CAL/OSHA AND CALIFORNIA EMPLOYMENT LAW

California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) is the most aggressive and enforcement-heavy approved State OSH Program in the nation, and as a result, California employers face a host of requirements that other employers around the country do not. In addition, California continues to experience regular changes in the employment law landscape through new legislation and decisions from the California courts.

Rachel L. Conn

California Practice Chair

Megan S. Shaked

Cal/OSHA Practice Lead

Of Counsel

Senior Counsel

Cal/OSHA Associate

Cal/OSHA Paralegal

Our OSHA practice group stands out for its deep bench of attorneys with a singular focus on workplace safety law and who have personal connections with the key players within OSHA. Despite the firm’s overall “boutique” size, as an OSHA practice, we have the deepest bench of true OSHA-specialist attorneys and professionals in the entire country, with unique relationships with the key regulators. Our Practice Chair, Eric J. Conn, practiced for more than a decade alongside the first General Counsel of the OSH Review Commission, learning OSHA law and its context from the attorney who wrote the first decisions and interpretations of the OSH Act and OSHA’s regulations. OSHA Partner Kate McMahon is a former safety and environmental advisor on Capitol Hill. Rachel Conn, Fred Walter, and Megan Shaked lead our West Coast safety and health efforts, Aaron Gelb heads our Midwest OSHA Practice out of our Chicago Office, Valerie Butera and Kimberly Richardson lead our process safety team. Nicholas Scala is Chair of our MSHA • Mine Safety and Health practice, out of the firm's Columbus, Ohio office. Lindsay DiSalvo manages our Injury and Illness Recordkeeping practice and Dan Deacon runs our on-site OSHA inspection response team. Of Counsel Victoria Voight was the Head of the Labor Section for the North Carolina Department of Justice, overseeing all legal services to NCOSHA for decades, and Senior Counsel Tony Casaletta spent 18 years as the Head Industrial Hygienist for Michigan OSHA, Senior Counsel Mark Ishu was a ten-year veteran in the Dept. of Labor's Office of the Solicitor as Counsel for OSHA, Beeta Lashkari joined CMC after several years as an attorney-investigator for the Chemical Safety Board. All of these attorneys maintain close relationships with senior OSHA officials around the country. As a result, the firm’s national OSHA practice group has unique insight not only into OSHA law, but also into the Agency itself.

Our clients have safety needs and questions. We craft solutions and answers. We support our clients across all industries through issues involving the following entities:

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
State OSH Agencies (e.g, Cal/OSHA, WA L&I, Michigan OSHA, MCOSHA, etc.)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB)
U.S. Attorneys in the Department of Justice (DOJ)
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)
U.S. Coast Guard
State and local public health
Other State and local regulatory agencies

Range of Work

Accidents and catastrophes
Citations characterized as “Willful” or “Repeat”
Citations issued under OSHA’s Multiemployer Enforcement Policy
Determination of whether injuries must be reported to OSHA
Internal safety and health investigations
Internal employee accident investigations
Efforts to achieve OSHA VPP Status
Egregious and substantial enforcement cases
Employee/Union complaints
General Duty Clause violations
Implementation of OSHA’s GHS Hazardous Communication Standard (HazCom)
Inspections under OSHA’s numerous National and Local Emphasis Programs
Issues related to OSHA’s Severe Violators Enforcement Policy
M&A deal due diligence issues involving safety and health
Multi-agency investigations (OSHA, CSB, EPA, MSHA, ATF, NTSB, etc.)
OSH Act criminal referrals and prosecutions
OSHA inspections
Process Safety Management citations
Recordkeeping violations
Representation of employers and industry organizations in OSHA rulemaking proceedings
Wall–to–wall inspections
Workplace COVID-19 issues
Safety and health audits

Illustrative Experience

Agriculture

Defended a major grain and agronomy cooperative in a substantial OSHA enforcement action action resulting from an engulfment accident, including convincing the U.S. Attorney's office not to bring a criminal charge under the OSH Act.
Bargained for a substantial reduction in a state OSHA enforcement action against a grain and feed manufacturer after a catastrophic grain elevator dust explosion.
Negotiated a change in OSHA’s national enforcement policy to allow work inside grain bins with energized sweep augers.

