. Zamarippa-Hernandez was pronounced dead at the scene on Aug 31.

Erie-based Ramos Roofing, Zamarippa-Hernandez’ employer, was fined $11,460 for not having a safety program in place to check for the presence of holes and protecting employees from falling or tripping, according to OSHA.

Ramos was also cited for not properly training employees on safe ladder and stairway usage.

Colorado Springs-based Colorado Structures Incorporated was fined $12,775 for not initiating and maintaining a safety program to provide frequent and regular inspections of jobsites, materials and equipment, exposing workers to fall hazards. Ramos Roofing was also cited, OSHA an representative said.

OSHA cited both companies for not properly illuminating job sites and not properly securing and marking covers and making sure they were substantial enough to support employees.

Longmont police said at the time of the incident that Zamarippa-Hernandez fell through the hole in the roof before the sun had risen, and investigators didn’t find any flashlights on site.

OSHA determined the 12 violations between the two companies to be “serious,” documents show.

Ramos Roofing owner Alfredo Ramos said that he is working to reinforce safety policies but added that his company already had safety procedures in place at the time of the accident.

“We have a safety policy that encompasses everything currently,” Ramos said. “But we are going to reinforce and strengthen them. We are working with a safety consulting firm that is going to be a second set of eyes.”

Ramos declined to comment further but added that $30,000 was raised to help family members of Zamarippa-Hernandez in the immediate aftermath of the accident.

Attempts to reach CSI president Gabe Godwin via phone and email on Wednesday weren’t successful. A receptionist at the company said he was out of the office on Wednesday.

Newmark Merrill Mountain States, the property developer, had not responded to a request for comment as of Wednesday afternoon.

Herb Gibson, area director for the OSHA Denver Area Office, said both companies are working with OSHA to resolve the issues, and the companies have abated the hazards OSHA identified during its investigation.

He urged employers to visit osha.gov to get information on fall protection. He said fall protection is the number one priority in Colorado, and a local program has been in place for about 10 years.

“There’s an amazing amount of information on the website,” he said. “We would like employers to have a comprehensive (fall protection) program in place to ensure employees are protected.”

John Bear: 303-684-5212, bearj@timescall.com or twitter.com/johnbearwithme

TRIPLE-S Management Corporation Agrees to $3.5 Million HIPAA Settlement

On November 30, 2015 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced the settlement of potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) by TRIPLE-S Management Corporation (“TRIPLE-S”).  TRIPLE-S agreed to pay $3.5 million to resolve the allegations and will adopt a robust corrective action plan to correct its past deficiencies. (Click here to view the Resolution Agreement and Corrective Action Plan.)

“OCR remains committed to strong enforcement of the HIPAA Rules,” said OCR Director Jocelyn Samuels. “This case sends an important message for HIPAA Covered Entities not only about compliance with the requirements of the Security Rule, including risk analysis, but compliance with the requirements of the Privacy Rule, including those addressing business associate agreements and the minimum necessary use of protected health information.”

TRIPLE-S, an insurance holding company based in Puerto Rico, provides a wide range of insurance products and services to residents through its multiple subsidiaries.  Beginning in November 2010 and concluding in August 2015, TRIPLE-S reported the first of five breaches impacting 500 or more individuals and two breaches impacting less than 500 individuals.  TRIPLE-S fully cooperated in the investigations conducted by HHS-OCR.

OCR’s investigations indicated widespread non-compliance that resulted in unsecured protected health information (PHI) breaches including:

• Failure to implement appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect PHI;
• Impermissible disclosure of PHI to an outside vendor with which it did not have an appropriate Business Associate Agreement (“BAA”);
• Use or disclosure of more PHI than necessary to conduct its business;
• Failure to conduct an accurate and through risk assessment that incorporates all IT equipment, applications, and data systems utilizing PHI; and
• Failure to implement security measures sufficient to reduce the risk to its ePHI to a reasonable and appropriate level.

