Environmental Reminders
Hazardous waste management reports will be due January 31 for companies in the Metro area other than in Hennepin County. Remember that you need to report the amount of waste you generated, which often is not the same as how much you shipped.
Air quality requirements: If you no longer have a permit because you are considered conditionally exempt or insignificant, you still need to keep your annual VOC report on file, to show that you are still exempt. Ask your jobber or supplier to send a year-end report. Verify that your VOC-containing material purchases (from all sources) are below 2000 gallons. If you are getting close to the 2000 gallon point, you may need a permit again. For Option C and D permit holders, reporting will be due in April.
New Contact for SWDI
For anyone using SWDI / Stericycle / Clean Earth for hazardous waste, be aware that staff at the Blaine facility are all working from home. For that reason, they only sporadically get their phone messages. If you need a waste pick up, contact this new inside sales rep:
Shauna Johnstone, Inside Sales Rep
D: 678-822-9937
sjohnstone@harsco.com
OSHA 300 Log of Injuries and Illnesses
The OSHA 300A log summary must be posted from February 1 through April 30. Post only the summary, not the log itself which has the employee names on it. To complete the summary, you will need the total hours worked by all employees—this does not include vacation, PTO, or any hours that the employee was paid for but did not actually work.
You also need the average number of employees during the year. That can be calculated by looking at how many paychecks were distributed each pay period, then dividing that number by the number of pay periods. You can also calculate it by taking the total hours worked and dividing by 2000, although that is not as accurate.
Do COVID 19 cases get counted? If you believe that the virus was contracted at work, then the case should go on your log.
Why are accurate OSHA logs and summaries important? They serve as a way for you to keep track of your injury history. But OSHA uses them, too. Federal OSHA announced in December that it would target companies that reported consistent injury and illness rate increases over the last three years.
MNOSHA Compliance is offering two recordkeeping online training sessions in January. More information can be found here: https://www.dli.mn.gov/business/workplace-safety-and-health/mnosha-compliance-recordkeeping-standard
For any Minnesota company with 20 or more employees, the OSHA 300A (summary) must be submitted to federal OSHA by March 1.
For CHESS maintenance clients, we will be helping with completion and submission of your OSHA 300 logs.
New Federal Administration? New Changes? Depends on COVID
With one exception, we don’t expect the change in administrations to have any major regulatory changes that will immediately affect you. In time, there may be more emphasis on energy- and VOC-reduction efforts. Federal OSHA has been very quiet on the regulatory front for the last four years. That may change, but it still will take a very long time to get any new OSHA regulations in place. Federal enforcement is likely to increase but that won’t change Minnesota’s level of enforcement.
The one exception: an emergency temporary standard for COVID-19. Virginia, Michigan, Oregon and California have adopted such standards. Minnesota OSHA has been enforcing the state requirement to develop and implement a COVID-19 Preparedness Plan. We don’t know if that would be equivalent to the protection given by a federal emergency temporary standard.
As always, we will post changes in our newsletters.
Minimum Wage Poster Updated, Available
Print or order free updated minimum-wage poster: Minnesota’s minimum-wage rates will be adjusted for inflation beginning Jan. 1, 2021, to $10.08 an hour for large employers and $8.21 an hour for other state minimum wages. The state’s free, mandatory minimum-wage poster has been updated and is available to print or order from the Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) website.
- If we are doing your annual reporting, we will bring a copy of the poster when we do our site visit.
Come See Our New CHESS Website
We’ve been working hard over the last year to completely redesign our website. With that update, We’ll start posting new blogs on a regular basis again. Check out the website here: chess-safety.com
Newsletters and More Newsletters
We appreciate referrals—pass this newsletter along or recommend to others to sign up for the newsletter—it’s free.
2021 newsletters: In 2020 we published ten newsletters as a way to keep everyone up to date on the coronavirus and address frequently asked questions. We won’t promise that many in 2021; we expect to go back to mostly quarterly newsletter with additional ones as needed.
SDSLinksTM
CHESS offers SDSLinks, an online SDS management system, for automotive mechanical and collision repair shops. If you are not subscribed, but interested in learning more, contact us at 651-481-9787.
Allstate Training Provider
Are you an automotive collision repair shop? Are you a DRP with Allstate? If so, CHESS is an Allstate PRO approved safety training vendor.
CHESS Moves
Just a quick update on what Janet and Carol have been up to:
Along with conducting in-person and video conference training, Janet serves as Chair of the Construction Committee for AIHA (American Industrial Hygiene Association), and is secretary of the Confined Space Committee. One of the accomplishments of the Construction Committee is Focus Four for Health, a guidance document focusing on the four highest health hazards in construction related fields: material handling, air contaminants, noise, and heat.It has a companion document, Focus on Construction Health: COVID-19. Both can be found on the construction page of workerhealthsafety.org .
Carol serves on the board of MetroIBA, an alliance of independent businesses in the Twin Cities area. Think “Buy Local.” She is also on the finance committee for the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) and serves on the government affairs committee for the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers-MN (AASP-MN).
If you are interested in joining our team, contact Carol at 651-842-9210.