Ascentis Blog

Information to help HR and payroll managers, recruiters, and compliance officers become more effective.

Tag Archives: Department of Labor

New Walking-Working Surfaces and Personal Protective Equipment Standards

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed a rule to require improved worker protection from tripping, slipping and falling hazards on walking and working surfaces. A public hearing on the revised changes will be held after the public comment period.

The proposed rule describes revisions to the Walking-Working Surfaces and Personal Protective Equipment standards to help prevent an estimated annual 20 workplace fatalities and more than 3,500 injuries serious enough to cause people to miss work.  According to OSHA, the current walking-working surfaces regulations allow employers to provide outdated and dangerous fall protection equipment such as lanyards and body belts that can result in workers suffering greater injury from falls. Construction and maritime workers already receive safer, more effective fall protection devices such as self-retracting lanyards and ladder safety and rope descent systems, which these proposed revisions would also require for general industry workers. The current walking-working surfaces standards also do not allow OSHA to fine employers who let workers climb certain ladders without fall protection. Under the revised standards, this restriction would be lifted in virtually all industries, allowing OSHA inspectors to fine employers that jeopardize their workers’ safety and lives by climbing these ladders without proper fall protection.

Comments on the proposed rule can be submitted through regulations.gov.  To view the proposed rule in the Federal Register, please click here.  To view the press release, please click here.

Model Employer Children’s Health Insurance Program Notice

On February 4, 2009, President Obama signed the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009. CHIPRA includes a requirement that the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services develop a model notice for employers to use to inform employees of potential opportunities currently available in the State in which the employee resides for group health plan premium assistance under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The Department of Labor was required to provide the model notice to employers within one year of CHIPRA’s enactment.

Through a notice in the February 4, 2010 FEDERAL REGISTER, the Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) announces the availability of the Model Employer CHIP Notice. The notice provides the “form and content of notice” as well as the “timing and delivery of the notice” while outlining the requirements for addition of state-specific information.

To quickly generate and send this (or any future) notices to your employees, use the Employee Correspondence Wizard (ECW) in Ascentis HR.  Create your notice or use the template provided by the Department of Labor here for the Model Employer CHIP notice. Once your notice has been built, open ECW from Employee Manager and create a new correspondence batch. By walking through the ECW you can print or email the notice to all employees you select. Lastly, select to attach the notice to each employee’s record through the ECW as a note. Now your work with this notice is done!

For detailed instructions on using the ECW see the “Employee Correspondence Wizard” section of the Help documentation included in Ascentis HR.

Switch to our mobile site