Facts behind the breaches:

• Two former TRIPLE-S employees were able to access restricted areas of the company’s database containing PHI because their access rights were not terminated upon leaving employment.
• Twice an outside vendor disclosed PHI on a pamphlet that was mailed to beneficiaries.  TRIPLE-S did not have a BAA with the vendor.
• A former employee copied PHI onto a CD and subsequently downloaded the protected information onto a computer at his new employer.
• Staff placed the incorrect member ID card in mailing envelopes, resulting in beneficiaries receiving the member ID card of another individual.
• Health Plan Identification numbers were placed on labels used in a mailing to beneficiaries.
• A preventative mailing was sent to beneficiaries that included PHI for another member on the back of the letter.

The settlement requires TRIPLE-S to establish a comprehensive compliance program that includes:

• A risk analysis and risk management plan;
• A process to evaluate and address any environmental or operational changes that affect the security of the ePHI it holds;
• Policies and procedures to facilitate compliance with requirements of the HIPAA Rules; and
• A training program covering the requirements of the Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules, intended to be used for all employees and business associates providing services on TRIPLE-S premises.

Terms of the settlement require the company to be monitored by OCR for three-year period and following that term, TRIPLE-S will be obligated to provide OCR all documents and records related to compliance with the settlement for six years. This settlement illustrates OCR’s heightened scrutiny of Business Associate Agreements and third-party vendor relationships.  A company’s PHI safeguards are only as strong as the safeguards of the vendors with whom the company does business.  Covered entities must exercise due diligence in the selection of third-party vendors, review the vendor’s cyber security and data breach plans, ensure that BAAs are in place and are being followed, review contractual obligations, and require audits of PHI safeguards.  It sounds as if there will be many more enforcements of this nature to follow.

 

Lahey Hospital Agrees to Settle Alleged HIPAA Breach

Recently, Lahey Hospital and Medical Center (Lahey), a nonprofit teaching hospital located in Massachusetts, agreed to settle alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) by paying $850,000 and adopting a robust corrective action plan.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) first received a HIPAA breach notification from Lahey in October 2011 upon Lahey’s discovery of a stolen laptop.  The laptop in question operated a portable CT scanner and produced images for viewing through Lahey’s radiology information system.  Its hard drive contained unencrypted electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) of 599 individuals.  OCR investigated the breach and found that Lahey failed to: conduct a thorough risk analysis; safeguard the workstation associated with the CT scanner; and maintain certain required policies and procedures, among other deficiencies.

In addition to agreeing to pay $850,000, Lahey entered into a corrective action plan that will remain in place for 2 years.  The corrective action plan requires Lahey to take certain steps to improve HIPAA compliance.  Specifically, Lahey must conduct a risk analysis, develop and revise certain policies and procedures, train its workforce, alert OCR of instances of suspected noncompliance, and issue annual reports to OCR regarding HIPAA compliance.  Regarding Lahey’s settlement, OCR Director Jocelyn Samuels commented that “it is essential that covered entities apply appropriate protections to workstations associated with medical devices such as diagnostic or laboratory equipment.  Because these workstations often contain ePHI and are highly portable, such ePHI must be considered during an entity’s risk analysis, and entities must ensure that necessary safeguards that conform to HIPAA’s standards are in place.”

 

Your Digital Classroom 3: Classroom Management

Learning in a laptop classroom depends on how instructors provide their students with the most effective learning environment.

Following is a list of 10 strategies to help teachers manage a class when kids and laptops are combined. These tips will help you improve students’ attentiveness, engagement, and learning when using a laptop.

10 Tips to help you manage your laptop classroom

1. Arrange the desks so you can see their screens by just walking around
2. Predefine specific times when laptops are permitted, and others when they’re not
3. Walk around frequently
4. Announce shifts, to allow students to save their work
5. Make sure students turn off the laptop sound off at the beginning of class.
6. Give a five minute warning prior to the end of class
7. Use timers that tick loudly
8. Establish consequences for inappropriate laptop use
9. Create a class tech team
10. Have students sign out the laptops each time they use one

LMS Buying Tips (Infographic)

With more and more organisations using technology-enabled learning for their L&D initiatives, the Learning Management System is no longer a good-to-have tool, but rather a ‘must-have’ for providing training, information and performance support to learners.

