As you know, OSHA has been making much more frequent use of the General Duty Clause under the new Administration to address what it considers “recognized hazards” that are not regulated under existing standards. The enclosed article discusses the recent decision involving Wal-Mart in which the Judge upheld a General Duty Clause citation arising out of a fatality caused by an uncontrolled crowd at one of its stores. The case is very instructive for all employers because it illustrates how accidents and “near misses” at one employer location can trigger General Duty Clause liability even though the employer’s industry does not recognize such a “hazard’.
Read full article here.
