WASHINGTON – U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels today issued the following statement regarding training for Gulf Coast oil spill clean-up:

"Employees hired to be supervisors in the onshore and marine cleanup are required to receive extensive training. A rigorous 40-hour program is required under OSHA's Hazardous Waste Operation and Emergency Response Standard.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced it has resolved litigation with Imperial Sugar Co. stemming from the February 2008 explosion at its Port Wentworth, Ga., plant and subsequently discovered safety and health violations at the company's Gramercy, La., facility.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is soliciting applications for $2.75 million in Susan Harwood Targeted Topic Training Grants to provide training and education programs on safety and health for workers and their employers. For fiscal year 2010, the program offers 28 targeted topic areas including crane safety, combustible dust, maritime, oil and gas, and eye safety.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's solicitor today filed a complaint against the U.S. Postal Service for electrical work safety violations. The complaint, which asks the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission to order USPS to correct electrical violations at 350 facilities, marks the first time the department has sought enterprise-wide relief as a remedy.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has scheduled two additional stakeholder meetings, one in Washington, D.C., and one in Sacramento, Calif., to solicit comments in developing the Injury and Illness Prevention Program proposed rule. These additional meetings are part of a series of five.

WASHINGTON – The federal on scene coordinator for the BP Deepwater Horizon response and the U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding concerning worker safety and health issues related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response in the Gulf of Mexico.

WASHINGTON – Jordan Barab, deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, today testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety. His statement, as prepared, appears below.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined the South Dakota Wheat Growers Association of Aberdeen, S.D., more than $1.6 million following the Dec. 22, 2009, death of a worker at the company's McLaughlin, S.D., grain handling operation. The worker suffocated after being engulfed by grain in one of the facility's bins. OSHA's investigation found that five additional workers were also at risk of being engulfed when they were sent into the bin to dig the victim out.

BELVEDERE, Ill. – The U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited NDK Crystals Inc. in Belvedere with fines of $510,000 for alleged egregious willful and serious violations of federal workplace safety standards following an explosion at the companys crystal manufacturing building that took the life of a truck driver parked at a nearby service station. Workers at this facility were exposed to hazards that created a dangerous environment.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is soliciting applications for $8 million in Susan Harwood Safety and Health Capacity Building Training Grants. The grants are available to nonprofit, community and faith-based organizations to provide safety and health training educational programs for workers and employers.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has announced in a notice of proposed rulemaking published in today's Federal Register its plans 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 for the NPRM.

WASHINGTON – The materials supplement OSHA-required training workers must receive before they can be hired to engage in the cleanup. In addition to English, the safety guides and fact sheets initially will be printed in Spanish and Vietnamese in recognition of the diverse population inhabiting the Gulf Coast region. They will be made available by BP's education contractor, PEC, and OSHA officials at cleanup staging areas.The U.S.

JACKSON, Miss. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined VT Halter Marine Inc., a shipbuilder, for $1,322,000 following a November 2009 explosion and fire that killed two workers and seriously injured two other workers. The incident occurred in the inner bottom void of a tugboat that was being constructed at the company's Escatawpa, Miss., facility.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is launching a pilot program seeking to partner with building inspectors in 11 American cities to reduce injuries and fatalities at construction sites.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration requests information and comment on occupational exposure to infectious agents in settings where health care is provided, including hospitals, outpatient clinics, school clinics and correctional facilities, and settings such as laboratories that handle potentially infectious biological materials, medical examiner offices and mortuaries.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration will hold two meetings to gather information from stakeholders to help modify its current injury and illness recordkeeping regulation and develop a modernized recordkeeping system.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration will use comments from a series of stakeholder meetings to help develop a proposed rule for Injury and Illness Prevention Programs.

WASHINGTON – Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels is in Louisiana today with a team of experienced hazardous materials professionals leading an effort to ensure that oil spill cleanup workers receive necessary protections from the hazards of this work.

WASHINGTON – In keeping with the president's memorandum on open government, the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is releasing 15 years of data providing details of workplace exposure to toxic chemicals.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today issued the following statement on worker deaths:

"Yesterday we received the sad news that another worker died from injuries he sustained from the fire earlier this month at the Tesoro Corp.'s Anacortes, Wash., refinery. That brings to seven the number who lost their lives in that tragedy. Today the families and friends of those workers gather to mourn their loss. They are in our prayers, and our hearts go out to them.