However, making the right choice while selecting and buying an LMS is quite challenging; it calls for detailed understanding of the business requirement and careful planning, amongst other considerations. The large number of LMSs available in the market today further add to this challenge. Here are a few tips that will help you in buying the right LMS for your organisation.

Do share your thoughts and comments on this infographic.

Cold, Cuddle And Coffee (Math) Calculation?

With the temperature waning to as low as minus 23 degrees or shrink beyond 25 degrees below the average temperatures, it is time to cuddle your children and spend some good quality time with them. In Oklahoma, the schools were closed and even some of the businesses closed their offices considering the safety of their employees. While you survive one of the coldest winters, something that has not been experienced over past 10 years, would it be advisable to drive your children to the activity centers or the nearby learning centers?

If you feel that your child’s future is your top most concern, well, here is a God sent opportunity that you can actually convert into a once in a lifetime experience. Wondering how would you do that?

Why go out and risk your lives when PracTutor brings a real awesome adaptive learning platform to you.

All you need to do is just enroll and prepare your children to get ahead.

Here are a few key facts about learning math and how learning math online is more practical than the traditional classroom math education:

• The present day global standardized test scores prove that American students are not ready to compete on the global platform and one of the main reasons for the same is the lack of math skills.
• There is a fundamental lack of math teachers all across the nation.
• The adults competing for their careers find lack of math skills as a top most hindrance factor.
• Math education is facing absolute crisis on multiple levels in teaching as well as learning segments.
• Basic math fundamentals cannot and will not change, however, the traditional methods to teach math must change if we have to provide better understanding and skills to our students.
• The universities that implement math learning online attract more students who are adults and struggling for brighter career opportunities.
• Almost all technology critics agree that online learning is shaping the future of teaching and learning for good.
• With experiments conducted using traditional learning and online learning, conclusions are that online learning imparts better perspective and gives deeper and clear understanding of the concepts.
• As online math involves real time dynamic examples, (change of shapes, figures, variables, angles, etc) students find it to be fun while they actually learn. The little challenges that adaptive learning platforms bring in between the tutorials, challenge the students’ minds for deeper contemplation.
• Another experiment was conducted to observe if learning math online did improve the skill set of the students. It was concluded that the students from traditional learning class and online learners both groups did equally well with easy math problems. However, when the students were given more complex and tough problems, the group of online math learners performed extensively better than the students who were taught in a traditional classroom.
• The visual evidence that provides more scope to find how concepts work is practically impossible in a traditional classroom.
• A few more advantages that interactive learning has over traditional learning are:
  • It is based on student’s individual capability
  • It gives student the authority to pace his learning
  • It does not get frustrated while explaining the same concept over and over till the student feels perfectly conversant with it (is virtually unlimited)
  • It keeps students attentive, curious and interested in math
  • It gives instant and personalized feedbacks and encouragements

Apart from the advantages mentioned above, we are certain that though the traditional methods has been developed after years of hard work and research, they do not match up the present day challenges.

The world has become a global village that has abundance of resources available right at your fingertips.

Can you possibly do justice to your children by depriving them the whole bunch of goodness that adaptive learning provides?

Can you afford to keep your children acquainted to the only traditional coaching when the rest of the world marches ahead towards a glorious tomorrow by embracing the blessings of the modern day technology?

Of course, you must spend some quality time with your children having fun while they learn. Will it not be kind of awesome to cuddle him, hold his hand, and lead him to learn (while you can still smell his hair)?

Yes, with such fabulous advantages of learning Math online, who knows you might just encourage your child to fall in love with Math and be a mathematician, Amen!

About PracTutor

PracTutor is a customized learning and practice environment to help students in Grades 1 to 8 master Math and English. We provide 1-to-1 mentoring for each student. We make the learning fun by introducing gamification and help parents and teachers track progress and get alerts whenever they need help.

For More Visit http://www.practutor.com

Does the cloud provide an easier route to HIPAA compliance?

