OSHA is now using camera-carrying drones to investigate outdoor workplaces.
The good news? Use is intended to be limited to areas that are otherwise difficult and dangerous for OSHA inspectors to access. Plus, OSHA will not use them without an employer's consent.
The bad news? Employers that withhold consent could face OSHA's ire and a search warrant. Plus, the program lacks any protections for things like scope of recording, employee privacy, or third-party access to the video.
You can more about it at the Ohio OSHA Law Blog, here.
Here's what else I read this week:
Discrimination
- Alphabet Board Hit With Derivative Suits Over Alleged Sexual Misconduct at Google — via The D & O Diary
- Looking Forward: Twenty Years After Genaro left Ohio’s Managers on the Hook — via Ohio Chamber Blog
- When can you fire the employee who just complained about discrimination or took FMLA leave? — via Eric Meyer's The Employer Handbook Blog
- Hilton’s $21 Million Reason to Honor a Dishwasher’s Religious Schedule Request — via Evil HR Lady, Suzanne Lucas
- Being A Bigot Won’t Get You Protection Under Title VII — via Above the Law
- Religious Bias at Work: How You Pray is Not Your Employer’s Business — via HR Hero Line
- Supreme Court to Decide if EEOC Charge Filing is Jurisdictional or Administrative — via The Employment Brief
- Trump renominates for workplace agencies — via Robin Shea's Employment & Labor Insider
HR & Employee Relations
- An Early Prediction for 2019? Perhaps Dusting Off Your Reduction in Force Guidance and RIFs, WARN, OWBPA, Disparate Impact – An Alphabet Soup for a Future Downturn — via Dan Schwartz's Connecticut Employment Law Blog
- Employee Handbooks Revisited: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t — via Mike Haberman's Omega HR Solutions
- Work and Life and Everything In Between — via Robin Schooling
- Is your workplace ready for an Infants-At-Work policy? — via Workplace Diva
- Another Federal Noncompete Bill — via Fair Competition Law
- Supreme Court Grants Cert. to Interpret Meaning of “Confidential” or “Trade Secret” Under FOIA — via Trading Secrets
- Huawei fires employee arrested in Poland over alleged spying — via Engadget
Technology
- Can You Get Fired For Defending Yourself Against An Attack? Probably — via Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home
- Oreo Maker Files Cyber-Insurance Case of the Century — via In House
- Cyberattack on SEC Holds Warnings for All Organizations About Data Theft — via Law.com
- Why Cyberattacks Are the No. 1 Risk — via Dark Reading
- Fifth Circuit: Apple not liable for crash of driver reading texts — via Walter Olson's Overlawyered
Wage & Hour
- New Overtime Rule Soon to Make Its Appearance — via Wage and Hour Law Update
- Can We Dock an Employee for Using Company Paid Leave? — via Next Blog
- Paid Time Off in The United States — via The L•E•Jer
- Dave & Buster’s Settlement – Busted! But Not So Fast…. — via BeLabor The Point
Labor
- Now Where Did I Put Those Confidential Documents? — via The Employment Brief
- Unions Should Brace for Another Landmark Supreme Court Decision in 2019 — via LaborPains.org
- NLRB Reexamines the Meyers Individual Concerted Action Rule — via Workplace Prof Blog
OSHA & Safety
- Heart Attacks in the Office: What to do — via HR Gazette
- Afraid Your Workers Might be Like Cheech and Chong with Medical Marijuana? — via Employment Discrimination Report
- Starbucks to install needle-disposal boxes after workers raise safety concerns — via HR Dive
- OSHA: Civil Penalties to Increase in 2019 — via Joe's HR and Benefits Blog
- OSHA Web Alert: New Enforcement Policy Places Respiratory Hazards Under Employer’s “General Duty” — via Stoel Rives World of Employment