Chemical Manufacturing

Represented a specialty chemical manufacturer in multi-agency (OSHA, CSB, EPA, ATF, U.S. Coast Guard, and a state environmental regulator) investigations, inspections, and enforcement actions arising out of a catastrophic explosion in a reactor that resulted in two fatalities. OSHA's enforcement action was cut by more than half; violations alleged by OSHA to be "Willful" and "Repeated" were withdrawn or re-characterized.
Oversaw the on-site inspection under the PSM Covered Chemical Facilities National Emphasis Program of a high-profile chemical plant in West Virginia. A team of four compliance officers, including two PSM specialists from OSHA's Salt Lake City Technical Center, spent more than two months scrutinizing all elements of the PSM Standard at the facility. At the conclusion of our work, OSHA did not issue any citations.

Construction

Represented a construction general contractor in OSHA investigations of fatal construction accidents raising complex multiemployer worksite citation policy issues at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the Pentagon, and Fort Meade. The result — No citations at any location.
Managed numerous OSHA inspections, appeals of citations, and complex settlement negotiations following general construction, steel erection, and concrete shoring fatal accidents at construction projects throughout New York.

COVID-19

Submitted written comments and engaged in other advocacy on the fed OSHA and various State OSH Plan COVID-19 emergency rulemakings
Represented healthcare employers in COVID-19 fatality and national emphasis program inspections
Litigated appeals of COVID-19 citations – General Duty Clause and specific standards
Helped employers develop COVID-19 Prevention Plans, vaccine policies, and other related COVID-19 related policies

Health and Life Sciences

Assisted a major health services provider in New York in challenging a General Duty Clause Workplace Violence citation issued after a mental health care provider was attacked by a patient during an inpatient group therapy session.
Managed multi-agency investigations of one of the most significant combustible dust explosions in history. The explosion injured 42 employees, including six fatalities. We established an on-site Command Center, coordinated the investigation of a team of forensic experts, and managed the investigations and inspections of federal OSHA, state OSHA, CSB, EPA, DNR, ATF, FBI, SBI, the State Fire Marshal, insurance investigators for dozens of entities, and numerous plaintiffs' attorneys. The process involved conducting hundreds of interviews and producing hundreds of thousands of pages of records. In the end, nearly half of the citation items were withdrawn and the penalty was reduced by 83%.

Hospitality

Assisted a hotel employer in dealing with safety and health complaints raised by a union in conjunction with ongoing labor negotiations.
Advised a major national hotel chain in resolving fire, electrical safety, and other citations arising out of a programmed inspection at a property in Chicago.

Manufacturing

Conducted due diligence reviews, in which we identified key gaps in a Process Safety Management Program that resulted in substantial additional dollars transferring to our client in the overall structure of the deal.
Managed a months–long wall–to–wall safety and health inspection of a weld and tire wire manufacturing facility in the Midwest that included key combustible dust, lead exposure program, and electrical safety issues.
Defended a manufacturer in a U.S. Attorney investigation of possible criminal OSH Act violations, and bargained for the first ever “deferred prosecution agreement” in an OSHA case, ensuring the Company and its executives were not charged with or convicted of any criminal wrongdoing.

Natural Gas & Electrical Power

Defended an oil and gas drilling specialist in an OSHA enforcement action arising out of a flash fire on a natural gas drilling rig in West Virginia. The fire involved the first alleged Flame Retardant Clothing PPE violation following OSHA's controversial 2010 FRC enforcement memorandum. After months of litigation with the Solicitor's office, a settlement resulted in the elimination of 75 percent of the citation items and proposed penalties.
Represented a major electrical contractor in the Northeast in multiple electrocution accidents with positive outcomes for the client.

Petroleum Refining

Managed inspections, investigations, and enforcement actions by OSHA, CSB, EPA, and the U.S. Attorney in relation to a catastrophic storage tank explosion, a confined space nitrogen asphyxiation accident, and a PSM Program Quality Verification for an East Coast petroleum refinery.
Counseled petroleum refiners throughout the nation in preparing for, and defending, enforcement actions arising out of inspections under OSHA's Petroleum Refinery Process Safety Management National Emphasis Program.

Retail

Represented a major national retail trade association in the rulemaking proceeding for OSHA's proposed injury and illness reporting rule.
Defended numerous OSHA citations regarding blocked exits and exit routes, electrical safety, safe storage and handling of inventory, and issues related to training and operation of powered industrial trucks.