A lot of confusion has been raised regarding the compliance of cloud to the HIPAA. On the contrary, the healthcare community itself is not very sure of it and is looking at it as a double edged sword. The cloud presents you a shimmering picture of cost-effective option. It provides you a solution due to which analyzing massive data and the ability to store will become affordable. But the other side seems be bleaker as there are many who are yet to come to terms with this new rule-set of HIPAA, especially those that are now part of the recently published HIPPA omnibus rule. It is better to dig deeper on this to understand instead of merely speculating on the fringes whether to migrate or not to the cloud?

The omnibus rule that was put forth in the last month has further tightened the grip of HIPAA on those who are entrusted with responsibility of protecting the health information.The rule also has increased penalty on the business associates and covered entities, who fail to comply with the HIPAA. At present, there a lot of misconceptions as well as fear regarding use of the cloud. As a result many healthcare organizations and health service providers are shying away from switching over to the cloud. Not taking rescue under the in the latest cloud technology umbrella might result in loss a good deal in terms of both compliance and finances for organizations that wish to play safe.

Can Cloud Computing Really Rescue Health Care And Make It HIPAA Compliant?

Recent times has revealed to the health care sector the various weird and amazing ways in which data breaches can occur and do occur. Many times it occurs due to infrastructure loss, physical theft, or due to sheer negligence (when someone forgets a laptop or forgets to shutdown their PC).

The above scenario of data exploitation and data theft is easily manageable through use of cloud technology. Cloud computing can be more helpful in such cases because herein you can stop the breaches by using services of physical security policies such as the Amazon wherein all the things that can be carried out with the data can be published. Cloud technology is most certainly is far more efficient than what a single group running its infrastructure can accomplish after a lot of personal investment. Of course, reduction in the amount of health data breach is the first benefit of cloud computing.

Deft monitoring of security and the privacy of the infrastructure through automation is the second benefit of cloud. Basically, when the infrastructure program is being written, the infrastructure is coded and thousands of tests are conducted on various levels. Such through levels of tested programs provide a secure base that everything is done in order to automate the expected results and that the infrastructure automatically works the way in which you want it to. Hence, when things start showing changes in the infrastructure code you immediately smell smoke and try to find out the reason for it. Trying to search for the reason for changes in your infrastructure ultimately makes you provide more security to your data.

HIPAA omnibus rule has placed great emphasis on the factors that can risk the health data and the breach notifications. The cloud services developers provide you with the documentations that carry highly detailed processing systems due to which remaining HIPAA compliant as well as cost-efficient does not seem as uphill task. All the instructions that are part of the cloud computing program are written in plain and simple readable English which can be easily defined by anybody in the health business. This gives the HIPAA operators full knowledge about the compliance and non-compliance and related decision. It also helps even the non-technical staff to gain an insight into overall work pertaining to the HIPAA compliance owing to which the overall efficiency of an organization is certain to elevate.

Only six months are left for the covered entities and the partners to become HIPAA compliant and hence it is important that they take steps to understand these benefits of the new cloud computing.

Data breaches in health sector have been damaging the credibility of many health institutions and many times the culprits were left untracked as they were much smarter than the security system of the institutions. Shifting to the cloud is a major decision, which can be taken by the entities only when they thoroughly understand its contribution in lessening the burden of finance as well as maintaining to the strict rules of the HIPAA compliance.

One wonders, what is keeping these people at the fences when one way or the other they are not left with any other alternative than to migrate to the cloud!

About emPower
emPower  is a leading provider of comprehensive Healthcare Compliance Solutions through Learning Management System (LMS). Its mission is to provide innovative security solutions to enable compliance with applicable laws and regulations and maximize business performance. empower provides range of courses to manage compliance required by regulatory bodies such as OSHA, HIPAA, Joint commission and Red Flag Rule etc. Apart from this emPower also offers custom demos and tutorials for your website, business process management and software implementation.

Its Learning Management system (LMS) allows students to retrieve all the courses 24/7/365 by accessing the portal. emPower e-learning training program is an interactive mode of learning that guides students to progress at their own pace.

For additional information, please visit http://www.empowerbpo.com.

