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Making Compliance News
November 2004
ARTICLES:
NEW PRODUCTS:
REGULAR FEATURES:
All employers are responsible for the safety of its employees in the workplace. A “written” Injury and Illness Prevention Program with specific requirements is currently required in ten states. They are: California, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington. Although the state of Alaska does not require a written plan, it does encourage employers to have a written Accident Prevention Plan.
Why should you have an Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP)? Taking risks is a part of running a business, particularly for small business owners. You take risks in product development, marketing, and advertising in order to stay competitive. Some risks are just not worth the gamble. One of these is risking the safety and health of those who work for you. Accidents Cost Money!
Safety organizations, states, small business owners and major corporations alike now realize that the actual cost of a lost workday injury is substantial. For every dollar you spend on the direct costs of a worker’s injury or illness, you will spend much more to cover the indirect and hidden costs. Consider what one lost workday injury would cost you in terms of:
• Productive time lost by an injured employee;
• Productive time lost by employees and supervisors attending the accident victim;
• Clean up and start up of operations interrupted by the accident;
• Time to hire or to retrain other individuals to replace the injured worker until his/her return;
• Time and cost for repair or replacement of any damaged equipment or materials;
• Cost of continuing all or part of the employee’s wages, in addition to compensation;
• Reduced morale among your employees, and perhaps lower efficiency; Increased workers’ compensation insurance rates; and
• Cost of completing paperwork generated by the incident.
If you would like to reduce the costs and risks associated with workplace injuries and illnesses, you need to address safety and health right along with production.
Setting up an Injury and Illness Prevention Program helps you do this. In developing the program, you identify what has to be done to promote the safety and health of your employees and worksite, and you outline policies and procedures to achieve your safety and health goals.
We are providing a link to download a “generic” Non-Hazard Area Checklist Evaluation for Injury and Illness Prevention Programs that may assist your efforts in meeting the requirements for a safe and healthy work environment for your employees. CPC carries many products that can also be of assistance and our Customer Service Representative will gladly be of assistance.
Need help with the new law requiring sexual harassment training for supervisors? It is a real concern of all employers in California to minimize the risk of non-compliance with the new law and possible harassment lawsuits.
We want to assist you in preventing that possibility. Our long-time associates, Stewart M. Lerner, Management Consultant, and R. Craig Scott, a leading California Employment Law Attorney, are collaborating once again to provide employers with a clear understanding of the new sexual harassment training requirements. Their new book “The Complete Guide to Sexual Harassment” will be available shortly after the first of the year. In addition, CPC will be offering both in-house training and “seminar” training classes throughout the year to assist you in meeting your legal requirements. Stay tuned for more information a bit later.
The law (AB1825) was signed into law on September 29, 2004 and mandates California companies with 50 or more employees to provide supervisory personnel two hours of sexual harassment training by the end of 2005.
Supervisory personnel usually include employees who have the authority to:
• Hire • Transfer • Promote • Discipline • Discharge • Assign Work
or recommend any of these actions to upper management.
Supervisors employed as of July 1, 2005 must receive two hours of training by January 1, 2006. If an employee is hired as or promoted to a “supervisory” position after July 1, 2005, the training must be given within 6 months of hire or promotion. There are limited exceptions for supervisors who have received training after January 1, 2003.
Training must include information on both federal and state sexual harassment laws. It also must contain prevention techniques and remedies available to victims and be interactive. Be aware that the training material is somewhat complex and the law does require that it be provided by experts on the topic.
Please call CPC to find out how we can assist you in meeting your responsibilities under this new law.
Our promise is to help keep you in compliance! To help keep this promise to you, our customers, we continually develop new products to answer your needs.
Some industries require specific postings that are mandatory to post. In our ongoing efforts to provide whatever you need to stay in compliance, help educate your employees, or communicate HR and safety information, we have created the following products:
2005 CALENDARS AND PLANNERS
Are you ready to set up meetings for 2005? With our new 2005 CALENDARS and PLANNERS you can get a jump-start on the new year. Order now and we will include a free Computer Calendar strip with adhesive backing for your computer. This space-saving, economic 12-month calendar will help you track Project Deadlines, Employee Vacations, Meetings, Conventions, & other important events. The high-quality laminated write on/wipe off surface makes it easy to make changes as they occur. The calendars include all standard holidays to make planning easier.
Try our 90-Day and 120-Day Planners to make your life easier. Get a planner for each Department for project planning and tracking. The high-quality laminated easy write on/wipe off surface allows for constant updating for special projects.
FEDERAL OSHA HAZARD IDENTIFICATION POSTER
Now available in Spanish
This poster, previously only available in English, can be of vital assistance in assisting your employees to identify hazardous materials on the job. It has areas for you to fill in the chemicals, type of hazard, and the recommended protective wear. If you already have the English version, we recommend that you also provide the Spanish poster to protect those not as fluent in English.
Product #: 1-75603 Hazard Identification poster Price: $17.95
Size: 19" x 25" Color, laminated
- Federal Family and Medical Leave
- Federal Employee Polygraph Protection Act
- Federal Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law
- California effective 7/2004
- Louisiana effective 8/2004
- Illinois effective 1/2004
- Iowa effective 8/2004
- Maine effective 9/2004
- Michigan effective 7/2004
- New Jersey effective 2/2004
- New York effective 2/2004
- North Dakota effective 12/2003
- Oregon effective 1/2005
- Rhode Island effective 1/2004
- Vermont effective 1/2004
- Washington effective 1/2004
- West Virginia effective 7/2004
We have added more posters in Spanish! We now have a total of 17 states.
Many states require employers with Spanish-speaking employees to post the State and Federal labor laws in Spanish. Others highly recommend posting in Spanish to ensure that your employees understand their rights and the labor laws. To fulfill the needs of many employers, CPC has available Spanish posters for the following states:
- Arizona
- California
- Florida
- Georgia
- Iowa
- Kentucky
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- Minnesota
- New York
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- Puerto Rico (Spanish Only)
- South Carolina
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- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
- Washington
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Many larger companies, associations, and PEO’s are taking advantage of CPC’s exclusive “Custom Poster Program.” This program allows organizations to incorporate their logo, company colors, Mission Statement and even some custom verbiage into the design of the poster. Posters can be specially designed to specific size requirements, horizontal or vertical orientation, and with heavy lamination, etc.
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