Media Contact (emPower)
Jason Gaya
marketing@empowerbpo.com

Safeguard the potential of the Contingent Workers

We all are aware of the fact that today workers or employees are not safe at their working premises, as they confront a wide range of emerging health and safety issues that requires to be noticed. OSHA has introduced its future direction towards the health and safety of contingent workers. The health section comprise of threats from operating respiratory illness, combined exposure to latest mixture of harmful chemicals, and exposures to radical fine particulates, as well as amphibious and unreal vitreous fibers. Within the safety space, rising problems embody, fall hazards from wireless communications and high-definition television tower construction, noise in construction, and difficulties in reaching the increasing population of mobile employees.

OSHA SAFETY RULES

OSHA provided safety and health support for 1st response, salvage and recovery operations, and hygiene operations in hazard analysis, monitoring, and refinement. Extra activities are already current to boost OSHA’s readiness. This space would require continued attention throughout the look amount. OSHA tenders a good choice of training compliance courses and academic programs to assist broaden employee and leader information on the popularity, avoidance, and interference of safety and health hazards at their workplace. OSHA, in addition to this also tenders training and academic materials that facilitate businesses train their employees and suit the activity Safety and Health Act.
OSHA plays a vital role in supporting contingent workers by polishing off programs designed to save lots of lives, stop injuries and diseases, and shield the health of America’s employees.

These 7 Strategies comprise of:

• Emerging leadership qualities and standards for work safety and health,
• Supervising employment premises and coping with employers and staff,
• Offering guidance to small businesses,
• Providing training compliance help, outreach, academics, and different cooperative programs for employers and staff,
• Providing matching grants to help states in administering consultation comes and approved activity safety and health social control programs, and
• Developing friendly relationships with different agencies and organizations in order to cope with vital safety and health problems.
• Exercising sturdy, efficient, and honest social control

OSHA additionally supports contingent workers by making certain that its rules effectively address policy problems which they are doing not produce inessential restrictive burden.

OSHA Strategic Management set up, focuses on serious hazards and dangerous workplaces and includes ways that emphasize:

Increasing partnerships and charitable programs

• Providing and extending academics and training compliance help.

OSHA MISSION

OSHA’s mission is to delve and make sure work safety and health safety for contingent workers.

OSHA, along side its valued state partners, achieves its mission through varied means that, as well as work social control of applicable laws and rules, inspections, consultation services compliance help, outreach, education, cooperative programs, and supplying of standards and steerage. So as to extend its effectiveness, bureau collaborates with a spread of organizations fascinated by activity safety and health.

About emPower

emPower  is a leading provider of comprehensive Healthcare Compliance Solutions through Learning Management System (LMS). Its mission is to provide innovative security solutions to enable compliance with applicable laws and regulations and maximize business performance. empower provides range of courses to manage compliance required by regulatory bodies such as OSHA, HIPAA, Joint commission and Red Flag Rule etc. Apart from this emPower also offers custom demos and tutorials for your website, business process management and software implementation.

Its Learning Management system (LMS) allows students to retrieve all the courses 24/7/365 by accessing the portal. emPower e-learning training program is an interactive mode of learning that guides students to progress at their own pace.

For additional information, please visit http://www.empowerbpo.com.

7 Strategies to Improve Safety for Contingent Workers

Construction workers, farm laborers, warehousing employees and hotel workers are more likely to be employed on a contingent basis in the United States, which may make them vulnerable to occupational hazards. In a new white paper, the Center for Progressive Reform highlights the occupational safety and health concerns faced by contingent workers and shares strategies to improve their working conditions.

The white paper “At the Company’s Mercy: Protecting Contingent Workers from Unsafe Working Conditions,” by CPR member scholars Martha McCluskey, Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro and Senior Policy Analyst Matthew Shudtz, highlights the occupational challenges facing contingent workers in the United States and suggests strategies to improve their working conditions.

“Their shared experience is one of little job security, low wages, minimal opportunities for advancement, and, all too often, hazardous working conditions,” the white paper says of workers whose employment is contingent upon short-term fluctuations in demand for employees. “When hazards lead to work-related injuries, the contingent nature of the employment relationship can exacerbate the negative consequences for the injured worker and society.”

Employers of contingent workers often do not pay for workers’ compensation or health insurance and can simply hire replacements when workers are injured – factors that give these employers little financial incentive to eliminate safety hazards or help injured workers return to work. Additionally, employers sometimes misclassify contingent workers as “independent contractors” in order to claim the workers will pay their own taxes and insurance – a practice that reduces the employer’s expenses while also removing the incentive to create a safe workplace, the paper states.

The white paper includes case studies on contingent workers in four industries: farming, construction, warehousing and hospitality. The construction industry, for example, employs a disproportionate number of contingent workers in the United States. Most of these workers are young men, and many are Hispanic or Latino, performing dangerous jobs that have a high risk for falls, nail-gun injuries, musculoskeletal injuries and more.

7 Ways to Protect Contingent Workers

The CPR white paper offered seven strategies to ensure the contingent work force is protected:

1. Empower workers with a stronger right-to-know. “Well-educated and well-trained workers are the most empowered – they know their rights, they know when they have been wronged, and they know the best way to correct a hazardous work environment,” the report states. “Contingent workers do not get enough education and training.”

2. Empower workers with a right-to-act.“Under current law, workers lack the power to commence legal action on their own accord against an employer that is breaking the law; instead, they must make a formal complaint to OSHA compliance and await the agency’s response …Workers need to be able to wield power that is proportionate to their huge stake in the game. That power should come in the form of an amendment the OSH Act that would create a legal vehicle for enforcing worker rights against employers,” the paper asserts.

3. Strengthen OSHA enforcement. The paper claim that “OSHA could make a significant impact on health and safety in contingent workers’ lives through modifications to existing enforcement policies … In addition, OSHA has the ability to test the new policies for effectiveness by implementing them in discrete geographical areas or selected industries.”

4. Create ergonomics standards. “Since ergonomic hazards pose significant risks in industries and occupations that employ many contingent workers, OSHA should establish regulations to eliminate those hazards,” the paper states. “…OSHA could issue a series of industry-specific ergonomics rules, geared toward particular hazards. Starting with industries that employ a significant number of contingent workers would lead to better protections for millions of workers without coming close to the alleged $4 trillion price tag that prompted the congressional veto of the broader standard in 2001.”

5. Reform voluntary and consultation programs. “As the contingent workforce grows, OSHA has an obligation to revisit existing programs to ensure that they meet the needs of contingent workers,” the paper asserts. “First, OSHA should revise the minimum criteria that companies must meet to be part of the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) … Given the health and safety concerns raised by employer decisions to place contingent workers in new and high-hazard jobs, VPP entry criteria should be revised to require that VPP employers only use contingent workers in low-hazard occupations such as clerical work.”

6. Build a case to close statutory loopholes. “OSHA should also determine if there are data that support closing loopholes in the OSH Act that limit the statute’s applicability to domestic workers and farmworkers on small farms,” the white paper added.

7. Improve foreign-language capabilities. According to the white paper, “the high number of Hispanic workers in the contingent workforce suggests that language barriers can create challenges for education and training … In addition to hiring more bilingual inspectors, OSHA must increase the foreign-language capabilities of staff who develop education and training materials. The agency should establish a goal of making all of these materials available in multiple languages and formats, reflecting not only the spectrum of workers’ native languages, but also differences in culture and literacy.”

“As the contingent worker population grows, the occupational safety and health community will have to adapt,” the paper concluded. “OSHA Compliance Training can lead the way with new rules and better enforcement, but the agency will also need the help of other advocacy organizations, from union-affiliated campaigns to worker centers to faith-based groups. Because the contingent workforce is particularly vulnerable to unfair treatment and poor working conditions, empowering these workers to act will take the support of many advocates.”

7 Strategies to Improve Safety for Contingent Workers

Construction workers, farm laborers, warehousing employees and hotel workers are more likely to be employed on a contingent basis in the United States, which may make them vulnerable to occupational hazards. In a new white paper, the Center for Progressive Reform highlights the occupational safety and health concerns faced by contingent workers and shares strategies to improve their working conditions.

The white paper “At the Company’s Mercy: Protecting Contingent Workers from Unsafe Working Conditions,” by CPR member scholars Martha McCluskey, Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro and Senior Policy Analyst Matthew Shudtz, highlights the occupational challenges facing contingent workers in the United States and suggests strategies to improve their working conditions.

“Their shared experience is one of little job security, low wages, minimal opportunities for advancement, and, all too often, hazardous working conditions,” the white paper says of workers whose employment is contingent upon short-term fluctuations in demand for employees. “When hazards lead to work-related injuries, the contingent nature of the employment relationship can exacerbate the negative consequences for the injured worker and society.”

Employers of contingent workers often do not pay for workers’ compensation or health insurance and can simply hire replacements when workers are injured – factors that give these employers little financial incentive to eliminate safety hazards or help injured workers return to work. Additionally, employers sometimes misclassify contingent workers as “independent contractors” in order to claim the workers will pay their own taxes and insurance – a practice that reduces the employer’s expenses while also removing the incentive to create a safe workplace, the paper states.

The white paper includes case studies on contingent workers in four industries: farming, construction, warehousing and hospitality. The construction industry, for example, employs a disproportionate number of contingent workers in the United States. Most of these workers are young men, and many are Hispanic or Latino, performing dangerous jobs that have a high risk for falls, nail-gun injuries, musculoskeletal injuries and more.

7 Ways to Protect Contingent Workers

The CPR white paper offered seven strategies to ensure the contingent work force is protected:

1. Empower workers with a stronger right-to-know. “Well-educated and well-trained workers are the most empowered – they know their rights, they know when they have been wronged, and they know the best way to correct a hazardous work environment,” the report states. “Contingent workers do not get enough education and training.”

2. Empower workers with a right-to-act.“Under current law, workers lack the power to commence legal action on their own accord against an employer that is breaking the law; instead, they must make a formal complaint to OSHA compliance and await the agency’s response …Workers need to be able to wield power that is proportionate to their huge stake in the game. That power should come in the form of an amendment the OSH Act that would create a legal vehicle for enforcing worker rights against employers,” the paper asserts.

3. Strengthen OSHA enforcement. The paper claim that “OSHA could make a significant impact on health and safety in contingent workers’ lives through modifications to existing enforcement policies … In addition, OSHA has the ability to test the new policies for effectiveness by implementing them in discrete geographical areas or selected industries.”

4. Create ergonomics standards. “Since ergonomic hazards pose significant risks in industries and occupations that employ many contingent workers, OSHA should establish regulations to eliminate those hazards,” the paper states. “…OSHA could issue a series of industry-specific ergonomics rules, geared toward particular hazards. Starting with industries that employ a significant number of contingent workers would lead to better protections for millions of workers without coming close to the alleged $4 trillion price tag that prompted the congressional veto of the broader standard in 2001.”

5. Reform voluntary and consultation programs. “As the contingent workforce grows, OSHA has an obligation to revisit existing programs to ensure that they meet the needs of contingent workers,” the paper asserts. “First, OSHA should revise the minimum criteria that companies must meet to be part of the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) … Given the health and safety concerns raised by employer decisions to place contingent workers in new and high-hazard jobs, VPP entry criteria should be revised to require that VPP employers only use contingent workers in low-hazard occupations such as clerical work.”

6. Build a case to close statutory loopholes. “OSHA should also determine if there are data that support closing loopholes in the OSH Act that limit the statute’s applicability to domestic workers and farmworkers on small farms,” the white paper added.

7. Improve foreign-language capabilities. According to the white paper, “the high number of Hispanic workers in the contingent workforce suggests that language barriers can create challenges for education and training … In addition to hiring more bilingual inspectors, OSHA must increase the foreign-language capabilities of staff who develop education and training materials. The agency should establish a goal of making all of these materials available in multiple languages and formats, reflecting not only the spectrum of workers’ native languages, but also differences in culture and literacy.”

“As the contingent worker population grows, the occupational safety and health community will have to adapt,” the paper concluded. “OSHA Compliance Training can lead the way with new rules and better enforcement, but the agency will also need the help of other advocacy organizations, from union-affiliated campaigns to worker centers to faith-based groups. Because the contingent workforce is particularly vulnerable to unfair treatment and poor working conditions, empowering these workers to act will take the support of many advocates.”